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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 24870819, member: 101855"]Here is the 2009 "Ultra High Relief" $20 gold coin. When I heard about this piece, I thought thought that it would be a reproduction of the classic Ultra High Relief $20 gold. It wasn't. It was a modern version of an experimental piece that the mint made that never left the facility. [ATTACH=full]1595879[/ATTACH] This piece is the diameter of a $10 gold piece with twice the thickness. When Theodore Roosevelt asked for a high relief coinage, the leadership knew it would be a challenge. The design could not be struck up with one blow from the dies. They ultimately found that it took three blows. One of the experiments they tried was the same design with the diameter of a $10 gold with twice the thickness. Such a coin could not have been issued without the approval of Congress. That never came. Originally 20 of these coins were struck. All but two were melted. Those survivors were sent to the Smithsonian Collection. I snapped these pictures through the glass at the Smithsonian. [ATTACH=full]1595880[/ATTACH] Today the 2009 Ultra High Relief $20 gold sells for a little more than melt. It's really a better coin than that because it provided collectors with an example of a coin that is uncollectable otherwise. I bought one of the 2009 coins from the mint. It came in a big mahogany box with interesting book that told how the piece was made. The piece I received was disappointing because of die polish marks. I ended up buying one from a dealer (the first piece above) which was in a PCGS MS-70 holder. The dealer was fed up with it because the market was falling, and he wasn't making any money. Since I was not buying it to make money, it suited me fine. I think that it's an interesting and attractive coin, but not what many people expected.[/QUOTE]

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