How widely were gold coins dispersed in the US

I'm still interested. Finding a gold coin is.... magical....for the lack of a better word......Like looking at a different time...when we were awake.

NASA TOM, It is that we are not interested, we just don,t know things like you do, ARE YOU THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLD?? , I love to read about this and send all my friends the info, they think i am smart, Don,t tell them. Please anytime you think of something about gold coins post it. Thanks Flintstone

steveg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NASA-Tom --
>
> I agree with TNdirtdigger...this is a great
> thread, and anything you have to say on this
> topic, I (and I'm sure others) am all ears. I am
> slowly reading through Bowers' United States Gold
> Coins: An Illustrated History right now, and it is
> absolutely fascinating...
>
> Steve

hey Steve,is it worth the $$?? Kuger said it is a great research tool for discovering sites in my area too. true??

deathray, I'm not TOO far into it, yet. It started out giving a history of gold discoveries in different places in the U.S., with lots of neat details. Now, I'm into the part where it's been talking about the different mints, when they were established, alot of the details that went into the particulars of each of the mints and what they did, how many coins they minted at the different branches in what years, and of what types, etc.

I haven't gotten to anything yet that would help "discover sites," but I'll let you know. But, if you have any fascination with U.S. gold/gold coins, then I think you would enjoy it very much.

Some nice prices here, if you are willing to go used/good condition...

[www.amazon.com]

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2014 02:13AM by steveg.

ozzie = "awake" is exacting.

steveg = I have dozens of highlighted sections in my copy/book that are of pinnacle importance to us detectorsts. Here are a few examples of what I have highlighted ... (((and you may want to do the same))):

Pg 192 Left column, 3rd paragraph: "During the 1849 - 1854 years in which the small diameter gold dollars................... the survival of Uncirculated coins.......... exceedingly elusive"

Pg 196 Right column, entire 2nd paragraph starting with "Type III gold dollars"

Pg 208 Right column, end of 1st paragraph starting with "Quarter eagles in the 1840's........ great rarities in Mint State. The same situation occurs for coins dated in the 1850's and early 1860's."

Pg 262 Right column, 3rd paragraph starting with "All half eagles of the 1840's are elusive in higher grades......... "

Pg 263 Right column, almost bottom of page: "As the coins did not circulate actively, well-worn half eagles of the period are distinctly less common........... "

Pg 267 very bottom of Left column: "after 1916...... nearly all of the pieces were withheld from circulation........ "

Pg 276 Right column half-way down: "Uncirculated eagles prior to 1880 are exceedingly rare."

These are just a few examples of what I 'queue/trigger' on. There are many additional dozens of examples pertaining to exactly to this 'type' of data in this Q. David Bowers book.

Good info Tom. Steve, I got your book mixed up with that $200 dollar one on California gold I mentioned earlier in this thread. Believe its same author.

Fascinating stuff. UNLIKE a coin collector, who is looking FOR data about how many "high-grade" coins exist in the market today, you are doing the opposite, taking information suggesting that VERY FEW high-grade coins of certain issues exist to mean that these issues were CIRCULATED heavily (and thus lost in greater numbers).

Very, very interesting...

Steve

deathray -- gotcha!

Steve

steveg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> deathray, I'm not TOO far into it, yet. It
> started out giving a history of gold discoveries
> in different places in the U.S., with lots of neat
> details. Now, I'm into the part where it's been
> talking about the different mints, when they were
> established, alot of the details that went into
> the particulars of each of the mints and what they
> did, how many coins they minted at the different
> branches in what years, and of what types, etc.
>
> I haven't gotten to anything yet that would help
> "discover sites," but I'll let you know. But, if
> you have any fascination with U.S. gold/gold
> coins, then I think you would enjoy it very much.
>
> Some nice prices here, if you are willing to go
> used/good condition...
>
> [www.amazon.com]
> ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&sr=
> &qid=
>
> Steve


Steve and Keith.... Thanks for the links!!! I've downloaded the freebies and will be placing an order for Bowers!!

Glad to help, TNdirtdigger!

Steve

Thanks for the info guys. I just got the Bowers book delivered today. It is very nice like new condition and I got it from Amazon for only fifteen bucks. Real good book. Lots of pictures too. At least if I never find a gold coin I will know what they look like.

bump

In doing some research, I just ran across a very interesting tidbit...

