Alaska gold

Alshouse

I’ve always been fascinated by the coins but know nothing about the subject. Is it worth collecting?

Zoins

It depends on what you mean by "worth collecting". Do you mean enjoyment or something else?

I like Alaska gold. Here's a modern So-Called Dollar for the Nome Gold Rush centennial celebration which ran for several months. There's lots of records and I even have the t-shirt

AlexinPA

There's a guy on EBay. chickenminer He mines out of Chicken, Alaska. When I lived in Anchorage I bought gold nuggets from him. Still have that Alaska gold. Reliable and easy to deal with.

3stars

Take a look at www.alaskamint.com, lots of great locally made coins.

ricko

Gold is always good....Just be careful... a lot of shysters out there... Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@3stars said:
Take a look at www.alaskamint.com, lots of great locally made coins.

The one I posted was made by the Alaska Mint but on contract to Nome Coins. It is 1 ounce of gold. I also have the 1 ounce silver and the selective gold plated silver ounce. I've seen 2 of the 1 ounce gold over the years and none of the 1/2 ounce gold which was offered. I think there may have been 25 of the 1 oz gold struck.

Kingisland99762

Nome Coins was originally started by Jimmy Carlisle and Jerald Brown of Nome, Ak at the time. Amy Smithhisler was the Artist that won the Nome Centennial design, but since it was square drawing, which had a Train and Gold scale on it, Jimmy took a scan of the drawing and redesigned to fit in a coin shape. John Handling Mayor at the time loved our redesign and asked for an evenlope and stamp then did a poor man's copyright.
There are some Firstday Issue envelopes with the design and signed by the Artist.
I forgot to mention that Jearld designed the back of the coin.
The back side Die belongs to Jerald, the front side Die of the coin I (Jimmy) donated the Nome Museum.

Kingisland99762

@Zoins said:

@3stars said:
Take a look.alaskamint.com, lots of great locally made coins.

The one I posted was made by the Alaska Mint but on contract to Nome Coins. It is 1 ounce of gold. I also have the 1 ounce silver and the selective gold plated silver ounce. I've seen 2 of the 1 ounce gold over the years and none of the 1/2 ounce gold which was offered. I think there may have been 25 of the 1 oz gold struck.

That is true, only > @Zoins said:

@3stars said:
Take a look at www.alaskamint.com, lots of great locally made coins.

The one I posted was made by the Alaska Mint but on contract to Nome Coins. It is 1 ounce of gold. I also have the 1 ounce silver and the selective gold plated silver ounce. I've seen 2 of the 1 ounce gold over the years and none of the 1/2 ounce gold which was offered. I think there may have been 25 of the 1 oz gold struck.

@Zoins said:
It depends on what you mean by "worth collecting". Do you mean enjoyment or something else?

I like Alaska gold. Here's a modern So-Called Dollar for the Nome Gold Rush centennial celebration which ran for several months. There's lots of records and I even have the t-shirt

I believe we only had 10 one-ounce and 25 half-ounce gold coins made. This information is from my Partner Jerald Brown. Co owner of Nome Coins.
See below comments for other information about Nome Coins.
Jimmy Carlisle

thebeav

I'll play.....Are you talking about this stuff ?

charlesf20

Difference between 10, 20, 25 & 40 gold mesh 1 gram?

coinbuf

Do you have your own dredge?

Zoins

@Kingisland99762 said:

@Zoins said:

@3stars said:
Take a look at www.alaskamint.com, lots of great locally made coins.

The one I posted was made by the Alaska Mint but on contract to Nome Coins. It is 1 ounce of gold. I also have the 1 ounce silver and the selective gold plated silver ounce. I've seen 2 of the 1 ounce gold over the years and none of the 1/2 ounce gold which was offered. I think there may have been 25 of the 1 oz gold struck.

@Zoins said:
It depends on what you mean by "worth collecting". Do you mean enjoyment or something else?

I like Alaska gold. Here's a modern So-Called Dollar for the Nome Gold Rush centennial celebration which ran for several months. There's lots of records and I even have the t-shirt

I believe we only had 10 one-ounce and 25 half-ounce gold coins made. This information is from my Partner Jerald Brown. Co owner of Nome Coins.
See below comments for other information about Nome Coins.
Jimmy Carlisle

Welcome Jimmy! I'm really excited to have you here! I've been a big fan of Nome coins for years, having collected all the 1 ounce gold and silver pieces, along with your wooden nickel! I'm still hoping to get the Nome Gold Rush pieces classified as So-Called Dollars, but we may need a new reference for modern issues.

1northcoin

Here are some Alaska crafted rings from Alaska gold found in deposits with quartz.

1northcoin

Here is a product of The Alaska Mint that I picked up there. The Alaska Gold is in the goldpan itself.

And the mint itself which is located in a building that was previously occupied by allegedly the largest McDonalds in the world.

1northcoin

OK, did a little fact checking.

This is what I found regarding the building that now houses the Alaska Mint when it was previously a McDonalds:

" In 1975, the fifth Alaska McDonald’s opened in downtown Anchorage. The 126-seat building was then the largest McDonald’s on the West Coast."

https://adn.com/alaska-life/2021/07/25/the-story-of-mcdonalds-founder-ray-krocs-beef-with-anchorages-sunshine-plaza/

tokenpro

Somewhat related (it's Alaska & it's gold) -- this past week I got a chance to hold & inspect the largest known gold nugget from Alaska (294.1 troy oz) days before it was auctioned by Heritage in their Natural History auction. It realized $750K + the juice which I thought might be a wee bit of a bargain with all the cash floating around. Many of the other mineral specimens in the sale were pure delightful eye candy.

