Is there a forum member alive that remembers circulating US gold coins.

renman95

At least it's a more rational question than the "...circulating silver coins..." thread.

r95

keets

Is there a forum member alive that remembers circulating US gold coins.

i bet there are a few but they're alrady in bed. you'd better TT this in the morning!!

golfer72

<< <i>At least it's a more rational question than the "...circulating silver coins..." thread.

r95 >>

Yeah right!

llafoe

I remember when my father took me to the Mustang Ranch, they would only accept gold coins in payment... oops, TMI!

Cameonut

Years ago I bought a quarter eagle and showed it to my father. He looked at it quizzically and mentioned that it was minted in his birth year (1928). He also said that he had never seen gold coins in his childhood. My guess was that they really didn't circulate that much in the midwest, but perhaps I am wrong. Then again, by the depression, it was illegal to own gold.

Now my grandmother, born in 1902, vividly recalled seeing gold coins during her lifetime, but never recalled them actively circulating.

CaptHenway

Gold was for rich people.

My grandmother was born in the copper country of Michigan in 1890. After she stopped going to school she went to work for the local Bell telephone company as a switchboard operator. Married Grandpa and left town around 1912.

In the late 1960's she came to live with us outside Detroit. When she found out that I collected coins, she said that one year when she was working at the telephone company, she got a two and a half dollar gold piece in her pay envelope at Christmas.

I naturally asked her if she had kept it, and she said no, she only made $2.50 a week, but at Christmas they paid her in gold (real generous company, eh?). She took it home and gave it to her mother like she did every other week, and got back the 50 cents she was allowed to keep for herself.

That one gold coin was probably the only one she owned in her entire life. It was so memorable that she remembered it 55-60 years later.

TD

henson4

My guess is most of the gold was hoarded before they could even be circulated

RWB

TD's family anecdote is typical. Ordinary people almost never saw gold coins, and if they got one, it was quickly spent. Gold $10 and $20 were for commercial transactions, bank reserves and foreign payments. Wealthy people used checks or paper gold notes and other currency; wealthy women had jewelry made of gold or including gold coins. Middle class used checks and paper money, and poor people used paper currency and silver/minor coins. Gold coins were "special" gifts at christmas and New Years because it was not seen at other times.

rainbowroosie

I remember walkers, mercs, and SLQs circulating commonly. Not silver, but IHC and V nickles also made the rounds. Common to find lincolns dated 1909; less common, but saw some barber coins in change...as you might suspect, I was born in the late 1940's.

DRUNNER

I would say no . .

But . .

One possession we have from the few coins that started me down the collecting road was a 1925 2 1/2 Indian that my grandfather kept illicitly when gold was recalled. He swore he would never turn that one in, and didn't. Went to my dad, then to me. I got it slabbed (PCGS AU58) and it still is with me. Besides the Whitman Lincoln 1941-1974 folder I did when I was a kid, it is the only thing I can't see myself ever selling.

Drunner

relicsncoins

You would have to be a minimum of around 85 years old in order to remember circulating gold coins.

DuCrozat

I always look...

Raufus

My grandmother who just passed at 100 clearly remembered them in circulation (she was not a forum member though...).

OPA

<< <i>You would have to be a minimum of around 85 years old in order to remember circulating gold coins. >>



And from the "upper crust" elite.

ormandh

Come on, Give him a break. I am sure that I could not relate to issues that happened before I was born either..... Not everyone that collects coins and is on these forums is in their forties or above! -Dan

CaptHenway

When I was working for Coin World (1973-78), the Treasurer of the local coin club was the number two man in the local police department. He had all of the parking meter money delivered to his office before it was deposited, and over the years he pulled two $2-1/2 gold pieces out of the meter money.
TD

ormandh

<< <i>When I was working for Coin World (1973-78), the Treasurer of the local coin club was the number two man in the local police department. He had all of the parking meter money delivered to his office before it was deposited, and over the years he pulled two $2-1/2 gold pieces out of the meter money.
TD >>

CaptHenway

I am sure he reimbursed the city for the dime........

bushmaster8

My grandma had one $2.5

She passed it to me brother who promptly sold for drug money.

Good ol' mum.

RWB

Well, I remember gold circulating.

My cousin had two quarter eagles his father had saved from his job at the post Office. We traded those things back and forth so many times my cousin eventually called it quits and sold them to a local Department store coin department.

BaseballAbs

I would think if they are not carefull both Gold and silver will be the only thing circulating in the future. At least i could see it happening.

CCC2010

Do you mean those times when the pirates bite off the gold doubloons to see if they were real or not?

ProofArtworkonCircs

My father, when he was first married in 1898, was delighted to work for ten cents an hour. That might be helping a neighbor hay or drafting plans for the new school. He moved to Bangor, Maine and became a builder. He joined the Masons and then the Shriners. He was the leader of the Shrine Band and retired as leader in 1926. As a token of appreciation, he was presented with two twenty dollar gold pieces and one ten dollar one. I am amazed that they gave him so much. He hung on to them until 1933 when the gold surrender order came. He turned them in, although he was a bone fide coin collector. I don't think the coin collecting exemption was well understood then. Incidently, I wasn't born yet.

mrearlygold

<< <i>Come on, Give him a break. I am sure that I could not relate to issues that happened before I was born either..... Not everyone that collects coins and is on these forums is in their forties or above! -Dan >>



You're absolutely right about that young man, some of us are so old we've made it into our 50's!

mrearlygold

I remember once, man it feels like it was only yesterday when that dang wilson just had to get us involved in that quagmire in europe. I was sitting at this Blarney Stone on 8th ave, you know just b'sing with the group listening to some fight on the radio, having some boiled eggs and wham! A guy slapped this old $20 double eagle on the bar and bought the whole place a round. Just barely covered it too, whew that was close.


