Commems Collection Modern: American Gold Eagle Program / An Unusual Proposal In 1981

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commems CCF Master Historian of USA Commemoratives United States 12349 Posts	Posted 07/16/2026 11:27 am Check out my post on the seeds of the American Gold Eagle bullion coin program here: American Gold Eagle Program / First Steps in 1980. The initial legislative follow-up to the 1980 letter by Representatives Henry Schoellkopf Reuss (D-WI) and Frank Annunzio (D-IL) addressed to the United States ("US") Secretary of the Treasury (see link above) was the bill introduced in June 1981, during the First Session of the 97th Congress. The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives ("House") by Daniel Bever Crane (R-IL) for himself and Ronald Ernest Paul (R-TX). It was a gold bullion coin bill, but did not term any of its proposed coins as an "Eagle". IMO, it was a complicated and cumbersome piece of legislation that would have been very difficult to implement! The proposed bill would have authorized the minting of United States gold coins and was to be cited as the "Free Market Gold Coinage Act". The bill specified that "It shall be the policy of the United States to promote the free coinage of gold at a free market price." The US was to be in the gold coin business and compete against other world gold bullion coins! The coins were to be struck from US gold bullion reserves; no limit to the amount/percentage of the reserve that could be used was specified. The coins were to be 0.900 fine gold and 0.100 alloy (TBD by the Secretary of the Treasury). The bullion coin specifications that the bill mandated were a bit unusual: 1. 1 Troy Ounce (31.103 grams) 2. 1 Avoirdupois ("AVDP") Ounce (28.349 grams) - Standard Ounce 3. 10 Grams (~32.1% of 1 Troy Ounce; ~35.3% of 1 AVDP Ounce) 4. 5 grams (~16.1% of 1 Troy Ounce; ~17.6% of 1 AVDP Ounce) The 1 Troy Ounce specification makes sense for a precious metal coin - AVDP, however, does not. AVDP is not typically used for precious metal (e.g., gold, silver) weight measurements, these weights are expressed in Troy Ounces. Note: A gram is the same in the Troy system as it is in AVDP system. The Troy Ounce coin was to feature a left-facing porttait of John F. Kennedy plus the inscriptions "Liberty" and "In God We Trust" on its obverse with the inscriptions "E Pluribus Unum", "United States of America" and "One Troy Ounce Gold" on the reverse. The AVDP Ounce coin was to present a right-facing portrait of Abraham Lincoln plus the inscriptions "Liberty" and "In God We Trust" on its obverse, with the inscriptions "E Pluribus Unum", "United States of America" and "One Ounce Gold" on the reverse. The 10 Grams coin was to depict a left-facing portrait of Thomas Jefferson plus the inscriptions "Liberty" and "In God We Trust" on its obverse, with the inscriptions "E Pluribus Unum", "United States of America" and "10 Gold Grams" on the reverse. The 5 Grams coin was to depict a right-facing portrait of Adam Smith plus the inscriptions "Liberty" and "In God We Trust" on its obverse, with the inscriptions "E Pluribus Unum", "United States of America" and "5 Gold Grams" on the reverse. The coins were to include the year of striking on their obverse, along with an appropriate mint mark. Note: Adam Smith (b. 1723, d. 1790) was the author of the seminal book on economics The Wealth of Nations, which introduced the concept of "free market". He is often referred to as the "Father of Economics". Note: At least 50% of the total coinage weight struck was to be of the 10 grams and 5 grams variety. Another interesting aspect of the legislation is that it would have allowed gold coins to be struck by "any State or local government or by any person, whether or not such person mints such coins in the United States, except that such gold coins shall not bear the inscription "United States of America". As the US Constitution prohibits anyone but the Federal Government from minting coins, the wording included in the bill contradicted this would have been hotly debated and likely altered if the bill had advanced. The Secretary of the Treasury was given the task of setting the sales price of the coins. The price was to be based on the "competitive market price of gold." Such price was to be calculated/adjusted on an hourly basis using a weighted average of the prices in force at gold exchanges in London, Hong Kong, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Can you imagine the chaos arising from hourly price changes in the market? In addition to each coin's intrinsic gold value, its selling price also had to cover a Treasury/Mint 'production' fee (no details stated). Gold coins purchases were not to be taxed. The bill allowed public transactions using the coins, once converted to the appropriate prevailing dollar value. Though not the smoothest of 'next steps,' the 1981 bill did initiate further US gold coin discussions and served as a base from which a more reasonable framework would begin to develop in 1982. Stay tuned for a look at these developments! For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including more gold coin stories, see: Commems Collection Collecting history one coin or medal at a time! (c) commems. All rights reserved. Report this Post to the Staff

jbuck Moderator United States 190810 Posts	Posted 07/16/2026 12:12 pm Quote: Another interesting aspect of the legislation is that it would have allowed gold coins to be struck by "any State or local government or by any person, whether or not such person mints such coins in the United States, except that such gold coins shall not bear the inscription "United States of America". A very interesting read and I thank you for sharing! Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