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/alaska-centennial-gold-nugget-swift-creek-mine-ruby-mining-district-yukon-koyukuk-c/a/8068-72018.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

coinsarefun

Awesome! And jealous

.

@tokenpro said:
Somewhat related (it's Alaska & it's gold) -- this past week I got a chance to hold & inspect the largest known gold nugget from Alaska (294.1 troy oz) days before it was auctioned by Heritage in their Natural History auction. It realized $750K + the juice which I thought might be a wee bit of a bargain with all the cash floating around. Many of the other mineral specimens in the sale were pure delightful eye candy.

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/alaska-centennial-gold-nugget-swift-creek-mine-ruby-mining-district-yukon-koyukuk-c/a/8068-72018.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

pcgscacgold

I was looking at a couple nuggets on the Alaska mint site. They give an overall weight but does that include the quartz? If it says DWT and oz conversion is there any way to know the gold weight?

1northcoin

@tokenpro said:
Somewhat related (it's Alaska & it's gold) -- this past week I got a chance to hold & inspect the largest known gold nugget from Alaska (294.1 troy oz) days before it was auctioned by Heritage in their Natural History auction. It realized $750K + the juice which I thought might be a wee bit of a bargain with all the cash floating around. Many of the other mineral specimens in the sale were pure delightful eye candy.

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/alaska-centennial-gold-nugget-swift-creek-mine-ruby-mining-district-yukon-koyukuk-c/a/8068-72018.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

Thanks for posting that. Will be interesting to learn whether its present owner will offer to a museum for viewing as suggested in the auction description:

This is one true museum-quality specimen that deserves to be on permanent display for the treasure it is.
Measurements: 6.69 x 5.70 x 4.33 x inches (17.00 x 14.50 x 11.00 cm), weighs 9.14 kilograms (294.10 oz t)

FWIW, it was on display years ago at a museum prior to the referenced private sale. Getting to see it in person was most impressive. At the time the seller was asking so much more than its value in actual gold content that at least up to that point in time there were no takers. It would also be interesting to know what it eventually actually sold for back then and what the price of gold was at the time of sale. Hopefully the buyer will be able to keep it intact and not have to break it up if and when it comes time to sell.

pcgscacgold

I found the answer. Good old gravity test. Dry weight taken, then wet weight. A few calculations and you have it. Very interesting. It also put me onto a site selling gold paydirt set up to contain a certain amount of gold. Crazy stuff out there.

Zoins

@pcgscacgold said:
I found the answer. Good old gravity test. Dry weight taken, then wet weight. A few calculations and you have it. Very interesting. It also put me onto a site selling gold paydirt set up to contain a certain amount of gold. Crazy stuff out there.

I've always wondered what D.W.T. meant. It's awesome that you looked it up!

pcgscacgold

@Zoins said:

@pcgscacgold said:
I found the answer. Good old gravity test. Dry weight taken, then wet weight. A few calculations and you have it. Very interesting. It also put me onto a site selling gold paydirt set up to contain a certain amount of gold. Crazy stuff out there.

I've always wondered what D.W.T. meant. It's awesome that you looked it up!

I ended up getting threads from 2008. That sent me to a store that sells paydirt. Looks like fun. They had a video showing how to determine the actual gold content of a gold/quartz nugget. Wouldn't want to pay $2000 an oz for quartz.

DWT stands for pennyweight. A good math problem below.

Calculating the pennyweight of a gold item is fairly simple. First, you divide the number of karats of the item by 24 and multiply that number by the weight of your jewelry. Take this new number and multiply it by 20, leaving you with the item’s pennyweight. One penneyweight is 24 grains, 0.05 troy ounce or 1.56 grams

tokenpro

My bad -- for the sake of accuracy the Alaska Centennial nugget sold for $750,000 including the juice - it really seems like a bargain now.

thebeav

@pcgscacgold said:

Calculating the pennyweight of a gold item is fairly simple. First, you divide the number of karats of the item by 24 and multiply that number by the weight of your jewelry. Take this new number and multiply it by 20, leaving you with the item’s pennyweight. One penneyweight is 24 grains, 0.05 troy ounce or 1.56 grams

The weight of your jewelry has nothing to do with it's karat purity. I was scratching my head over this formula. You correctly state that a pennyweight is 1.56 grams. That takes care of it right there.

pcgscacgold

@thebeav said:

@pcgscacgold said:

Calculating the pennyweight of a gold item is fairly simple. First, you divide the number of karats of the item by 24 and multiply that number by the weight of your jewelry. Take this new number and multiply it by 20, leaving you with the item’s pennyweight. One penneyweight is 24 grains, 0.05 troy ounce or 1.56 grams

The weight of your jewelry has nothing to do with it's karat purity. I was scratching my head over this formula. You correctly state that a pennyweight is 1.56 grams. That takes care of it right there.

Good catch. I posted how to calculate the gold price per penneyweight. Sorry for the confusion.