American Arts Gold Medallions

Just wanted to get any feedback from those of you more in-the-know. Does anyone think that the American Arts Gold Medallions issued 1980-1984 will ever approach being collectible in the near or far future? I realize that their collectibility is undermined by the fact that they are not legal tender, just gold bullion. Back in the mid-1980's I bought several of the 1984 John Steinbeck half-ounce pieces. At the time, I believe the mintage on this piece was moderately low (maybe 35,000?) because the series was in its last year and not really catching on with the public.

 

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As you probably know, Steinbeck was a very famous author, and has quite a following. While the bullion pieces won't bring much of a premium in the numismatic community, collectors of his works will pay a premium.

Here is a link to the Steinbeck site.
http://www.steinbeck.org/MainFrame.html

 

Just bumping this t see if anyone knows more about these. I once wrote to Whitman publishers to see if they would include these in the Red Book. Granted, they're not legal tender, but the Red Book lists a variety of tokens, patterns, medals.

 

I have the earliest issues from the set (Grant Wood/Mark Twain 1 oz. and Marian Anderson/Willa Cather 1/2 oz.) before they changed the look of the medals.

I think enough time has past since the issue of this series that it's safe to say that there will be no real collectible value to them, even though they were issued by the US Mint. I think it's a neat series. But, since there were no coin specs or annotation on them, then they become only bullion pieces.

It is interesting to note that the 1980 coins (Marian Anderson and Grant Wood) were the first gold pieces issued and sanctioned by the US Government since 1933 (When we were taken off the gold standard).

 

There was just a question & answer on these in Coin World, about a month ago.
The problem, per CW, was that they were a pain to order.
Also, later issues were reded edges. But they never caught on with the collectors.

 

After nearly 25 years, these show up in the latest Red Book.

 

That was true the procedure was you had to go to the post office and wait in line to get an order blank which you then had time stamped. You then had to leave the post office and go find a phone to call a number o get the current price. (Remember this was before cell phones). Then you had to go back to the post office and wait in line again to get your order blank time stamped again. If th time difference between the to stamps was too great the price quote was void and you had to start over (The government was really scared of losing money on a shift in the spot price so I believe the time window was either 30 minutes or an hour. And those of you who have had to stand in long lines at a busy post office know how difficult it might be to hit that time window.). If the quote was good you then had to pay for the medallions up front in cash to get Postal money orders which were then sent in with the order blank.

 

Date Design Oz. Mintage Melted Supply
1980 Grant Wood 1 313,000 47,000 266,000
1980 Marian Anderson 1/2 280,000 42,000 238,000
1981 Mark Twain 1 116,000 10,000 106,000
1981 Willa Cather 1/2 97,000 8,000 89,000
1982 Louis Armstrong 1 409,000 341,000 68,000
1982 Frank Lloyd Wright 1/2 348,000 290,500 57,5000
1983 Robert Frost 1 391,000 342,500 48,500
1983 Alexander Calder 1/2 75,000 63,000 12,000
1984 Helen Hayes 1 34,000 0 34,000
1984 John Steinbeck 1/2 33,000 0 33,000
Complete Sets 12,000 12,000

 

Now that gold is really hot these are starting to come out of the woodwork.
I read somewhere that the rarer mintages are commanding premiums. I have a cherry wood cabinet made by the mint especially for the set. Does anyone else?

 

Gold Bullion Coin
Gold Art Medallions

Throughout history gold bullion has been the world's single, most important commodity.

Rulers and investors alike have put more trust in gold and gold bullion coins than in any other currency.

Gold bullion resists devaluation.
Gold bullion coins cannot be inflated by printing more
Gold bullion price cannot be changed by law or decree;
Gold bullion value is not dependent upon someone else to repay a debt as with stocks or bonds.
Gold bullion is viewed by investors around the world as the "ultimate asset" and an essential part of an investment portfolio.
During the 1980's, some American investors who bought gold were disappointed with its performance. They failed to understand that since the American economy suffered little inflation during the past decade, there was negligible erosion of purchasing power. The gold, however, still provided inflation protection. That is what gold does.

In July 1980, the Treasury began the sale of half-ounce and one-ounce gold bullion medallions in accordance with the American Arts Gold Medallion Act of November 10, 1978 (PL 95-630).

