Were gold coins used in common everyday use back in the 1800s? I really would love to find a gold coin while metal detecting some day. Others have, why not me? Just curious as to if they were used often back in the day. Or mainly in banks and what not. Thanks for any info. Jim
This is gonna be one of those times where we partially disagree Jody. I will agree that gold coins did see some use by the populace - they just didn't see very much of it. The smaller denomination gold coins were used the most frequently - the $1 - $2.50 and the $5. And even they did not see that much use. But the $10 and $20 coins were primarily used by the banks to make up their reserves. They hardly ever were spent in everyday commerce. The reason for this is simple - not many people had them. $20 was a lot of money back then. It was not uncommon for an average working man to only make perhaps $30 or $40 in an entire month. And there was simply no need for large denomination coins to be used as very few things cost that much.
