The Advantages of 22-karat American Gold Eagle Coins

After being established by the US Mint as the new standard for US gold bullion coins in 1986, gold bullion Eagles have been regularly produced in the West Point Mint in the high relief-design they were originally intended to be struck with. The modern issuance of these coins does differ on the back, where one male eagle circles a nest where a female sits with her eggs. Since 1991,

These new American Gold Eagle coins are particularly handy for the gold investor, as each one is designed to contain exactly 1 troy ounce of gold. This was intended to make them just as competitive on the world market as some of the other, more pure (99.99%), coinages. These include (but are not limited to) Chinese Gold Panda coins, Austrian Philharmonic coins, Australian Lunar Calendar coins, and South African Krugerrand coins.

In addition, several types of commemorative bullion coins are introduced from the major mints of the world each year that also exhibit .9999 fineness. These coins tend to be sold at prices that are higher than that paid for a state coin of the same size and purity. As such, investors who are not interested in the numismatic value of their investments and only care to keep an eye on the spot price of gold, usually go with these coins that can be sold as new for prices between 2-4% above the spot price.

The release of the gold bullion Eagles is also notable for having bought back one of the most popular coin designs ever created, the Lady Liberty. It was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens for the 1907 re-design of the $20 Double Eagle coin. The design was to be “high relief” to more fully accentuate the features of his design. However, the US Mint was unable to reliably make the coins at speed and had trouble with bankers who complained about not being able to stack the coins. After about 12,000 coins were struck in late 1907, the design was revisited to include the motto “In God We Trust” and to redesign the obverse side for “low-relief” striking.

91.6% pure gold (22-karat) coins were the standard of choice in Europe for several hundred years. As such, they are sometimes referred to as “crown gold.” These .9160 fine coins are alloyed with 5.3% copper and 3% silver, maintaining the brassy luster and color of a higher purity gold.

In addition to these coins, there was a special order to the Treasury to strike a small number of .9999 pure “ultra-high relief” gold bullion Eagles. Limited to a small run in 2009, these coins have been concurrently issued with the also 99.99% pure American Buffalo coins that have been so incredibly popular since their introduction in 2006, they actually sold out in late 2008.

Aside from their likely availability when the American Buffalo has sold out, the American Gold Eagle coins are somewhat more resistant to wear, with nearly pure gold bullion coins sometimes able to be bent.

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Arthur McGuire

March 5, 2009