How much was a gold $20 Double Eagle worth in the late 1800s?

Well that’s why Gold is considered a hedge against inflation.

It holds its values regardless of currency devaluation.

Keep in mind most $10 gold pieces today are still relatively common and unless it’s a key or semi key date it’s usually not worth much more than spot.

I can buy $10 common date Eagles in AU condition all day long for $100-$150 over spot.

 

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My guess is, IF people were saving money physically back then they would have converted it into gold because of the perception of value and the less space.

 

They do...but not everyday. Most people buy a phone every couple years, a TV or car less often than that.

 

So you get what I’m saying then.

I should’ve phrased it better from the beginning.

I should’ve said that I was referring to gold coins as savings & stores of wealth.

People may not have made much but they were much more frugal too.

Even if a man could save $1 per month for his life savings ($27 today which I think we can agree is doable by even minimum wage workers) that’s still $60 in 5 years so I just figured a man in that situation would want 3x $20 double Eagles or 6x $10 Eagles or something like that rather than a big heavy bag of 60x $1 Morgan Dollars that he would have to lug around wherever he went.

He could carry 3 Double Eagles easily in his pocket and they would even weigh less than his pistol!

 

T

That makes sense, but it’s tougher in terms of liquidity. If example man needs to make a quick withdrawal from
His stash, he needs to pull out a giant double eagle and go to the bank to break it down.
Seems like a hassle

 

Thats true. I guess I always imagined a mixture. Like if it was $60 maybe 2x $20 Double Eagles (very large purchases), 1x $10 Eagle (large purchases), 1x $5 Half Eagle (medium purchases), and then 2x $2.50 Quarter Eagles.

Or something like that. Then breaking $2.50 from a quarter eagle down into 2 Morgan Dollars and a Seated Liberty Half Dollar wouldn’t be such a big deal.

Id imagine most places where anyone would want to purchase something (like a saloon or general store) would have $2-3 in change and be able to handle a $2.50 quarter eagle payment no problem.

I actually have a 1928 MS61 Indian Head Quarter Eagle and it’s almost exactly the same size as a modern dime so it seems like it would be a good coin to have.

Small enough so most people would have change for it and valuable enough to store a lot of wealth in a lightweight, small, form.

 

A quarter-eagle, two gold dollars, a quarter, and a twenty-cent piece? No problem.

 

I think they were used more for major purchases. You brought your double eagles when buying land a herd of cattle or a couple horses. Not for a beer

 

I heard the bigger the coin the less it was used in circulation. Morgans included.

 

I think we are overlooking the main use, or one of the main uses, of gold coins which was foreign trade. Domestically there was full faith and credit in silver and paper money after the mid 1870s. We know that paper money was printed in large quantities during that time and circulated heavily, as very little of it remains today. Therefore it must have circulated the most. Much of the gold, however, remained in high grade in European vaults and was repatriated more recently. During the 1800’s the world reserve currency was not the US dollar, but gold, which is why so much was exported.

On this thread we are thinking like 21st century coin collectors. For us gold coins are serious bling, and the idea of getting paid in $20 gold pieces is too tempting to pass up. However, I’m betting that the average late 19th century person probably preferred the convenience of paper money, just like people today.

 

If I recall correctly the US did ALOT of trade with China and had to make silver Trade Dollars because the Chinese didn’t want gold only silver.

 

What about Morgan Dollars?

What if someone had thousands of Morgan Dollars could they make a $1,000 purchase with 1000 Morgan Dollars? Or did they have to use 50x Double Eagles?

 

The US, along with Great Britain and France, made trade dollars to try to cash in. The main silver coin in China was the 8 peso from Mexico, and Mexico made a lot of money striking this coin. We were all trying to steal this market share and profit.

The Chinese were fine with gold as well, but due to it being so high valued, not as convenient for everyday transactions.

 

Who wants to lug around two bags of silver dollars when a coin purse of double eagles had the same value? However, I disagree with the use. Paper money by the later 1800's was used for large transactions. Double eagles sat in vaults as backup for paper money, bank capital, or exported to pay off international debts mainly.

