I was reading through a book called "The Illustrated History of the United States Mint". Included in the text are total coinage values for the first few decades after the mint was established. If you had the face value of the total mintage from establishment of the mint in 1792 through 1810 ($9,505,000), you still would not have enough money to purchase the 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar that sold in January for $10,016,875. The total minted between 1810 and 1820 ($9,328,000) wouldn't do it either. With the total minted between 1820 and 1830 ($18,000,000) you could buy the Dollar and the the 1933 Double Eagle and get ~$383,000 in change (assuming no buyers' fees). I blame e-bay .
