In the brief twenty-three year period since its introduction, the American Gold Eagle has become the most widely traded gold bullion coin in the world, continuing gold’s five thousand year history of desirability and value. As a further testament to the American government’s belief in the soundness of these coins and their suitability as investments, American Gold Eagles were the only gold items of any kind allowed to fund Individual Retirement Accounts (i.e., IRAs) prior to 1997. Security, history, beauty: the American Gold Eagle.
The American Gold Eagle is the only bullion coin in the world whose purity is guaranteed by the government of the United States. It stands at the summit of a two hundred year history of American gold coinage. The American Gold Eagle program began with the Gold Bullion Act of 1985 which led directly to the production of the first American Gold Eagles in 1986. As stipulated by law, American Gold Eagles are composed of gold mined solely in the United States with a purity of 91.67% or 22k, the three hundred and fifty year standard for gold bullion coins. They are available in the following denominations: the $50 coin, containing one troy ounce of pure gold and measuring 32.7 mm in diameter; the $25 coin, containing one half troy ounce of pure gold and measuring 27mm in diameter; the $10 coin, containing one quarter troy ounce of pure gold and measuring 22mm in diameter; and, finally, the $5 coin, containing one tenth troy ounce of pure gold and measuring 16.5mm in diameter. All four denominations share the same overall design, only differing in their stated face values and weights. The obverse, or front of the coins, descends directly from the most beautiful coin in US history: the 1907 Double Eagle designed by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and chosen by Theodore Roosevelt to symbolize his sense of the United States as an emerging power in the world. Lady Liberty is depicted striding toward the viewer from out of a rising sun, hair flowing, with a torch in her right hand and an olive branch in her left. The inscription “Liberty” is boldly struck above her head. The reverse, or back of the coins, features a new design created by the sculptor Miley Busiek in 1986 expressly for the American Gold Eagle. In her depiction, a male bald eagle with an olive branch in its talons flies towards the nest of his mate and their hatchlings and over the inscriptions E Pluribus Unum and In God We Trust. As symbolic pieces of numismatic art, these coins excel at representing our country and the ideals upon which it was founded.