Reason for restrike coins

izzy452

Now I have heard that the reason for restrikes was that up until (1975 or 76 ?) it was illegal to own gold coins dated after (1933 or 34) thus coin were dated 1915 (example Ducat) . The law was finally repealed. Im not sure of the dates or even if this story is true. Any comments ?

Walt

SYRACUSIAN

From what I understand, this law applies to US citizens only, although the gold standard was dropped by more or less everybody around those dates.It was certainly not illegal to own gold coins in Europe, since most transactions were done with sovereigns or Swiss 20s. Hyperinflation had hit most countries that got involved in WW2. The ducat is a very popular coin and I think that the Austrian mint prefers to produce restrikes of it, rather than a new bullion coin. The selling price is almost identical.

spoon

I know about the Maria Theresa story... but I'd agree with Dimitri on gold.

On marketing, I imagine it'd be better for the mass producers of bullion to use a frozen date to keep the coins more accessible.. no inflation due to key date mintages to worry about, just good solid gold.