The legislation provided that not less than 1 million ounces of gold be struck into gold bullion coin medallions each year for a five-year period and sold to the public at a price covering all costs.

A different American artist was commemorated on each of the two sizes of medallions.

1980 1 oz Grant Wood was honored on the bullion coin
1980 1/2 oz Marian Anderson was honored on the gold bullion medallion.
1981 1 oz Mark Twain was honored
1981 1/2 oz Willa Cather was honored .
1982 1 oz Louis Armstrong
1982 1/2 oz Frank Lloyd Wright
19831 oz Robert Frost
1983 1/2 oz Alexander Calder
19841 oz Helen Hayes
1984 1/2 oz John Steinbeck

Under the 1980 program covering the period July 15, 1980, through February 28, 1981, less than 300 thousand medallions of each size were sold, amounting to 434 thousand gold ounces. Under the 1981 program from July 15, 1981, through February 1, 1982, about 60 thousand medallions of each size were sold, amounting to 88 thousand gold ounces.
Prior to the publication of mintage figures for U.S. Medallions in 1986, collectors were pretty much in the dark about the rarity of Medallions. Most knew that the 1980 Wood Ounce and Anderson Half Ounce were common and that the 1981 Twain Ounce and Cather Half Ounce were reasonably available. The other Medallions were not seen very often in numismatic circles, but were generally available at fairly reasonable prices. The 1984 issues, with their very low mintages already sold at a substantial premium. But the other Medallions were trading practically at bullion levels. The difference in price between the most common and least expensive coin (the Grant Wood) and the lowest, except the 1984 issues (the Alexander Calder) was only 15%.

It was known that a significant quantity of 1980 and 1981 Medallions, as well as smaller quantities of 1982 and 1983 Medallions, had been melted down for their gold value. It was also known that approximately 850,000 ounces of the 1982 and 1983 issues had apparently been melted by a single large bullion dealer, J. Aron & Co. So the actual available supplies of the first four years' Medallions were far less than the mintage figures indicated. But they did not know how many of each issue had been melted, and how many of each issue survived.

During the ensuing months, collectors and investors discovered the Medallions and prices rose substantially. The Calder rose the strongest, moving up more than 150% during the following five months. But the others increased an average of 44.4% in price as well. The inconsistence of the price moves showed the actual rarity in the marketplace varied far more than the relative mintages indicated. For instance the 1984 Steinbeck Half Ounce was significantly easier to locate than the Hayes one ounce. Based on these reports one could estimate the Steinbeck to be about 15% more common than the Hayes. Yet the mintages of the two were practically identical, with the Hayes actually a bit higher than the Steinbeck (33,000 for the Hayes versus 34,000 for the Steinbeck). Since the 1984 Medallions were sold by a telephone campaign in late 2984 to people who had purchased earlier issues, it is unlikely that any significant quantity was melted down, so the mintage figures should reflect relative rarity quite accurately. The disparity could be one of two things. Either there was a simple error or collector demand which drove the price of the Steinbeck up to a much higher level in terms of cost per ounce of gold.

The 1980 and 1981 issues were sold directly by the US Mint to the public. Because buyers made purchases based on the previous day's gold price, on days when the price of gold had risen, one could buy Medallions below spot price. The Mint placed a limit of 6 coins per order. For some reason, the Mint removed this restriction, and a number of major bullion firms made huge purchases of Medallions on days when the price of gold had risen substantially. The coins so purchased we apparently all melted.

In addition, scrap dealers melted down moderate quantities of these two issues between 1980 and 1986, when collectors discovered Medallions as numismatic items. Also, the entire mintage of the 1982 and 1983 Medallions was sold to a single firm, J. Aron & Co., which reported sales of only 15% of the total. It was widely believed that J. Aron had melted the remaining 85%. If J. Aron Purchased just over 1 million ounces of Medallions dated 1982 and 1983, and apparently melted about 85%, how many of each issue were destroyed?

As collector interest in the Medallion series continues to grow, I expect the values of all Medallions to increase. The Calder has the best potential profit, but it also has one of the higher premiums. The Wood and Anderson are quite common and have less numismatic potential, but they can be bought at a small premium.
http://www.williamyoungerman.com/bullion/arts_bio.htm

 

I thought it was interesting that the later issues were 90% gold, 7% copper, 3% silver (that tiny amount of silver bumped some copper, and it's nothing to totally brush off considering current silver prices). Anyone know why that change was made?