nickelsearcher Moderator United States 15610 Posts	Posted 07/16/2026 1:50 pm Wow - that was a complicated and cumbersome legislative proposal. Quote: Such price was to be calculated/adjusted on an hourly basis It would have taken an army of accountants to keep up with that provision! Quote: Stay tuned for a look at these developments! Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.art Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 190810 Posts	Posted 07/16/2026 2:05 pm Quote: It would have taken an army of accountants to keep up with that provision! Government assisted employment program. Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
commems CCF Master Historian of USA Commemoratives United States 12349 Posts	Posted 07/16/2026 2:33 pm Quote: It would have taken an army of accountants to keep up with that provision! The bill was actually a hidden job creation bill masquerading as a gold coin bill! Collecting history one coin or medal at a time! (c) commems. All rights reserved. Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 190810 Posts	Posted 07/16/2026 2:52 pm "Job creation bill" are the words I was looking for. Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
Dearborn Moderator United States 99700 Posts	Posted Yesterday 2:35 pm interesting reading. Collecting since 1972. Learning from then on "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin 7070 type set coin count: 51/76 Uncirculated American Silver Eagles My American Silver Eagle Proof Collection Sacagawea Dollars Innovation Dollars Eisenhower-Dollars Kennedy-Half Dollars Washington-Quarters Roosevelt-Dimes Buffalo-Nickels 1938-2005 Jefferson-Nickels Lincoln-Cents Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16887 Posts	Posted Yesterday 9:32 pm This legislation was intended to create a more patriotic alternative to the South African Krugerrand, as well as the then-recently-introduced Mexican Libertad. I assumed the legislators had some serious FOMO about the US getting left behind in this resurgent gold coin craze, hence these somewhat rushed-seeming proposals. Quote: It was a gold bullion coin bill, but did not term any of its proposed coins as an "Eagle". I can think of two reasons here. First, the specified designs as quoted don't seem to actually call for the use of an eagle on the reverse (though this may have been assumed, on the basis of the 1792 Act and the precedent for precious metal coins up to that point all bearing eagles). Secondly, this may have been to avoid confusion, as the "eagle" was still legally defined as a ten-dollar-face-value coin. Calling it an "eagle" and not putting any other face value or denomination on the coin might have caused confusion. Quote: The bullion coin specifications that the bill mandated were a bit unusual: ... 2. 1 Avoirdupois ("AVDP") Ounce (28.349 grams) - Standard Ounce Using "standard" or "normal" ounces indicates how out-of-touch these legislators were with the people who actually traded in gold. The very existence of troy ounces as a similar-but-different weight unit for PMs is itself a curious and now-irreversible anachronism, but calling attention to this oddity by trying to use both "kinds" of ounces simultaneously would have been awfully confusing across the board, and give scammers and shysters ample opportunity to swap between units at will. Quote: Another interesting aspect of the legislation is that it would have allowed gold coins to be struck by "any State or local government or by any person, whether or not such person mints such coins in the United States, except that such gold coins shall not bear the inscription "United States of America". As the US Constitution prohibits anyone but the Federal Government from minting coins, the wording included in the bill contradicted this would have been hotly debated and likely altered if the bill had advanced. This appears to be a poorly worded attempt to allow what we now call "rounds" to become legal tender on par with the government-issued coins, so long as they matched the weights of those coins. This, also, would have allowed counterfeiters, criminals and the like to get away with all kinds of scams, on the "legal tender" basis. For example, a round-maker could make AV-ounce rounds, claim equality with the troy-ounce government round, and leaving the coin's recipient unable to verify anything. Merchants in gold-using areas would have all needed to acquire jeweller-level gold-verification tools. Quote: The Secretary of the Treasury was given the task of setting the sales price of the coins. The price was to be based on the "competitive market price of gold." Such price was to be calculated/adjusted on an hourly basis using a weighted average of the prices in force at gold exchanges in London, Hong Kong, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. This part confuses me; was this the setting of the initial sale price from the mint, or was this in fact setting the legal tender value for the coins? Or maybe both, somehow? Having a fluctuating legal tender value was not without precedent - this was in fact how both Krugerrands and Libertads worked as legal tender in their respective home countries. But such rapid fluctuation does add uncertainty to everyday finances, if these coins were actually intended to be used thusly in commerce - and the proposed 90% gold alloy does lean towards their intention to be so used, since the only real reason for diluting the gold content of a gold bullion coin by 10% is to make it more resilient in circulation. Having an hourly rate fluctuation means you would have left home to go to the shops with your gold coins, maybe checking their legal tender value before you left, but would never be quite certain how much money you'd have when you went through the checkout since the price might have changed since you last looked. Krugerrands and Libertads both worked off the daily London fix chart, thus avoiding this particular disincentive. I'm also not entirely sure how that hourly price rate would have been communicated reliably to the buying-and-selling populace, given we're talking about the pre-Internet era when most people got their financial info (including the daily gold price) from the daily newspaper. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
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