Commems Collection Modern: 1997 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Half Eagle

Great read, thanks for sharing.
Looking forward to the next installment.

Great write up on this coin, one with a twisted history with me. I had purchased from the mint the uncurculated gold in 1997. Then I was in a financial bind and sold it in 2011 for $850 during the last gold spike. Ironically I purchased another on last year for $335. It is odd how the price for this coin could very so much in four years.

Do you, by chance, have links to all your posts? I only collect classic silver and I'd hate to have missed some of your fantastic posts.

Excellent, excellent post.

Maybe one day I can budget for some gold. I would have liked an FDR dollar and/or half dollar offering, but I think my FDR C&C makes up for their absence.

Click here. Not necessarily cleaner, but quicker.

Another nice post commems

Great pictures ... of a great looking coin.

Someday I would like to pickup some commemorative gold.
If I ever get caught on other coins I need ...

While I agree that, on the surface, the decision seems ironic, I believe it is far less ironic once FDR's Executive Order 6102 is more fully understood.

Why? The Order did not prohibit the ownership of gold, it prohibited "the withdrawal and withholding of gold coin, gold bullion or gold certificates from the recognized and customary channels of trade." In the Order, such withholding was referred to as "hoarding" and this was what FDR was looking to discontinue (for reasons too complex to go into here).

The Order included multiple exemptions. One was for "legitimate and customary use in industry, profession or art" another was for gold that had been imported for the purpose of re-exporting; there were others.

Individuals without demonstrated business needs for gold were allowed to hold onto up to $100 worth of gold coins, gold bullion and/or gold certificates. Exempt from the Order were "gold coins having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins." So, if a case could be made that a gold coin was "collectible," it was exempt from the requirement to turn it in.

With FDR putting a specific exemption to save collectible gold coins in his Order, the decision to mint his commemorative coin in gold seems (to me) to be more the natural and ideal choice vs. an ironic selection. With the possible exception of Richard Nixon who took the US off the gold standard in 1971 and Gerald Ford who lifted the ban on gold ownership in 1974, which US president comes first to mind when you think of gold?

Also, the Order did not specify that payments for gold turned in needed to be made via paper money. The Order specified that payments were to be made in "an equivalent amount of any other form of coin or currency coined or issued under the laws of the United States." As such, a person turning in gold coins/bullion/certificates could ask for their payment to be made in silver dollars (or some other silver denomination) if they wanted precious metal in return.