Double eagles were so named because the largest
U.S. coin until the time of the California gold
rush was a $10 face value (approximately ½ troy
ounce) gold Eagle. When Congress in 1849 authorized
the large $20 gold piece to efficiently coin
the bonanza of gold coming from the California
gold fields, it naturally came to be called the ‘double’ eagle.
Later gold discoveries in Nevada, Arizona,
Colorado, and Alaska caused hundreds of millions
of ounces of gold to be coined at the U.S. Mints
into these large double eagles. Gold double eagles
are the wealth born of the Old West gold mining
days. For the world, the U.S. $20 gold double
eagle symbolized the vast riches of the United
States in the second half of the 1800s.
These coins have always represented a lot of
money. In 1900, a double eagle $20 gold coin
was more than the average week’s wages
for most people.
To demonstrate the purchasing
power of a double eagle, imagine a weekend in
New York City in 1900. A night’s stay
at the Plaza Hotel cost $1.50,
a lunch of
a beer and a sandwich was a nickel, theatre
tickets on Broadway might cost you 35c, and
a five-course dinner at the finest restaurant
in the city,
Delmonico's, would set you back all of 75 cents.
In other words, you would have a hard time spending
the whole twenty dollars while splurging on
a first-class weekend in New York!
We bring you affordable, lightly circulated
gold money from the era when a dollar was a dollar.
And because these are not flawless, museum-quality
specimens, you can carefully handle and enjoy
these gold treasures. Feel free to hold them
in your hand – that’s the feel of
real gold, a treasure you can hold and possess
as have only a fortunate for thousands of years…
If you had a stack of these one hundred years
ago, you had quite a treasure! And the same is
true today. Although our population has increased,
and our national wealth is higher, there still
exists only a limited supply of these old $20
gold pieces – just as there is a limited
supply of gold!
When you purchase these gold double eagles,
your acquisition will resemble a treasure that
was put away generations ago. The historic Liberty
Head design (designed by James B Longacre, who
also designed the Flying Eagle and Indian Cents)
was last struck in 1907, so all the coins we
offer here are products of the San Francisco
and Philadelphia mints from 1877 to 1907. Not
only do you have a substantial gold value (each
double eagle by law contained .9675 ounces of
pure gold), but you also have a direct connection
to the romance of the western gold discoveries,
from the ‘49ers in old California to Alaska
in 1898. The gold double eagle is a piece of
America’s historic wealth that you can
hold in your hand.
These U.S. double eagles make very welcome
gifts. They have a monetary value, a value in
gold, and they hold the power of timelessness.
These gold coins come to us from generations
ago, and will become part of your family heritage
for generations in the future. There is an undeniable
magic in the act of handing these old coins over
to your children, grandchildren, and heirs. As
material gifts go, there is no better gift than
the gift of gold. And giving these historic double
eagles makes the presentation even more memorable – exciting
for the recipient, and flattering to the giver.
There are power, intrigue, and mystery surrounding
these old coins:
Where did this fortune in gold come from? How
did these large gold coins survive all these
years? Where were these gold double eagles hidden
when gold was called in, back in 1933? What is
the future of this treasure for my family and
heirs?
Today, in the 21st Century, you still have
the opportunity, at a reasonable price, to convert
part of your own wealth into a permanent and
portable gold legacy of 19th century gold coins.
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