Description
American Gold Eagles – The worlds most popular gold coin!
Since the introduction of the American Gold Eagle in 1986 it has become the bullion coin of choice for investors worldwide.
The Gold American Eagle coin is guaranteed by the United States government as to its weight, gold content and purity. This guarantee offers worldwide liquidity and makes this coin the first choice for gold investors. You can even include American Gold Eagles in your IRA.
The obverse design is a rendition of the classic $20 Saint-Gaudens gold coin. The Reverse is a beautiful portrait of a bald eagle returning to her hatchlings. The design is by Miley Busiek.
The American Gold Eagle is made of 22-karat gold that has been mined in America.
The Gold Eagle 1oz coin is composed of 91.67% gold, 3% silver and 5.33% copper. These alloys make the gold much more scratch resistent than 24 karat gold. The American Gold Eagle still contains 1/10 troy ounce of gold. These qualities allow the American Gold Eagles to be stored in convenient treasury coin tubes in a very small space.
Genuine Legal Tender
Each American Gold Eagle coin bears a $5 face value and the inscriptions–
1/10 oz Fine Gold, E Pluribus Unum, and In God We Trust.
American Gold Eagles – The worlds most popular gold coin!
Since the introduction of the American Gold Eagle in 1986 it has become the bullion coin of choice for investors worldwide.
The Gold American Eagle coin is guaranteed by the United States government as to its weight, gold content and purity. This guarantee offers worldwide liquidity and makes this coin the first choice for gold investors. You can even include American Gold Eagles in your IRA.
The obverse design is a rendition of the classic $20 Saint-Gaudens gold coin. The Reverse is a beautiful portrait of a bald eagle returning to her hatchlings. The design is by Miley Busiek.
The American Gold Eagle is made of 22-karat gold that has been mined in America.
The Gold Eagle 1oz coin is composed of 91.67% gold, 3% silver and 5.33% copper. These alloys make the gold much more scratch resistant than 24 karat gold. The American Gold Eagle still contains 1 full troy ounce of gold. The coin itself actually weighs 1.0909 ounces, with the extra weight in silver and copper.
These qualities allow the American Gold Eagles to be stored in convenient treasury coin tubes in a very small space. Genuine Legal Tender, Each American Gold Eagle coin bears a $50 face value and the inscriptions 1oz Fine Gold, E Pluribus Unum, and In God We Trust.
The Early Production Process
First, in a process that takes about 36 hours total, an artist created a negative design 10 ½” in diameter from the design intended for the coin. They then created a positive of that image, which they carved and added to by hand. A negative mold was cast again, and then a hard epoxy (strong protective surface) was cast that allows the sharpest details to be transferred. This epoxy version was then placed on a reducing machine called a pantograph which makes an exact copy of the design only it’s reduced to 1 ½” in diameter. This was called the master hub, and it was then heated to make it harder. This master hub was used to create a die, a concave version of the image. A hub, as in master hub, is a raised image. Think of them as stamps.
An engraving machine then added the date and lettering to the design. This was reduced again to the final size of the coin, made of high-grade steel. This was called the punch, and it was what got inserted into the coin press. Several different versions of the design were pressed until one was approved for production.
Current Production Process
American mined gold and gold scraps from previous Gold Eagles are put into a casting furnace heated to 2,100° F. The melted gold is then formed into a solid long bar that is cut into segments 30” long. These bars are then put into a machine that uses over nine tons of pressure to flatten them. They are passed through this machine 12 times until the bars are only ½” thick. They are now called fillets.
A finishing mill then flattens the fillets even more until they reach their final thickness of either 3/100” or 2/10” depending on the denomination. These blank coins then go into a rimming machine that creates the raised rim. They are then cleaned in a tub filled with water, a cleaning solution, and steel beads, which also smoothes and polishes them. After 20 minutes in this tub they are sifted to separate the blank coins from the steel beads, then hand-dried.
After being heated so many times, the coins can sometimes become brittle, enough so that they could break, so they are put into a furnace that heats them to a specific temperature allowing the gold to soften and re-crystallize. The blank coins are gradually cooled after this. Finally, they are ready for the coin press. The press has a hub and a die, one for each side of the coin. Each side is pressed simultaneously, and this is done twice to assure the highest possible quality and detail.
And there you have it – the American Gold Eagle Bullion Coin has been pressed!
Source: American Hard Assets Magazine
