Old Gold, Good Value

pre-1933 US Gold Coins

Once carried as everyday pocket money, then recalled from individual ownership by the government in 1933, these "relics of the past" often represent great value in today's gold market.

Gold & Silver have been used as money around the world for over two thousand years and have recently experienced an overwhelming resurgence of interest as the premier store of value as central banks, other nations and people around the world move to de-dollarize their financial holdings.  The writing is on the wall and it doesn't look good for the US Federal Reserve Dollar.  And good riddance, these Federal Reserve Notes are neither Federally issued, nor are they truly Constitutionally valid, but that's a story for another article.  

Our point today is to explore Pre-1933 US Gold coins, and in particular, the $5, $10 and $20 denomination coins.  Certain dates & mintmarks can be quite rare and special, but an amazingly large number of these issues trade for just a few percent over their gold content melt value.  In many cases, these 100 year-old coins, saved from the melting pot over the decades, can be purchased for prices very similar to today's modern bullion coins.   When speaking in terms of their "melt value", we have to understand that these coins were issued in what seems like "odd" weights by today's standards. Today's even-weight, 1oz, 1/2oz, 1/4oz and 1/10oz bullion coins do make calculating their value easy, but when the Founding Fathers dictated that only Gold & Silver would be lawful for the payment of debts, the original US Gold coins were designated to contain the specific and correct amount of Gold prescribed. For example, the old US $20 Gold Coins contained .9675oz of pure gold (plus a small measure of copper was added to increase durability).  The Founders wanted a $20 coin, so had they put in a full ounce of Gold, it would have ended up being a $21 coin and that's not what they wanted, so they prescribed the then-correct amount of gold it took to equal $20.  This is one of the reasons that US & Foreign coins existed side by side in circulation here in the US until 1857, it was not so much who issued the coin, but rather the specific amount of gold or silver that it contained is what really mattered.

Since these pre-1933 Gold coins are often price-quoted in terms of "X many Dollars over Melt" or "X percentage over Melt", this chart of their actual Gold content will be helpful in figuring their current value or prices.  To compute the particular coin's "Melt" value, just multiply its actual gold weight times the current Gold Spot Market price.

    $20 size US Gold coins:  .9675 oz actual pure gold weight

    $10 size US Gold coins:  .4838 oz actual gold weight

    $5 size US Gold coins:   .2419 oz actual gold weight

    $2.50 size US Gold coins:   .1205 oz actual gold weight

Yes, it's one more step in the price calculating process, but this tiny bit of extra effort can pay off in getting your gold coin purchase at the most advantageous price-per-ounce.  As you've likely heard us say before, there will be a point in time as the gold price gets higher and higher, that it really won't matter what brand or "flavor" your gold coin is, they will all be being sold back into the market at some percentage of melt anyway, so do yourself a favor and buy the gold coins that are internationally recognized for easy sale, at the cheapest possible price per ounce.



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