U.S. Mint American Eagle gold coin sales tumble in February. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-mint...212721074.html
Below are year-to-date coin sales (all figures in ounces):
Gold Silver 2015 2014 2015 2014
January 81,000 91,500 5,530,000 4,775,000
February 18,500 31,000 3,022,000 3,750,000
March 21,000 5,354,000
April 38,500 3,569,000
May 35,500 3,988,500
June 48,500 2,692,000
July 30,000 1,975,000
August 25,000 2,087,500
September 58,000 4,140,000
October 67,500 5,790,000
November 60,000 3,426,000
Considered a precious metal due to certain properties and characteristics, gold has been employed as currency since the ancient times.
However, because pure gold is too soft to be used for any length of time without deforming, it has to be alloyed with other metals to harden it before it can be circulated as currency.
The practice of alloying gold with other metals for the use of currency has existed since before the Christian Era, with the practice continuing until much of the latter part of the 19th century, and with occasional mention in this, the 21st century.
Of the noted alloys of gold that have been used for currency, crown gold remains, to this day, one of the still circulated gold-alloys used as legal tender.
Though it may sound like gold expressly meant to make crowns out of, crown gold is actually a special alloy of gold made expressly for the production of gold coins.
The name ‘crown gold’ came about due to the fact that it was the alloy of choice for minting crowns or British crowns of the golden variety, originally worth five shillings, with a modern value of five pounds.
This was only applicable to silver crowns however, as golden ones were primarily considered bullion coins and thus was worth the amount of gold in it.
Crown gold is closely related to golden sovereigns, since, as a measurement of alloying, it became the standard for all gold coins issued, replacing the original gold sovereign which was deemed too soft for general and long-term circulation.
Crown gold is an alloy of gold and copper amounting to 22 karats, or 91.667% gold with the minute addition of copper.
Crown gold came about during the time of Henry VIII, where coin manufacture was regulated to change the original composition of the gold sovereign from its original 23 karats, to the current 22 karat gold composition.
This was partly due to the coin being too soft for constant use, often wearing off long before its time; However Henry VIII was infamous for 'debasing" the currency by melting down old coin, adding some base metal and creating more coins of the same face value form the same amount of gold. –
