Why was the double eagle made for circulation?

LanLord

Sometimes I wonder about a coin of such stature.

Back in it's day, beginning in 1849 (Well, technically 1850) a single coin for $20 was a huge investment.

At that time, many people were making a dollar an hour for labor. I also imagine they worked 12 hour/days and many times 6 or 7 days a week.

So a coin that represented at least 3 weeks work for many people seems very unusual.

I can't imagine walking around with a coin that has a face value of several thousand dollars. I surely can't imaging it being something that needed to be made for general circulation.

Who spent those?

Gonfunko

The double eagle was essentially a way to get rid of all the gold coming from California. In fact, both the double eagle and the gold dollar were part of legislation introduced in 1848, at least partly as a result of the gold rush.

LanLord

Yes of course, but those are the answers in the redbook.

Think about it from a standpoint of "it's 1850, $20 is a lot of money"
Perhaps your answer is still correct, but ... that's a heck of a lot of money in one coin back then.

Could you carry a single coin that represented 3 weeks work? Not just from the coin show, but every day, in your pocket and where would you spend it, for what?

DrWho

i don't think they intent was for general circ. use up the CA gold, for many reasons, ore - assay - return as usuable medium of exchange. my understanding is that double eagles mostly ended up in banks, as part of the reserves. also in trade with other nations. i can not believe the average 'joe' had double eagles in his/her posession.

GTS

These were big in the last century and earlier, there were no credit cards, or even telphones to check credit so we were on more of a cash and carry kind of trade system.Internationally our paper money was not so widely accepted as it is now,our trade partners were not interested in the U.S.'s promises of gold backed reserves,so gold was the standard currency world wide.
GTS

ddink

Lanlord, there are people today who walk around with wads of $100s. I suppose it was the same then, too!

ChangeIsGood

For the same reason they make $100 bills today. There was a lot of fake gold floating around and the government felt, and rightfully so, that some standard coins were important for consistency in commerce. People didn't trust banks very much and had even less trust in paper money.
Say, in 1855, you wanted to buy a new horse for $50. Your choice was 50 big clunky silver dollars or gold. Master card was a few years off.
My grandmother told me that they would save money in a can and when they had enough, would convert it to eagles and double eagles as they were easier to hide.
Also, no matter what other reasons were given, after the stock market crash and bank runs in the early 30's, the government felt it necessary to ban gold to get people back to the banks and paper money. This was and is a country of immigrants who had and have little trust in government or paper money. Gold is universal and will always be in demand no matter how much its value is manipulated.
So with as much as a double was worth back then, and without credit cards, what other choice was there. We have all seen people buy some big item at Best Buy or such with a stack of hundreds. I am sure several weeks or a months pay. Things don't change, only the pictures on out currency or coins.

oreville

Back in the 1850's to 1890's, bank were not trusted as much as they are today. People also put their life savings into these $5 and $20 gold coins. Also, our country was quite nomadic at the time with many moving out west and north/south. I have seen many real estate transactions of the 1860's and 1870's in which payments recorded were in $20 coins.

Why? There were very few National currency notes $5 and $10 and $20 that were not attributed to individual bank notes. Many sellers of real estate did not trust these notes that were issued in another state of even county within the state with good reason and would only accept the real gold.

PerryHall

As a direct result of the vast quantities of gold coming out of the California gold fields, it was decided that it was cheaper and faster to strike one double eagle than two eagles or four half eagles etc. These larger coins were primarily for bank reserves since the paper money back then was issued by individual banks and were not guaranteed by any government. The one dollar pieces were issued to use up some of this gold. It was assumed that they would circulate as money and they were correct. They were also very popular for use in jewelry. That's why you should check the rim of any small gold coins for traces of solder or repair.

Conder101

<< <i>Internationally our paper money was not so widely accepted as it is now >>


Or domesticly either. US currency wasn't even widely accepted in this country except at a discount until around 1880. Also checks, although they did exist were not widely used until sometime in the 20th century.

TorinoCobra71

Didint the Govt mint these to pay off foreign debt (eg: Europe) ?? I would seem hard to imagine these in every day commerce....

TorinoCobra71