In 1986, the United States Mint offered the first of its Brilliant Uncirculated American Gold Eagle Coins. Boasting a Liberty design plucked from the history books of American coinage, the American Gold Eagle has become one of the world’s best-selling gold coins.
From the very beginning in 1986, the United States Mint has made the BU American Gold Eagle available to investors in one of four weights. These weights include 1 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, and 1/10 oz gold coins. Though the US Mint would go on to later introduce proof and burnished versions of the coin for collectors, these four BU gold coins remain the most popular in the series.
Each coin in the Uncirculated American Gold Eagle Series boasts 22-karat gold content. The modern gold alloy the United States Mint uses for the composition of its American Gold Eagles consists of 91.67% gold, 5.33% copper, and 3% silver. The coins have the following legal tender face values assigned:
The Uncirculated Gold Eagles are struck by the United States Mint to meet demand each year, with no mintage caps set in any given year. With that said, economic factors and investor demand are the biggest drivers for the mintage of the coins. Generally speaking, rough economic times during the last four decades have played a big role in determining whether demand is up or down for these coins. As an example, the Y2K period during the late 1990s and the early years of the Great Recession provided two of the biggest boosts in demand for Uncirculated Gold Eagles in the program’s history.
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