Ahh the bad and gold, er good old days.

RWB

Commercial radio broad casts started in NYC in 1922 – long after the US entered WW-I in April 1917.

ambro51

How much of the US Gold Coinage was even IN this country during the early 20th century?

CaptHenway

The key word there was "blarney"............

RWB

How much of the US Gold Coinage was even IN this country during the early 20th century?

In 1919 the Treasury controlled about $720 million in gold coin. Approximately $500 million was "in circulation" but most had long since been converted to jewelry or paid overseas. The actual remaining gold coin was about $80 million. In 1934, the Treasury had to quietly write off about $500 million in gold coin plus $30 million in early gold notes as unrecoverable.

[Again - much more will be in my 1929-1946 book...including dates/mints and quantities melted from 1929-1933 and a few other dates.]

DaveG

Several years ago, my wife interviewed a woman who was married in Michigan and spent her honeymoon in California in 1914.

She said that she remembered her parents having gold quarter and half eagles from time-to-time in Michigan and she especially remembered gold coins in common use in California, as the people there still preferred to use gold instead of currency at that time.

sumnom

<< <i>Years ago I bought a quarter eagle and showed it to my father. He looked at it quizzically and mentioned that it was minted in his birth year (1928). He also said that he had never seen gold coins in his childhood. My guess was that they really didn't circulate that much in the midwest, but perhaps I am wrong. Then again, by the depression, it was illegal to own gold.

Now my grandmother, born in 1902, vividly recalled seeing gold coins during her lifetime, but never recalled them actively circulating. >>



It wasn't illegal to own gold. The issue was how much and what kind:

TextOrder 6102 specifically exempted "customary use in industry, profession or art"—a provision that covered artists, jewelers, dentists, and sign makers among others. The order further permitted any person to own up to $100 in gold coins ($1,677 if adjusted for inflation as of 2010; a face value equivalent to 5 troy ounces (160 g) of Gold valued at about $6200 as of 2010). The same paragraph also exempted "gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins." This protected gold coin collections from legal seizure and likely melting.

rld14

I'm not old enough to remember silver circulating, but from what I have heard from my Grandparents was basically what's been said here.

My Grandfather, who would be pushing 100 were he still with us, helped his father make alcohol during prohibition for, among others, Joe Kennedy. Anyhow, I remember a story that his father (My great grandfather) sold a large amount of booze to a gentleman from the west coast and was paid in gold coin. I remember hearing that my great grandfather was quite upset about this as while the man claimed that it was customary on the west coast, my great grandfather was worried that the gold coins would cause suspicion in Boston.

The way the story goes was that the Alcohol was being shipped cross country in a shipment of machine parts or something to that effect. Seems odd until I found out that one of the gold coins that I now own came from that same payment, a $5 Indian Head. Apparently my Great Grandfather saved $20 or so for each of his children from this stash.

Anyhow, the coin is now in a PCGS AU50 holder and it's priceless to me. As they say, imagine if these coins could talk?

My grandfather did say that he seems to remember hearing that gold coins were favored by the underworld of Boston, again, no way to verify this either.

Of course, turning half of a rooming house in Chelsea, Mass into a distillery was NO cause for concern 90 years ago but gold coins sure were!

DuCrozat

<< <i>My grandma had one $2.5

She passed it to me brother who promptly sold for drug money.

Good ol' mum. >>



Nothing against your mum, but it's like this a lot.

ambro51

Its very interesting Rogers reply to my question about how much gold coinage was in the US during this era. He says about 80 million. Population was 106 million so that works out to show that there was less than a dollar in gold per person circulation (or existing) in the US during that period.

RWB

During WW-I Treasury had an active campaign of removing gold from circulation. During that time, export businesses and others that had usually used gold bars and $20s for payments, found that they could operate more efficiently without shipping metal around the world. When the war ended, most countries stayed off gold for several years. The US was the only country to return to fully circulating gold coinage.

Sylvestius

An interesting discussion.

As a former archaeology student I once learned that we learn more from the past through disasters, be them human or natural. In the case of circulating gold coinage this could also be true. The tragic accident that occured on the night of 14th April 1912 (the Titanic Disaster) is no exception.

After the survivors had been rescued by the Carpathia and were en route to New York, the unhappy task of recovering the bodies of those not so fortunate had to be carried out. When the bodies were recovered, to aid later identification, descriptions were given not only of the deceased's appearance but also of their personal effects.

From this discussion's perspective the amount of money carried by each person (where present) was also recorded (stating the amount and in what form). The startling thing is whilst some did indeed carry a specified amount of $ in gold coin, some entries as specific as saying 'two $20 pieces'. Much of the US currency recovered appears to be in the form of bills, suggesting that bills were generally more favoured. This is in complete contrast to the British currency recovered where most amounts of several £ were in gold coin instead. Bear in mind here that in GB the lowest denomination of note prior to WW1 was the £5 note, the lower denominations having been demonetised in 1826 (at least in England). Meaning that gold coins really had to fill the gap, the 10/- (£0.5) and the £1 being the commonest. Although £2 and £5 coins existed they weren't issued for circulation very often (1887, 1893 & 1902 being the most recent) and probably rarely, if ever, saw circulation.


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