1776-1976 One Dollar

Just a random question, were the gold dollars produced for circulation?

Yes, if I'm not mistaken, they circulated more in cities, rather than rural areas, while the silver dollars more in less populated areas.

Well, it's been called precious for thousands of years. But was it precious in America during the time? Maybe? People did hoard their gold so it is likely. Oh, and don't forget the gold rush. People would not have mined it if it was not valuable/precious. I don't know though.

angelo35's avatar looks like a three dollar princes to me.
John1

Back in the day silver dollars and most gold coins were produced for three reasons: First as a circulation device in commerce, second as a way to store value and third as a way to monetize the metals provided to the Mint. Gold coins did circulate, but not a lot. It was used mostly to provide backing for paper money, certificates and deposits. Silver Dollar coins were also used for this but took up a lot more room for the same value.

One could provide a supply of gold or silver to the Mint and they would mint it into the coins of the day for you on demand. (Whether they minted the actual metal and returned it to you in coin or just swapped your raw metal for their coins I do not know.)

Gold Dollars were kind of the ugly stepchild of coinage. They were more often used as a decorative device mounted in jewelry. They stopped making them before the end of the 19th century (around 1880 or so...) so they haven't been made in 120 or 130 years.

Other small gold coins circulated in small quantities until the Depression years when the government took gold out of circulation. Silver coins ruled the roost in the 20th century until the 60's when silver became more valuable as bullion than coins and it was replaced. Silver dollars however were never real popular in commerce due to the heavy size and weight as well as the fact that a pair of Half Dollars or 4 quarters were more flexible to carry and use for about the same weight. This was when a dollar could buy 10 times what it could today. Even now when a dollar is worth what a Dime was just 60 years ago the dollar coin is rarely if ever used, even after several attempts to promote it with reduced size and different designs.

I don't touch Redbooks at all, as they are terribly inaccurate since silver price and gold prices change, and so do coin values. I usually take Coins Magazine, graysheet, and PCGS price guide (app) and essentially take a couple dollars off the price.

As pricing guides they are poor, but it contains a ton of other good information of use to a new collector and I would recommend getting one. (And since the prices aren't that accurate anyway, save some money and buy one that's a years or two old. You can get a 2014 edition on abebooks.com for under $4 with free shipping.)