 

Are these coins real gold or just silver or something else plated. I saw one for sale locally that i wanted to get for an investment but i wasn't sure if it was real gold or just plated. If real (as they apparently have no numismatic worth) what is the bullion est value.

thanks

 

Hi there-

I try to keep aware of as many different gold and silver coins, both US and World. I know of these coins as well- Just my .02, but I think the big problem a lot of people seem to have is that for the first two years, there are no fineness or gold content markings on the coins(!) For the Grant Wood and Mark Twain, ( and the half-ounce ones) it just says like, Mark Twain...and that's it!! The later issues have the gold amount marked on them, and I think sell better. But a lot of people get spooked when there are no markings. Course It'd be nice to find some at a garage sale for $1 each :hail:

My unsolicited opinion...if you can get them for an absolute STEAL (>$100 under spot) I'd grab them, but I'd stay away under most cases since there are so many other World gold coins you can get at melt with greater recognizability...asssuming you're looking for cheap gold, lol.

wags

 

I collect these. Very unknown throughout the coin world. Wonderful article at
http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ArticleId=24969 which outlines just how rare they are. Article by Pat Heller. A number of the folks on these medals are going on paper currency -- Marion Anderson for one. I note many think they
aren't worth much because they don't carry a dollar denomiation. THAT IS THE ONE
REASON THEY PROBABLY WILL NEVER BE CONFISCATED, if the US tries to confiscate gold. These things are technically jewelry, not US money.

 

Welcome to the neighborhood, Chris!

You do realize that this thread is almost 5 years old, don't you?

Chris (too)

 

Yes, I see it's an old thread. I found it after a search, and it's interesting that folks
are still reading about the medallions. I believe they are worth holding onto. I make the point that the fact they don't have a dollar value on them is reason to
believe they would escape confiscation, which I don't worry about much anyway.
I probably have more than a dozen of these, and I have 6 or 7 of the Calders, which
according to Pat Heller are the rarest.

 

I wonder why the Calders were so heavily melted.

 

Thanks, Earnie 11. Have thought about Calders and here's what I think. First of all, it was near the end of the series, '83, and Calder was the 3rd lowest reported mintage. (84'S were the lowest). Note from the mintage figures the Mint was making fewer and fewer as they went along. It was clear this series was not being collected, just bought and sold as bullion by dealers working the spread. Second, no one had really ever heard of Calder....except artists. I never had, not like Louie Armstrong or Mark Twain. So, he didn't have the fame attached to his coin. Third, the image was not so attractive...OK, ugly.....at least to me. Calder looks like a drunk. And last, gold was losing value and also interest by 1984 after the big runup that topped in 1981. No one was really collecting gold in 1984, altho they were buying K-rands hand over fist as bullion. Put it all together and the Calder's went unloved.

Heller http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ArticleId=24969http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ArticleId=24969 reports the Calders as the most rare of those remaining. No way to prove that of course, but.....APMEX may be onto some of this info, since APMEX was recently charging $795 for that half ounce gold piece (late 2016) while selling the others at 14 bucks over melt. And they were selling! APMEX doesn't make it easy to find these, but the one or two they had were always quickly sold. Here's that link:
http://www.apmex.comsearch?q=U.S.%20Mint%201%20oz%20Gold%20Commemorative%20Arts%20Medal%20(Random)


For years these things were unknown. Red Book didn't even include them I think until 2011. And then skipped them a year or two before adding them to the book again. I've been to coin shows, and 100% of the dealers there have never heard of them. I have to show them the Red Book page. And I can repeat that experience today.

Now, I know Marion Anderson is headed for one of the circulating Bills, along with Harriet Tubman EDITED: political statements not allowed by rules. There is an alternate site called Partisanlines.com where political, religious, and world events can be discussed.

So, once Anderson pops up on a Five or a Ten, what do you think will happen to this series when it's re-discovered?
Somebody is collecting these besides me. I monitor APMEX for these and find one or two for sale, and then they are gone in a couple of days. And the Calder's carry a $200 premium lately at Apmex.

 

These medallions have the exact same content, size, purity as the K-Rand, and as the US one-ounce Eagle, which replaced the series in 1985. Same gold, same weight, same size, same purity.