1944 and 1945 gold coins

ryansarge

Hi all,
I'm still pretty new to the whole coin collecting world and have wanted to obtain a few gold coins from certain years. One of those years happens to be 1945. I understand that not many countries issued gold coins this year due to the war. So far all I have been able to find are the gold Pesos from Mexico (2, 2 1/2, and 50). I love how the 50 peso looks, but want to find something a little more affordable, but larger than the 2 and 2 1/2 pesos. Something in the range of $100-$200 would be ideal, but basically I am just wondering if there are other gold coins from this year.

It's basically the same situation with 1944, however I have found the Romanian 20 Lei which is about the size and price range I'm looking for, but haven't had much luck finding any others and just would like to know if others exist so I have more to choose from when deciding what to buy. So any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks!

lordmarcovan

Here's an idea: buy the less-expensive Mexican coins, perhaps, and with the leftover money, get yourself a Krause catalog. Then you'll be ready.

Until you have the Krause, you'll be groping around blindly. After you have it, you will recognize bargains when you see them.

What is it about 1944-45?

ryansarge

1944 and 1945 are the years in which my parents were born. I thought it would be a nice little present to give them if I gave each of them a gold coin from their birth year. Thanks for the info though. I'll definitely pick up one of those catalogs. Like I said, I'm fairly new to collecting. I got one of thoe coins of the 20th century albums probably about 15 years ago and filled it up back then and hadn't done anything with it until recently when I found it stored away and decided it would be fun to get into collecting. Anyway, thanks again for the info, it sounds like the Krause catalog is exactly what I need and will really make things a lot easier.

spoon

Yep, the Krause catalogs are a necessary investment for more specialized collecting. And they pay for themselves! They can usually be found online for much cheaper, a year or so old isn't going to hurt. In the meantime you might find one at the library or a good bookstore.

On the gold coins, I haven't looked them up yet, but off the top of my head I don't think there were many at all for those years. A lot of the European gold you'll see from the WWI era began to be restruck (esp. France & Switzerland) in later years after the US and other countries moved away from the gold standard. I don't remember when this started, but much of the 191x dated stuff was likely struck later, perhaps as early as 44 and 45?, with the dates frozen on those years before the demonitization of gold. (The Austrian ducats of 1915 are a notorious example.) Maybe someone can straighten out my foggy memory on all this?

Another angle to take on coin gifts of these years, and a much more affordable one likely to give them an interesting story if not much else, would be a few of the coins of occupied lands that were struck in America. Our mints made coins for places as diverse as Belgium, Curacao and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), among others. Not a very flashy gift, but one with an interesting backstory. Unless, of course, you like zinc (what the Nazis used!).

Sylvestius

From my somewhat fading memory;

The Great War led to many countries falling away from the gold standard, some later went back to the standard, others did not. The US seems to have slowed down from what i can see in the redbook and very little is going on in the early 1920s. Britain suspended the gold standard in 1914 with the onset of war but there was always an intention to return to it. Sovereigns were still being produced upto 1917 and halves upto 1915. London mint ceased after this. The Australian mints continued coining gold coins upto 1931, and South Africa was still producing sovereigns in 1932.

In 1925 Britain's dream of getting back to the gold standard was finally accomplished by Winston Churchill (who later said it was his greatest mistake, for they'd overvalued the pound and it was a factor that lead to the depression of the 1930s). The London mint came back into action producing gold sovereigns in 1925, but only in 1925. The government found ways of trying to retain the gold standard but the country was facing an economic crisis because the economy wasn't flexible enough during this time of recession and turmoil, so in 1931 Britain reluctantly abandonded the gold standard for the final time, and all gold sovereigns ceased in production the following year.

The US followed not long after in c.1933, when Roosevelt left the gold standard.

Britain was the first country to officially leave the gold standard with the clear intention of not returning to it at a later date. Since Great Britain was still the supreme world power at that time (albeit in decline) most other European countries that had managed to retain or return to the gold standard after WWI left the gold standard too following Britain's example. So many European gold currencies terminated in the 1931-34 period.

Although even though it was the case that Britain was no longer on the gold standard in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s the London mint did produce a considerable number of sovereigns during this time period. Notably the 1937 coronation issue for George VI but this was a proof only issue and they were not legal tender (having plain edges) and few were minted. Many collectors of the day though felt cheated by the mint because up until the 1940s, 1925 London mint sovereigns were somewhat scarce, however in 1949, 1950 and 1951 they minted 886,000 extra. Collectors and dealers were not happy thay they'd paid a fair sum to get one when suddenly the availability went up and the prices went down.