US Mint American Arts gold medals 1980-1984

roadrunner

Are these medals considered anything more than bullion today? Some of the later medals were heavily melted leaving an unknown supply. But the first year Grant Wood medals seem to be quite plentiful. Some of the older posts I reviewed about these indicated they are not widely known about...at least not to J6P, not legal circulating tender like AGE's and Buffs, have a slight coppery look that doesn't quite look like gold, and may have generally been abused over the past 29 years leaving many sub-par examples remaining.

If one had to rank these in the gold bullion hierarchy with AGE's, Buffalos, Maples, Krugs, Philharmonics, and other foreign gold bullion coins or bars, where would they rank? Are there any premiums for original packing and higher grades such as MS65+.

roadrunner

Weiss

They're in the red book, to my knowledge for the first time, in 2009 (p. 405 of the spiral bound).

I had a thread about them on the coin forum months ago. I don't think they should be there. But beyond that, they are gold, but they're problematic gold for the reasons you mentioned.

Ultimately, you have to look at what the market says. And the market sez...

roadrunner

That 6.5% spread on "market sez" seems awfully high. One gold wholesaler told me he's a buyer of these at 98% of spot and a seller at 101% to the major retailers.

It sure beats the buy/sell spread of one of Connecticut's leading jewelers who buys AGE's at around 60% of spot. I doubt they'd give even $600 for one of these 1 oz. medals.

roadrunner

MoneyLA

when my son was born in 1980, I bought some... I think they were the Marian Anderson half ouncers. I gave them to him about a year ago, and if I recall they sold based on a spot price, same as a bullion coin.

OnlyGoldIsMoney

They were in the 2009 Red Book but I could not find them when I casually looked through the 2010 edition.

They have little going for them. The first two years had no reference to the United States, no denomination, no weight and no fineness. 1982 and after they had the weight.

They were produced to compete with Krugerands. Clearly they did not compete well with Krugerands.

I have one Marian Anderson I got picked up off ebay via a BIN using cashback. I would buy more if I could get them below melt.

In the hierarchy of bullion products I would rank them below AGE's, Buffalos, Maples, Krugs, Philharmonics, and other foreign gold bullion coins or bars.

ernie11

They were in the 2009 Red Book, yanked from the 2010 edition.

I saved some of the Steinbeck 1/2 oz. from 1984 because the mintage was low. 25 years later, they're still not on many people's radar screen.