5 Dollar Half Eagle

[bruce61813]

I have to share this with every one, as it is only passing  through my hands. It is a 5 Dollar gold piece from 1880.

Name: Half Eagle - variety 2; Obv: 1880; Rev: ?UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?FIVE D.? ; Country: USA
Minted: 1880 P ; Material: .900 Gold ; Denomination: Half Eagle - $5.00 ; Condition: AU-50/55
Artist: Christian Gobrecht ; Issued: 1880 Value: $205 - 215
Size mm: 21.6 , Weight gms: 8.359 [.2417 ounces of .900 gold, current melt value is $145.17]

well at least it was mine  - for a little while!

Bruce

[Figleaf]

Great stuff. In 1880

- Rutherford Hayes was president and the telephone and the typewriter were admitted to the White House for the first time.
- William Cody was 34 and trying to put together a travelling circus of frontiermen and indians called "Buffalo Bill's Wild West"
- Harriet Tubman was 58 and smuggling escaped slaves to Canada on the "underground railroad"
- Joshua Norton, a.k.a. Emperor Norton I was 61 and died on the streets of San Francisco. His currency is very popular among collectors
- The first university in California, the University of Southern California was founded
- Thomas Edison was 33 and experimenting with trains driven by electricity
- The first electric street lamp was installed in Wabash, Indiana

The coin could have been anywhere and handled by (almost) any one of them.

Peter

[brandm24]

I thought it was time for an update after nearly 14 years. Things have changed a bit.

Condition AU-50 / 55 ---  (current value:$716 to $740)       (2007 value:$205 to $215)

Current melt value --- $459.78     (2007 melt value: $145.17).

Happy New Year!

Bruce

[Figleaf]

Things will change again soon. Apparently, the "value" of this coin is influenced by the gold price. That means that there is a point where melt value will be larger than numismatic value. At that point, it will become worthwhile to consider melting this piece of history for its gold content.

It is easy to see that this point will not be reached any time soon for this coin. Gold is sensitive to uncertainty and threat of war. Uncertainty is receding with the end of the pandemic seemingly under control and the extremists leaving the White House. There is still a big gap between economists - who predict a recession - and financial market sentiment - pricing in a boom - but since most Americans are little or not exposed to financial markets, that doesn't add much to uncertainty. All in all, the case for gold going down is quite a bit stronger than the case for gold remaining stable or going up.

That's cold comfort for gold coins in a lesser grade. They will still be endangered by greed. Only collectors can save them from the heat. That also means that if you drop this coin just once, its melting point is lowered dangerously.

Peter