By Doug Winter – RareGoldCoins.com

As you no doubt know, I am pretty obsessive when it comes to “original” gold coins. I like coins that have an appearance that suggests that they haven’t been fooled with. I recently bought and sold an early gold coin that, in my opinion, was the epitome of an original piece and I’d like to share a photo and some descriptive information. The coin in question was an 1814/3 half eagle graded MS62 by NGC and later approved by CAC.

There are a few things about the color of this coin that are a give-away for its originality. The first is the glow that this particular hue of coppery-orange shows. It is the result of over a century’s worth of toning and mellowing of the surfaces. This sort of color just can’t be reproduced by artificial means. When chemicals are applied to gold coins in an attempt to recapture a reddish-orange hue, the result is usually a shade that I refer to as “Cheeto Orange.” In other words, the orange is just too intense to look real and there is no gradiation or seperation of the hues.

You may also note that the coloration is different in hue in terms of configuration and intensity on the obverse and reverse. On this early half eagle, there are areas in the obverse fields that are dark and somewhat discolored. I’m not exactly certain what caused this but if I had to guess it would be contact with another source like a coin album or some other sort of sulphur-impregated display. Most recolored coins look similar on the obverse and reverse.

Another thing that I have noticed on original early gold coins is that the color seems to become deeper towards the edges. This isn’t always the case but this color scheme is hard to reproduce and many of the coin doctors who play with early gold are not sophisticated enough to know that this is the sort of color that develops of a long period of storage in an album. If you pay particular attention to the reverse of this coin, you will note that the golden-orange hue at the center changes to a deeper reddish-orange at the border. If you experienced at looking at early gold you will recognize this pattern as being “right.” (more…)

By Doug Winter – RareGoldCoins.com

I’ve written numerous articles about Liberty Head gold coins that I think are clearly undervalued or underpriced. I’ve never really written one that’s focused on early United States gold coins for one simple reason: it’s hard to brand coins that trade for $10,000 and up (in most cases) as “undervalued.” That said, there are a number of issues whose price levels do not make sense given their rarity.

I’d like to thank my good friend Paul Nugget, from Spectrum East Numismatics, who helped me prepare this list and whose expertise in the area of pre-1834 gold is unrivalled.

Before we start, the basic question to answer here is why are these coins undervalued or underappreciated or “underwhatever?” I think the answer has to do with collecting patterns in the early gold series. Because of price considerations, most collectors who do focus on early gold do it from the standpoint of type collecting. This makes sense, especially in a denomination like half eagles that contains a number of spectacularly rare (and expensive) issues. Also, I have noted that many more early gold collectors focus on the pre-1807 issues by date (or even die variety) while the issues struck from 1808 to 1834 tend to less actively pursued as such.

Here is my list of ten underappreciated early US gold and the reasons why I think they qualify as such:

1. 1827 Quarter Eagle.

The short-lived Capped Head Left quarter eagle type was produced for only five years from 1821 to 1827. All five issues are scarce but pricing guides typically lump the 1821, 1824/1, 1825 and 1827 together and accord them similar values in virtually all grades. I think that the 1827 deserves to be priced at least 10-15% higher than the 1825.
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