 

That is also true. Prior to trade dollars, I think seated dollars often went to China as well. But apart from the China trade a lot of gold ended up in Europe.

 

For an example to the extent of this trade, I remember a story told by an old coin dealer. In the 1970s he was sent to Europe to buy gold US coins, since they were now legal here. He went to just one Swiss bank, and inquired if they had any. They discussed it, what was in their vaults, and came back with a price. When they gave him the price, they told him, "this is only good for the first 300,000 pieces".

 

Interesting discussion.

around 1860 a farm worker/laborer would make around $5 a week, while a professional like blacksmith, machinist or carpenter might of made $10-$11 a week.
they still had expenses, room and board for instance, things to pay out of that wage, trying to build a house, needing a horse maybe, ect.

Gold and paper money even was used by banks mostly, people used it but it wasn't a workhorse, the double eagle was more like a $100 bill, but actually more like a $500 bill. you'd of had a hard time to get change for it around town without a bank involved.

as far as food, let say

• Rice: 6 cents a pound
• Beans: 6 cents for a dry quart
• Sugar: 8 cents a pound
• Beef: 9 cents a pound
• Cheese: 10 cents a pound
• Bacon: 12 cents a pound
• Butter: 16 cents a pound
• Eggs: 20 cents a dozen
• Potatoes: 40 cents a bushel
• Coffee: $1.20 a pound

now making $5 a week, these things added up if you were the sole provider for a larger family lets say (and people had larger families back then) but it's all pretty cheap considering if you went to buy a pound of beef with a silver dollar for 9 cents, you get 91 cents change, if everyone did that the stores would have problems and not have change. $20 for a store even was a lot of money to have laying around.

I mean at the time a 4 bedroom house could be rented for about $5 a month if board was offered it was usually about $2-3 more per person a month, 1 acre of lands was usually $3-$5 to buy, a family of 4, probably $14 a month for rent and food out of the $20 you made for the month, and this doesn't cover clothes or other needs/wants yet.

A horse, depending on type and condition would cost a person anywhere from $10- $200 (high end for a high end riding or work horse, $150 just for something decent) so good horses were out of reach for many people too.

Gold coins were out of reach for most people, cents, nickels, dimes, maybe quarters to half dollars were more common, and dollar coins and above were less common, except maybe as savings and maybe you save a dollar a month, and in a year an a half you trade up to a double eagle, something like that, and in a decade you had enough for a good horse, or bought a couple acres of land ect. and started working on a house/farm and then need the work horses..

either way though people didn't really use all that many gold coins at least not for very long, smaller silver and copper was more common for routine transactions.
maybe you used a $5 gold to pay your rent one week, $10 gold after 2 weeks to pay your families board, and get a silver dollar back or 4 quarters, maybe you take the $5 gold each week from pay to the bank and trade for more easily spendable silver, and people would not be walking around with more than a couple silver dollars tops unless going to make a big purchase, it was usually some small coins as the normal, maybe a half dollar. Only the really wealthy were slapping down double eagles and buying up stuff, even a general store might flip a couple dollars a day tops.


A $1000 purchase in 1860 would be like going to buy 325 acres of land, or 5 top of the line horses, they aren't going to care if it's gold or silver you pay them with as long as they get their money but the average person would be hard pressed to come up with $1000 to even begin with. for convenience sake if someone managed to save $20 morgans or something like that, they'd likely trade up to a gold double eagle because it's lighter than 20 silver dollars and easier to hide also.

 

I'm surprised to see half dollars on this list. All those Barber halves had to be doing something to make "average circulated" correspond to AG/G. There seem to be plenty of heavily-circulated Walkers and Franklins, too.

I'd formed the impression that halves circulated pretty freely until the twin upheavals of the Kennedy assassination and the shift to clad coinage.

 

Did not read the whole thread, but I'm guessing the answer is . . . twenty dollars.