$1 Gold Collecting recommendations

Quake17

I've been a Member here for about 6 months and have learned a lot, so thank you in advance for suggestions on collecting gold dollars.

I started collecting as a kid 50 years ago and still have my 1970 Red Book that I use for mintage and other facts, as well as enjoying the old values. This is where I learned about gold dollars but could never afford one. This era in U.S. history has always intrigued me and the gold dollar series sort of epitomizes everything that was going on at the time. I've read the Bowers source book and have started with each type from the 1850's in slabs, AU-55 to MS-61. I think I am comfortable in this range due to price and generally good lustre.

My last complete set was Barber Halves in F-VF about 20 years ago, which was a challenge but not prohibitively costly, except for the cleaned ones that had re-toned which I missed.

I'm thinking about getting a nice example from the other decades with maybe a proof from the 1880's. The C and D do not appeal to me due to the cost and generally weaker strikes, though their history is impressive.

Anyway, it's interesting that as a kid I was drawn to silver dollars and 50 years later, I'm looking at the small ones. Thanks in advance for suggestions!

291fifth

Stick with slabbed coins. There are a lot of fake gold dollars out there.

Crypto

I did a short set of just the O mint coins. I chose circulated coins as I love the crude meant to be used southern port nostalgia and the pre-civil war time period. I even found an error example. It was a fun a cheap set

I filled in the 1854 date gap with the 3$ gold piece as it is the same design and the only O mint one of those. You can see it here. Ignore the descriptions and just check out the photos. Good luck and have fun

https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase/2425

jonruns

Doug Winter wrote a good article on the subject about a year ago:

https://raregoldcoins.com/blog/2017/8/18/soyouve-decided-to-collect-gold-dollars?rq=gold dollars

Quake17

Great suggestions, thank you! Very in depth recent article makes me reconsider acquiring a C and D for a mint mark collection. The proof discussion at only $40K per coin or so, puts things in perspective!

ricko

I like the old gold dollars, but they are so small.... I decided not to get into that series mainly due to their size. I do like the C and D mints though... Great history there.... Cheers, RickO

BillJones

Gold dollars have long been an interest of mine. I put together and date and mint set of the Type I and Type II gold dollars, minus the 1849-C Open Wreath variety of which there are only four or five known. Here are a couple of links for you.

https://coins.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=119091&Ranking=all

https://coins.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=167164&Ranking=all

The Type III Gold Dollars interest me, but completing that set is very hard, and I gave up on it. I do have all of teh coins from 1880 to 1889. They have low mintages, and many of them are P-L. because of the limited mintages.

asheland

I love the little coins, I agree you should only buy certified as there are a lot of fakes. Have fun with the hunt!

asheland

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carabonnair

Someday I would like to do a San Francisco type set. Maybe eventually expanding to all 7 dates. I like mine circulated.

Quake17

Thanks again everyone for your sage advice! Bill, what an awesome collection!

BillJones

The gold dollars from the 1880s are among the most beautiful of the 19th U.S. gold coins. It is possible to find many of the dates in P-L. Here are some examples.

The 1880 gold dollar has a mintage of 1,600 pieces. It's not as rare as that sounds because the date was heavily collected or hoarded. This one is in an Old Green Label (OGL) MS-65.

1882 is one of the most common dates in high grade. This one is rather under graded IMO as an MS-65

And if you are looking for a Proof, here is one. This 1883 is a PR-65, CAM, CAC. The mintage was 207 Proofs. This was the last "low mintage" Proof year. Over the rinal years, jewlers and speculators pushed the mintages to over 1,000 every year, which is a high number for an "old" U.S. Proof gold coin. Compare this with the 1880.

Quake17

Beautiful indeed! Thanks again Bill!

Stella

Gold dollars can be very pretty coins--especially the proofs! Certain issues also seem to offer decent value for the money compared to some larger denominations.

Here is a book that might be a good starting point: https://amazon.com/Guide-Book-Gold-Dollars-Official/dp/0794832415