Blast From The Past: Gold & Double Eagles, 1968
GoldFinger1969
Posts: 3,380 ✭✭✭✭✭
I was perusing the NY Times archives and came across this interesting article from March 1968. It followed one of those speedbumps in the international gold market and some of you who were around (I was, but too young 
) might recall the pricing cited.
NY Times, March 3rd 1968 The article notes buyers/hoarders being willing to pay way above market prices for $20 Double Eagles, including Saints. DEs that normally sold for $50 were selling for $82 at Stacks, with other dealers reporting sales at just under $100. Gimbel's, the department store, had a coin department and they stopped selling coins during the run-up (as did Stack's) but before they stopped they were selling them for $75.
The Stack referenced in the article is Benjamin Stack who passed away in 1984.
I thought the discussion in the article towards the end talking about how holding the coins was NOT illegal based on the 1934 and 1954 law changes was interesting.
Comments
Neat article and would love a time machine with the price we got these days, just saying
I bought a BU $20 from downtown Detroit dealer Earl Schill for $50 in May of 1966. Unfortunately I had to sell if a few years later to pay college tuition. I think I got $55 for it.
Wow, I don't know which is more impressive....you buying a DE for $50....or buying it in Downtown Detroit and having the guts to carry it back home !!!
Although I guess Detroit was alot different 60 years ago. 
Looks like the guy was around a while:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/406363563386
$100 invested in the S&P500 in 1968 would be worth $37,000 today.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Cherry pick 😋
I remember seeing $20 advertised in Coin World in the mid-1960's for $48.I wanted one but did not have the money. I did get a $5 in 1967 for $17 from a shop in Daytona Beach.
lol. If I were cherry picking the stocks, I'm sure I could add a zero or two.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Yes, that to 👍
Yes, and a fine gentleman!
I remember buying British Sovereigns for $10.05 each in 1969. I argued with the dealer over the 5 cents and they were paying the shipping.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Another article from the 1960's, this one on the outgoing Eisenhower Administration just before JFK takes office in mid-January 1961.
It appears that Americans holding gold abroad was not just a unique peculularity to a few jetsetters, but quite possibly may have involved thousands or tens of thousands of people of means hoarding bars, coins, etc.
And now the melt value is around $1,200.
Interesting that Gimbel’s had a coin department in its store.
As did Macy's, I frequented both whenever I visited NYC.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
I am little younger than those who remember the 1960s. But I remember buying my first gold coins as a teenager around 1976 from a bullion dealer who advertised extensively in Coin World named FJ Volmer. I remember paying exactly $82.50 for the Half Eagle and $120 for the Eagle. Still have them !!
Went to Europe in 1966. Visited a Swiss bank and bought a $10.00 Liberty. Don't remember how much I paid but must have been around $40.00 US. i still have it. Banker let me hold a large gold bar, probably at least one kg. Sadly, not able to take that home.
Lots of department stores did. The margins they made on low-cost coins for novice coin collectors was AMAZING. It was a great profit center for the department stores coming out of the 1940's.
Moms and Dads would go there...buy a coin from the "expert" manning the display case....and bring it home to junior. Never mind that the coin they purchased for $5 really had a FMV of about $2.50 and a FV of under $1 !!
I could be wrong, but as individual coin shops blossomed in the 1970's, the department store coin departments faded.
Today - or even back in the 1970s - any retail store not applying at least a keystone (100%) markup on a $2.50 wholesale item won’t stay in business very long.
30+ years coin shop experience (ret.) Coins, bullion, currency, scrap & interesting folks. Loved every minute!