Why would it not be a better way to buy bullion if you bought bullion priced common date double eagles than to buy American Gold eagles and have to pay the buyer's commission? I am thinking of buying some bullion coins and don't relish paying $30.00 per coin for the American Gold eagles.
Most bullion priced double eagles are cleaned or damaged common dates. It isn't better or worse than AGEs because bullion is bullion, but it's fun to own a few of the older coins.
By better do you mean cheaper? If you are looking to accumulate some of the gold metal to sell later on for the a bullion price in the future, I agree, you should buy lower grade double eagles. Old gold coins are cool because they actually circulated. It's nice to have some gold that you can actually hold in your hands, as if you walked into a saloon in Dodge City and tossed a 1878 double eagle on the counter for a bottle of whiskey.
Although the market for gold is kind of iffy right now, I found in the past (a year or so ago) that local dealers had accumulations of low grade common gold coins that they were happy to let go at spot price because they weren't "collectable". It was either that or wholesale them out to a melter. Also, I doubt that there ever was a cowboy or prospector who walked into a saloon and dropped a double eagle on the bar for a drink. A single $20 gold coin just wasn't something that the average cowboy carried around for any reason. In fact, it's unlikely that many cowboys ever saw a gold coin, let alone held or possessed one. A more likely everyday unit of currency was the half dollar. What you see in movies is total fiction. from Fine Art of the West, by B. Price: Cowboy wages were meager; during the heyday of the open range in the 1870s and 1880s, they earned only $25 to $30 per month on average, with top hands receiving as much as $45 or $50. A serviceable rig, consisting of a saddle and bridle, hat, boots, spurs, side arms, and bedding, typically cost three months wages, fancier outfits proportionally more. Siringo estimated that a set of utilitarian gear fetched $82, horse included, in the 1870s. Within a decade the price of a typical outfit had risen to between $125 and $200. More elaborate equipage, for those few with the means to acquire it, might fetch $500 or more. And a new Colt .45 cost $16, plus a couple of dollars for a box of ammunition.
Actually most of us know or can quickly find someone that grew up in the 1920's or 1930's and can relate that even a dollar was one heck of a lot of money. My feeling is that the $20's back then resided mostly in banks, and were used for larger transactions. They were used out west more than east, but a cowboy might have had one if they were saving money. But they were definitely not the kind of money a cowboy spent all the time.
That's my understanding also. I asked my gradfather once if he turned in his gold coins when Roosevelt confiscated them, and he told me that he never owned a single gold coin in his life. I don't think they circulated much.
Fair enough Andrew, but I'd like to know who it was that you think would have spent $20 double eagles when the coins were new ?
