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Some tasty 1911s

China Qing Dynasty Emperor Shi Zu (1638 - 1661) gold good luck amulet

10 good luck animals for the Royal family.

This one’s my still my current favorite, for the time being 🌞

I like my Carson city gold coin!!

Dave

My US collection is all silver, so I will post a world coin.

My favorite? Just one?
I guess this one… And of course, it’s the least affected by the gold price…

OK, here is why this one is a favorite (with apologies to those who have read this before.)

Based upon the similarity of auction descriptions and identification of its owners, including in particular a Dr. C.W. Green, the coin’s history is traced through three separate time periods to the present. It was initially identified in the 1870 Longacre Estate Auction as Lot 178 with a description as being a proof and one of the first minted. Specifically the auction description stated, “from the first dies used for the double eagle.” From an original auction catalogue in the possession of prominent coin dealer Rick Snow it was learned that the purchaser was Edward Cogan, a noted coin auctioneer and dealer at the time.

Numismatic legend and author Walter Breen wrote in his “Breen’s Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Proofs” that he was aware of a Dr. Green’s ownership of a purported proof $20 1850 double eagle.

In 1949 noted numismatist Max Mehl, and at the time the most prominent coin dealer in the United States, provided an auction description for an 1850 $20 double eagle that was both attributed to prior ownership by Dr. Green, and also of proof appearance. Identified as Lot 719 Max Mehl wrote in his auction description describing the coin, “The most beautiful specimen of this date $20.00 gold piece I have ever seen or that I can find record of. This coin was purchased by Dr. Green as a proof ….. The obverse is brilliant and equal to a brilliant proof. I classify it as a brilliant semi-proof, almost equal to a brilliant proof.”

Numismatic author and researcher, the late Karl Moulton, concluded that the subject 1850 $20 double eagle with its matching and similar auction descriptions and Dr. C.W. Green provenance was one and the same as that sold in the initial 1870 Longacre Estate Auction.

Although Breen in his Proof encyclopedia suggested there may have been up to three such specimens, the only other that is presently known is a proof $20 double eagle piece located in a Paris museum. Through U.S. Mint records that coin appears most certainly to not have been minted from the original dies at the time of the first minting of U.S. $20 gold pieces for circulation. Contemporary accounts confirm that by April of 1850 $20 double eagles were in circulation and there is a written reference to the first double eagles having been struck on March 12, 1850. This leads to confirmation that the Paris museum’s proof specimen which evidently came from an October 1850 minting of a “Set of Gold Master Coins” made initially for the U.S. Committee on the Library was not from the original dies. This leaves the subject 1850 $20 double eagle in the author’s possession as the only one of similar appearance that can be so attributed.

The above described similarity of appearance in successive auctions coupled with the identified ownership provenance gives credence to the subject coin having been the first 1850 $20 double eagle gold piece minted in the United States.

And of hopefully added interest - this is the 1850 Proof $20 Double Eagle referenced above that is in the Paris Museum:

Speaking of “heavy” gold:

This one will always be a personal favorite!

Heavy gold? Oh yeah!

Proof 64+ Deep Cameo CAC Ex Pittman