Collecting U.S. Gold Coins

The lure of gold has captured the imagination for centuries and for the coin enthusiast, your stash of gold is probably the pinnacle of your coin collection. And even beyond that, the most sought after gold coin is the $20 Gold Double Eagle designed by Augustus St Gaudens and minted between 1907 and 1933.

Many people consider St Gaudens $20 gold coins to be the most beautiful coins ever minted in the United States and some consider them to be the most beautiful coin ever minted, period. President Theodore Roosevelt admired ancient Greek coinage and wanted to bring the beauty he saw in those coins to US coinage. He contacted artist and sculptor Agustus St Gaudens to redesign the $10 and $20 gold coins and the design St Gaudens came up with for the $20 gold piece was that of Lady Liberty on the obverse and a flying bald eagle on the reverse. The classic St Gaudens Double Eagle gold coin was born.

The first of these coins had an extremely high relief and the Chief Engraver of the US Mint detested the coins because the high relief design required a long minting process that turned out to be very expensive. Thus only 11,250 of these special coins were ever struck making them extremely valuable. Starting bids for these coins are in the range of $20,000 to $30,000 on eBay and go up from there.

Aside from these extremely rare versions of the St Gaudens Double Eagle, anyone who is interested in coin collecting can obtain one of these beauties starting for about $750 on eBay or from a private collector. And then you too can say you own what is considered by some as the most beautiful gold coin in the world. US Gold Coin Auctions