Buying and selling gold bullion or bullion coins is easy whereas you multiply the price of gold by the weight of the bar and add a percentage for markup.
Buying and selling gold coins is an entirely different game. Gold collectors coins are valued differently depending on supply and demand, year, or condition.
If you came here looking for advice on gold coins, check out the information below to get a better idea on how to find out how much your coins are worth.
Table of Contents
Rare Coins By Date
The first gold coin minted in the US was the Golden Eagle and had a value of $10.00. There were other denominations minted after, but in 1933 then President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it illegal for the general public to own gold in the form of coins, bullion, or gold certificates. He did so after the stock market crash of 1929 in an effort to keep the banks from going under.
Melting down the gold coins from that time period makes any remaining from that time period very rare. The 1933 Double Eagle is the most valuable gold coin ever auctioned with a face value of $10.00. The coin had never been circulated and sold for a reported $18.9 million dollars at Sotheby’s.
The Mint Mark
Each coin produced will have a mark on it to tell you where it was made. Depending on where it was minted, and how many were made will affect the price of your coin. Most US coins have the mint mark on the obverse, or front of the coin from 1968 forward. If the coin was minted before 1968 it is likely that the mint mark is reversed, or back of the coin. The exception would be if it were minted in Philadelphia, and then there would be no mint mark at all.
Coin Sets
One of the more popular buys for gold coin sets is the American Gold Eagle. They were first minted in 1986 by the United States Mint and were made in both “business-strike” and proof for investors and collectors. Business-strike is mainly for gold bullion, but both business-strike and proof sets are sought for collections by numismatists.
Condition
The grading scale for the US is based on a total of 70 points. There are points with a point subtracted for each defect detected. This is referred to as the Sheldon Scale. There are still some companies that prefer to grade on the 1-100 scale, but that is largely obsolete. Your coin will obtain a score from poor which is good enough to tell what it is, to choice or uncirculated, meaning it looks basically like it was just minted.
Contact A Professional
There is such a vast amount of information on coin collecting. Do some research on the subject by searching for “gold coins” online. Reading up on the subject before going to a professional will bring you up to speed on some of the terms used and give a better idea of what you have. As always, make sure that you are dealing with a reputable coin dealer.
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