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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Arturo, post: 1005981, member: 27471&quot;]Gold Bullion Coin</p><p>Gold Art Medallions</p><p><br /></p><p>Throughout history gold bullion has been the world&#039;s single, most important commodity.</p><p><br /></p><p>Rulers and investors alike have put more trust in gold and gold bullion coins than in any other currency.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gold bullion resists devaluation.</p><p>Gold bullion coins cannot be inflated by printing more</p><p>Gold bullion price cannot be changed by law or decree;</p><p>Gold bullion value is not dependent upon someone else to repay a debt as with stocks or bonds.</p><p>Gold bullion is viewed by investors around the world as the &quot;ultimate asset&quot; and an essential part of an investment portfolio.</p><p>During the 1980&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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).</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>A different American artist was commemorated on each of the two sizes of medallions.</p><p><br /></p><p>1980 1 oz Grant Wood was honored on the bullion coin</p><p>1980 1/2 oz Marian Anderson was honored on the gold bullion medallion.</p><p>1981 1 oz Mark Twain was honored</p><p>1981 1/2 oz Willa Cather was honored .</p><p>1982 1 oz Louis Armstrong</p><p>1982 1/2 oz Frank Lloyd Wright</p><p>19831 oz Robert Frost</p><p>1983 1/2 oz Alexander Calder</p><p>19841 oz Helen Hayes</p><p>1984 1/2 oz John Steinbeck</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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%.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 &amp; Co. So the actual available supplies of the first four years&#039; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 1980 and 1981 issues were sold directly by the US Mint to the public. Because buyers made purchases based on the previous day&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 &amp; 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?</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><a href="http://www.williamyoungerman.com/bullion/arts_bio.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.williamyoungerman.com/bullion/arts_bio.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.williamyoungerman.com/bullion/arts_bio.htm</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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