Aside from those dead presidents jingling around in your pockets, the U.S. Mint produces a large number of coins purely for collectors and speculators. The tough economy and rising prices of precious metals has resulted in a shortage of gold planchets, causing the mint to restrict gold coin mintings. The problem is that these gold coins are created by order of Congress, and the Mint is obligated under law to produce the coins on its schedule. There had even been talk about skipping 2009 for the Buffalo Gold Coin, but that wouldn’t fly under the Mint’s rules. So, after a delay, today is the first day you can order the 2009 American Buffalo gold coins.
This gold coin has a diameter of about 1-1/4″ and 1/10″ thick, which puts it at slightly larger than the Kennedy half-dollar. The law ordering the coin specifies that it is, in fact, legal tender, with a face-value of $50. Don’t plan on spending it at 7-11 any time soon, though: the coin is one ounce of .999 gold, which places its value at well over $1,000 at current prices. The initial price of the coin hasn’t been announced yet, one source expects over $1,300, but gold coin pricing varies according to a schedule, so future prices may change. Last year, the Mint had released fractional-value versions of the Buffalo, as they’ve done with the Gold Eagle, but this year only the 1-ounce version is available. The coin will come in two versions, a rougher-looking bullion version (seen above), and the highly-polished proof version.
You do, no doubt, recognize the coin’s design. The American Buffalo uses the design James Earle Fraser first created for the Indian Head Nickel in 1911; Fraser’s design was a grand departure from the decidedly non-Indian style of previous coins, preferring the Rooseveltian natural style similar to Bela Lyon Pratt’s gold Indian coin. The law which orders the Gold Buffalo specifically requests the Fraser nickel design, but allows for the director of the Mint to change the design after the first year – the design, however, has happily remained the same since 2006. Because all precious-metal are minted at the West Point Mint, these Gold Buffalos will bear the rare “W” mint identifier. Although this isn’t a new design, as a work of art the Gold Buffalo is a gorgeous coin, and an ideal partner for this year’s high-relief Saint-Gaudens coin, provided you’ve got room for two full ounces of gold in your 2009 collection.
