Gold coins will always attract collectors.
The metal is a byword for rarity and value.
It’s such an established connection it infuses our everyday language - gold standard, golden years, and of course, worth its weight in gold.
The coins on this list are worth much more than their weight in gold.
Though, the intrinsic value of so-called bullion coins - their value as raw gold - is the attraction to buyers of many modern gold coins.
Gold has made the world go round, and the California gold rush was substantial enough to have a big effect on the production of gold coins.
Those are issued by mints with gold investors and collectors in mind. It’s unlikely that they will ever achieve the sort of values we see in this list because they are unlikely to ever become as rare as these coins.
Most of these coins were issued when gold was a currency and coins were struck in the metal.
Gold lasts well, but it also rather prone to damage (it’s rather soft for a metal and can be dented or scratched).
That means good condition is an extra premium for these coins.
And not all of the world’s most valuable coins are gold. Many are silver - rare silver dollars notably - and we will return to that metal in future.
Here though are the 10 most valuable gold coins:
1. 1933 US Double Eagle
Sold for $18,9000 at Sotheby’s in 2021.
That worn nose on this unissued coin is a good measure of how fragile gold can be.
So much could be said about this coin. It was struck in 1933, just as the US abandoned circulating gold coinage and demanded the return of much of what was in circulation.
The Double Eagles were never issued. Two examples were kept in museum collections and the rest should have been destroyed.
A stray example found its way into the collection of King Farouk of Egypt and then to this sale, with a unique certificate from the US Government monetizing it, issuing it, and allowing its sale to a private individual.
The coin is often called “the most famous coin in history” and is described as “effectively unique.”
2. 1787 US Brasher Doubloon
Sold for $9,360,000 by Heritage Auctions in 2021.
The Brasher Doubloon is one of the best-known of all rare gold coins, many a fictional murder and heist has been committed in its name.
If books could be written about our number 1 coin, books have been written about the Brasher Doubloon. And filmed, notably Raymond Chandler’s The High Window.
Brasher Doubloons are a remnant of the uncertainty that comes with the foundation of a new state, the United States of America.
They were minted privately by Ephraim Brasher in New York and exist in a number of forms.
A doubloon is a name of Spanish origin (coins from several states were honoured in the early US) meaning “double”.
Brasher doubloons played somewhat fast and loose with that term, but his work was good and his coins used.
However, they are extremely rare today. This is one of seven with an EB stamp on the wing of the eagle.
3. 1822 US Half Eagle
Sold for $8,400,000 by Stacks Bowers in 2021.
It's very apparent that this is an old, and somewhat well-used coin, though that doesn't affect its rarity and value.
Just three of these coins are known to exist from an initial mintage of 17,796.
Gold coins do have a vulnerability. Economic ebbs and flows can make the raw material more valuable than the coin. And so, many are melted down.
However, the particular rarity of the 1822 Half Eagle (a $5 face-value coin) is something of a mystery that may be down to irregular dating practices in the US mint.
Three coins survive. Two are in museum collections. And that’s why an unnamed individual paid over $8 million for the last one in the wild.
4. 1787 US Brasher Doubloon
Sold privately for $7,395,000.
The EB mark is central here, making this an even rarer version of a hugely rare coin.
Brasher again.
There are seven known Brasher doubloons. Six have the stamp of Brasher’s initials on the eagle’s wing. One on the eagles breast.
This is the second type and it was sold privately to an investment firm.
They probably did well out of the deal.
5. 1861 US Paquet Liberty Head double eagle
Sold for $7,200,000 in 2021 by Heritage Auctions.
You can clearly see that Anthony Paquet was an excellent engraver, but his 1861 redesign of the Double Eagle produced a string of very rare coins as he tried to get it just right.
You’ll see that 2021 was a good year for very high end coin sales. The pandemic may have influenced those prices.
But the Paquet Liberty Head double eagle (face value $20) is a star collector’s coin in any era.
It’s another mistake, and the name Paquet memorialises US Mint Assistant Engraver Anthony C Paquet.
His redesign of the reverse of the coin had a rim that was too low to protect the coin’s main design.
It was withdrawn, but not before the San Francisco Mint (the US has had several coin producing mints) had produced quite a large issue.
In fact, Paquet’s design produced a large, quite confusing and still disputed set of sought-after rarities, many of which are extremely valuable.
Including this example, that once sold for $37, and was in the collection of King Farouk for a time.
6. 723 Umayyad Caliphate Gold Dinar
Sold for $6,029,400 by Morten & Eden in 2011.
Perhaps it's surprising that only one of rarest gold coins is particularly old. This dinar is obviously extremely fine and it has huge historical significance.
Most of our most valuable gold coins are American and relatively recent.
Just about in living memory in one case.
Not so the 723 AD Dinar sold for over $6 million in 2011.
The coin is probably one of around 12 to survive, and it is the first issued by an Islamic dynasty, the first to name a Saudi Arabian place, and the oldest coin from the Gulf. It is possible it was made with gold from a mine linked to Prophet Muhammad.
So it carries a heavy weight of religious and historical significance.
7. 1787 US Brasher Doubloon
Sold for $5,280,000 by Heritage Auctions in 2019
Brasher didn't make this coin, featuring the British king George I, but he assessed its weight and purity before putting his distinctive stamp on it.
Another Brasher, this one with the EB on the eagle’s wing.
Brasher got his start as an assayer, and was George Washington’s next-door neighbour for a while.
His coinage has made his name one of the longest lasting of the American Revolutionary era.
8. 1804 US Proof Eagle
Sold for $5,280,000 by Heritage Auctions in 2021
A very special gift from one state to another. The whereabouts of this coin's fellows would be big news in the numismatic world.
Collectors can be somewhat sniffy about limited editions, but this special issue was called “one of the rarest and most valuable issues in the history of American coinage,” at its sale in 2021.
In 1804, the US was a young country. And it wanted friends. This coin was struck as a special gift for overseas rulers who US diplomat Edmund Roberts hoped to dazzle into signing favourable trade deals.
Two full sets of US coins were given to the Sultan of Muscat and the King of Siam before Roberts died en-route to China and Japan.
The example sold in 2021 was that which belonged to the Sultan of Muscat, whose country was not kindly treated by the tides of history and whose coins were sold off at some point.
Buying rare, historic gold coins today
We hold significant numbers of important gold coins.