Gold Coin Subsets, 1933 Double Eagles, America the Beautiful

Welcome to Something About Coins! Popular topics on the web right now are collectible gold coin subsets, U.S. Mint deadlines, 1933 Saint-Gaudens, and more.

In Doug Winter's market blog today, Winter describes four possible subsets as alternatives to very expensive or difficult complete gold coin sets. He provides tips and talks about key issues, values, and grade ranges. The four subsets he discusses are the Civil War era gold coins, the 1840-1849 no motto Philadelphia Half Eagles & Eagles, the Type One Philadelphia Double Eagles of the 1850s, and the three decades of Half Eagles, Eagles and Double Eagles from the Carson City Mint.

Steven Roach covers rare $20 Double Eagle gold coins in his article and considers a few variables possibly effecting values, such as the spot price of gold, European bank hoards, and the 10 Langbord 1933 Saint-Gaudens that are tied up in the government's lawsuit. In sum, he says if the Langbord coins happened to enter the market, then the Farouk coin would not be unique. For late date Double Eagles, there's still a chance that more rare examples exist "undiscovered" in European bank hoards. Finally, there was a 1927-S Double Eagle graded MS-66 by NGC that sold for $109,250 in October, and there is a 1907 Double Eagle graded PR-58 by NGC that will be auctioned Nov. 10 by Stack's.

Speaking of the 10 Langbord 1933 $20 gold coins, David L. Ganz posted an article over the weekend about the current lawsuit and history of previous government rulings on other 1933 $20 coins. Apparently, each coin could be traced back to George A. McCann, a former Philadelphia Mint cashier, who passed them to Philadelphia coin dealers Israel Switt & Edward Silver. The case of King Farouk's coin is examined, since that coin was legalized, but in the other cases, the court upheld the government's seizure of the coins. The other cases discussed include U.S. vs. Barnard and the case involving James A. Stack and the Secret Service Agent Harry Strang. The article goes on to describe in the current fight, the government wants the court to declare the government is the rightful owner of all 1933 $20 coins, except the Farouk specimen, and try to prevent further litigation. Within the government's current civil forfeiture complaint, the government named "John Does 1,2, and 3" in the language. Ganz then showed how it is unlikely that the court will rule in favor of a final judgment against a "John Doe." Ganz also suspects the government believes more 1933 $20 gold coins may exist.

Now, here's a little on modern coins. CoinCollectingNews.org did an article about the designs for the first five quarters and silver bullion coins in the upcoming America the Beautiful series. Two organizations, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), have submitted their recommendations and input, as part of the design selection process. The recommended designs are posted in the article along with a few quotes and change requests. By the way, the other players in the selecting process include the Secretary of the Interior, the chief executive of each host location, the Director of the Mint, and the Secretary of the Treasury.

One last note, WorldMintCoins.com wrote an article about the last day to purchase several coins from the U.S. Mint. Last week I blogged that the deadline for the Louis Braille Silver Dollars will be Dec. 11. Other deadlines will be Dec. 3 for the First Spouse gold Van Buren Liberty coins and Dec. 31st for the Presidential $1 Thomas Jefferson and James Madison coins.

See you tomorrow!