This is from an interview with an old Muskogee-Creek Indian, in Oklahoma in 1937, describing some memories he had of the Muskogee-Creek men in Oklahoma in the 1870s through the 1890s...

"They had plenty of gold coins for which they had no use, and much of this gold as it is told was often carefully wrapped and placed in small iron pots or copper pots and buried. More often these exact spots where the gold was buried was often forgotten by the old Indians. That is why so many people believe in buried treasure and it has been told by those actually experiencing it that is very difficult to unearth the buried treasures."

I found that tidbit fascinating...

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2014 01:03PM by steveg.

Iron pots around gold, hmmm....test time. Know any multi-millionaires, steveg? or can this test be scaled down with the same percentage gold to iron....

Nope, don't know any multi-millionaires, Ozzie! I do know this -- any large signal that might emanate from a pot (be it iron OR copper) would probably be one I'd pass off as being "too big," and thus "trash;" perhaps I need to re-think some things, at certain sites...

Steve

The story about the Indians burying coins is true! I was fortune enough to see half of a cache of gold and silver coins found in the 1970's where a prominent Choctaw Indian lived in the 1800's. I only got to see half because there was 2 people involved in the recovery. There was a total of $2520 face value of coins found, with dates from 1834 to 1881. The coins were wrapped and placed in some kind of a container like a bucket with only the bail remaining.

First off, 262jp, thanks for sharing that info...it completely supports what the old Muskogee-Creek Indian told the interviewer in that piece I posted. Glad to hear additional confirmation. AMAZING!

Secondly, $2520 face value? REALLY? Let's assume $1000 of that face value was in gold dollars, and lets assume each was in decent shape (probably they were better than that). That would make each one worth a very, very conservative $150 -- meaning, $150,000 (not even counting the silver!!!) And many of them would be worth CONSIDERABLY more...

That's, ahem, quite a find, to put it mildly...

What in the world would someone do if they found that? If I were to find something like that, I don't know what I'd do. Once someone passed the smelling salts in front of my nose, and I woke up and the shock wore off, then my next thought would be...NOW what? Seems that there would be lots of people "interested" in this...i.e. IRS, law enforcement, etc...

Whatever the case, THANKS for sharing the story. Just AMAZING and it's what we all dream of...

Steve

A long time ago, back when I had a White's XLT ......... I did a cache test with it. I took a mason jar with brass lid and filled it up with modern clad, pennies, dimes, nickels and quarters. I dug a hole in the middle of a recently plowed wheat field, I could only bury it about a foot deep as the ground was hardpan beyond the plowed up dirt. I could get the coil about 2 feet above the ground before I lost the signal in motion disc. mode. Guess what the taget ID read? I'll give you three guess's but the first two don't count. OK .......It read Dollar on the meter. Gold coins in an old iron pot in my best guess would read pulltab or zinc penny on a metered detector unless the 360 degree iron wrap around effect moved it to a +95 on the XLT meter, regardless I do not have the gold coins to test with, anybody want to loan me some?

If I ever found such a large cache, I would not tell a soul about it, ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!! Look out Ebay, one coin at a time on the auction block so as to not arouse suspicion.

CIRCULATED ?????



For high resolution image [www.dankowskidetectors.com]

Circulated? Yes, but an AWESOME group of coins! Are those all coins that you dug? I've never even SEEN the two on the bottom -- the 1786, and the 1787(6)...

WOW!

Steve

Based on the size of the $1 gold coin, I've always believed most that were minted, were lost.
And BTW, it reads nickle on the CZ 3D, at least on mine.

2 of them circulated well..

Did not Know you had dug a Dollar gold piece Tom..just knew of the 2.50 .. did you recently dig it..

Keith

I think you have it backwards Keith, he found the $1, and is still looking for the $2.50...(like most of us!)

Aaron

Aaron He found the 2.50 quarter eagle at Fort Meade..

Quote
the highlight of any detectorists career; a United States gold coin. (((This is the only gold coin I have ever found in my entire life...and certainly is the pinnacle of my detecting career, thus far))). It is a U.S. 2-1/2 dollar "Quarter Eagle", 1843, small-date variety, crosslet '4', 'O' mintmark (New Orleans), die-break mint error. It was lost approx Dec 17, 1849.

End Quote

I was just wondering if He had found a 1 dollar gold piece...

Keith

Opps, yes, your right sorry, can't believe I got that mixed up. However that's his only gold coin he's found.

Funny thing is he'd rather of found the $1 coin because it's harder to find....go figure.

Aaron

Well every coin in the pic is a gold coin except the 1968 Lincoln Penny...

looks like 1/2 esudo and 1 escudo and a couple of 5 dollar libery heads to go along wiht His 2.50 and the 1.00 dollar..

I was wondering If he had found his dream coin of 1.00 gold piece that's all..

But yet Im trying to analyze what he is showing us....is he saying these are the ones that circulated the most in the U.S. and the ones we are most likely to find ?

One thing for sure noctice how small the ones that are shown compared to the penny.

We have a task on our hands trying to wiggle any of those out of a site especially the 1.00 and the 1/2 escudo..

Wonder where I will find my gold piece at?

I know a guy who got into some of those late 1700's Escudo's over in South Carolina out in the middle of nowhere next to a modern road...they were scattered around about 5 or 6 of those and the soem reale's....and aprt of a old coin purse frame..

I know where 4 of the 5 dollar gold pieces came form about 3 miles form my house ...behind a barber shop....all dated 1861and looked mint..

Never know..

Keith

Keith wrote: But yet Im trying to analyze what he is showing us....is he saying these are the ones that circulated the most in the U.S. and the ones we are most likely to find ?

I'm wondering too....

I'm not positive but I don't think that's the $2.50 piece that he found as that one as I recall is in a lot better condition and he has it mounted in his Ft Meade relic case.

It's amazing to think how many of those tiny gold coins must still be among all the aluminum in some of the real old parks. If only we could discriminate between gold and aluminum.

I have heard from reliable sources MINELAB is working on that....

Hey Aaron I like the Idea of High resolution in the pulltab spectrum...for better chances..But Im thinking purely on the way it works in ferrous Vs non ferrous...maybe not worth doing in the Non ferrous range especially aluminum conductance..

Yes Tom at time's gives us Riddles to decipher,, LOL!!

One other thing is notice the escudo's are dug I guess??? maybe?? notice the different luster..Almost closer in tone to the $1.00 than the other U.S. pieces..Yet the most yellow of them all is the escudo's...




Keith



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2014 10:12PM by Keith Southern.

Hi,, one would assume the picture is showing a size comparison in relation to the size of a U.S. penny....JJ

If a picture paints a thousand words.......... I attempted to make this one worth at least ten-thousand words....... in all sincerity. MANY multi-faceted data-points to glean. Study the photo well. Educational tuition critical to us detectorists. Since a gold coin is THE pinnacle/nirvana 'unit of measurement' for all human-kind.... and throughout the history of 'intelligent' human continuum........ the representative data herein..... paints a significant intel-picture. If you go back..... say 2500 years...... and hand a gold coin to anyone.... "in the world"............. it 'represented'. Today..... the value/meaning 'represents' the (significant) same.

First................ so everyone is on the same page............. 'click' on the link. This will bring you to a high-resolution full-screen photo. Then........... move your mouse/cursor over a very specific spot on a specific coin......... and 'click' again.

The exceptionally high resolution will allow you to see that NOT ONE of these coins grades better than VF-20. (This should tell you something). Some of them are a low (well circulated) grade of G-4.

Every one of these coins are regular United States coins.......... and well circulated. Yes, two of them are minted in Mexico; yet, were regular United States currency. (Same with Reales. A 1/2-Reale was always a Half-Dime/5-Cents.... a 1-Reale = a Dime. Never look at them as 'foreign currency'. They were not. Our U.S. mint did not come up to full speed ..... until the 1820's/1830's.)

The Quarter Eagle is 1853.
Pay attention to the ,,,,, year vs wear,,,,, ratio. It's quite 'era' representative. Good data.

A 1/2-Escudo is a regular $1 dollar coin. 1-Escudo is $2.00. (And spent as such).

Paper money was hated, untrusted, refused...... rarely used.

Once again; study the photo. Hunt intelligently. Hunt accordingly!