Were US gold coins available in rolls?
291fifth
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If so, what constituted a roll of each denomination?
Do any original rolls of gold coins exist?
All glory is fleeting.
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Sure, I have a roll of 50 quarter eagles right here. A 1911 on one end and a 'D' Indian on the other end. Probably all 11-d's.
Please note that I am kidding.
But seriously, this IS a roll of all 1911 $2 1/2 Indians... Probably only one D though.
I do believe that paper rolls of small denoms were made by banks. Loose coins were a mess and it was a way to organize. They were not mechanically rolled, however. Done by hand.
bob
Nice roll there.
The mint will sell you as many rolls of golden dollars as you want.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Yes they are on ebay all the time Search and there are rolls showing a gold coin on one end, no doubt the rest are gold as well.
I distinctly remember Stack's offering rolls of half-eagles at auction, maybe even eagles and double-eagles.
Here's a link to a page with 13 rolls of eagles being sold by Superior in the AUCTION 83 sale.....
https://www.archive.org/stream/auction83featuri1983stac#page/428/mode/2up
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Oh the good old days before the money laundering laws forced disclosure of sources.
I've seen rolls of Saints, but they were bank-wrapped...and it was 30 years ago.
I had a partial bank wrapped roll (9-11 coins - cannot remember) of 1928 Saints come into the store in 1978-82 (cannot remember). The coins were absolute frosty gems! This I do remember as I got to purchase one at cost for my collection!
My guess either 20 or 25 Saints in a roll to keep the value an even $400 or $500.
That's really cool....gold was stupid cheap then.....hindsight is always 20/20 ain't it?
Gold dollars destined for the Post Office were rolled by the mint in 100-piece units. This occurred after Postmasters complained about handing the tiny gold bits. Otherwise, I've never seen any reference to putting gold coins into paper rolls. Standard bags contained $5,000. Sub-treasuries and FRBs often broke these down, but the coins were shipped in bags. Kegs and boxes were used for quantities of $40,000 to $60,000 but the coins were still in bags, not loose.
I had a half roll of 1924 $20 back in 1975 or so.
Thanks for the thorough and informative answer RogerB. Was this true across all mints? (P,D,S,CC etc...)
Also, were these the heavy canvas bags as seen today or something else? I've wondered about this from time to time and never had occasion to ask someone.
"The other RogerB"
I've seen only references to Philadelphia using rolls for gold dollars -- they supplied all the large eastern cities. This was not a long-term approach. Soon the dollars became unwanted and Treasury and Mint fought over who would absorb the loss when the underweight things were melted.
Coin bags were normal canvas. Several have been sold by Heritage, Stacks, Goldbergs, etc. Nothing unusual except their long narrow shape -- suitable for 250 double eagles neatly stacked and bond for minimum abrasion. Remember - the US was the only major country to have both an individual coin tolerance and a bag tolerance. That ensured people got full weight of gold in each bag.
What exactly is a "bag tolerance"? I've never heard the term used before.
All world mints had a tolerance (called “remedy” in Britain) within which the weight of a specific denomination must fall. For the US double eagle the weight was 516 grains with a tolerance of +/- 0.5 grain per piece. Each legal tender double eagle could weigh between 515.5 and 516.5 grains. (The Mint adjusters filed overweight blanks to get all of them within tolerance before coining.)
The United States Government also applied a bag tolerance to each $5,000 bag of new gold coins regardless of denomination. U.S. gold coins were put in canvas bags containing $5,000 face value. The legal weight of $5,000 in gold coin was 268.75 Troy ounces, with a deviation of only one-hundredth of an ounce per bag from this legal weight. The weight range for a bag of new double eagles was 268.74 to 268.76 Troy ounces.
No other country used a bag tolerance. There are letters in Royal Mint archives describing bags of sovereigns being considerably over or under weight, even thought all individual pieces were within the official remedy.
Hope this helps.
I wonder how many coins were in a bag of $3 gold pieces.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
The fact that these rolls were not Uncirculated means they were put together by a hoarder or the auction company itself. You'll just make yourself and the rest of us sick thinking about the prices of $20's in the 1960's (my time) and before.
"I wonder how many coins were in a bag of $3 gold pieces."
One more or one less.....
I can only address double eagles. Many were placed in wooden barrels for transportation via ship. In the mint and banks banks they were in bags. If you can get a copy of the USS Central America book you will she the coins that went down with the ship in 1857 were still stacked on top of each other and it is mentioned these coins were in wooden barrels. Quite a picture to see given the were on the bottom of the Atlantic in 8,000 feet of salt water for well over 100 years.
I love a good backstory. This coin still gives me chills
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Yes - and they still exist.
'dude
How many Quarter eagles make a roll? 20? 40?
That's a cool pic!
Are these the photos to which you make reference? Source: Thompson's "America's Lost Treasure" beginning at p. 102:
I often see reference to the 'price' of gold back in yesteryear....of course, back then, wages were lower as well... and gold was considered expensive .... Which is why I am glad I acquired gold then...
No rolls of coins, I never saw them back in those days.... They do look impressive though... Cheers, RickO
Years ago I remember an article about the 1929 five dollar gold piece, which is a key date in the series. It stated that most of the coins that have survived were Mint State and that they came from "two rolls of coins" that came to 80 pieces. "Coin Facts " says that there are 783, 1929 half eagles. That number sounds high to me given that the coin reagularly sells for prices ranging from $15,000 in the circulated grades to over $40,000 for high grade pieces.
PCGS has graded 355 pieces, which as to include some double counting for crack-outs.
As I recall, in the early 1960's double eagles were selling for around $65. Calculating from the consumer price index (which IMO tends to understate inflation), that would be about $520 in today's dollars. So in real terms the price of a double eagle has increased by about 150% in 55 years, or a compounded annual rate of about 1.68%. Nice, but less impressive when viewed in this light.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
FWIW, nowadays the Mint ships American Gold Eagle bullion in rolls of 20 (1 oz), 40 (1/2 & 1/4 oz), and 50 (1/10 oz).
Available from many sources, like this:
http://www.apmex.com/category/11110/gold-eagles-mintdirect
Successful BST transactions with forum members thebigeng, SPalladino, Zoidmeister, coin22lover, coinsarefun, jwitten, CommemKing.
Actually the price that often appeared in the numismatic press like "Coin World," "Coins' magazine and "COINage" was often $49.95. That probably didn't buy you a nice clean example with a minimum of marks. The Gimbels Department store coin counter sold them for $75.00, which was full straping retail, but the coins usually graded MS-63 to 64. The grades in those days were limited to "Unc." and "Gem."
Speaking of "Coin World" ads, does anyone remember someone in the mid-west (I think) selling silver dollars for $39,000 per ton during the Treasury vault runs?
A ton would be about 33.939 silver dollars! I always thought the full page ads were to get their name in the minds of the readers but who knows if anyone took them up on their offer.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide