The 5 Rarest American Gold Eagles

Issued from the start of the program in 1986 as bullion coins aimed primarily at precious metal investors and as Proof coins for collectors, the American Gold Eagle is now widely traded and collected. It was created to compete with Krugerrands, Gold Maple Leaf and other gold bullion coins issued in the mid-1980s. That first year only the $50, 1-ounce version was issued in Proof, while all four sizes were issued in bullion. Then in 1987 the $25 or 1/2-ounce was added in Proof, and in 1988 the other two fractional sized coins ($10 or ¼-ounce and $5 or tenth –ounce pieces) were added.

Since then, the U.S. Mint has added other versions, including the burnished uncirculated coins with W mint marks for the West Point Mint and special collector coins too with different finishes and privy marks. And last year all coins in this series saw their reverses changed to a bold new one designed by Jennie Norris with a close-up profile of the head of a bald eagle.

With the series now in its 37th year, the list of the lowest mintage and rarest coins of the series continues to evolve, but these are the five coins that currently hold that pride of place.

2020-W V75 $50 Proof

When David J. Ryder was Director of the US Mint from April 2018 to October 2021, he was responsible for a wide range of innovative coin programs, which included the release of a Silver Eagle in 2019 and Gold Eagle the next year that became the respective low-mintage kings of their series (with the silver one effectively tied with 1995-W Proof).

For Gold Eagles, the special coin issued with a “V75” privy mark for the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II the coin was given a mintage of just 1,945 coins that corresponded to the year the war ended but was also thousands of coins lower than any prior Gold Eagle of any size. And there is a good chance it will remain the lowest.

Those who tried but were unable to order one were not happy, while those who were successful with their orders were ecstatic. The coin sold out on release day, and it immediately rose in value at least fourfold with Proof 70 specimens worth even more.

2021-W $10 bullion made from unpolished dies

Last fall a California dealer made a major discovery among examples of the 2021 $10 bullion coins with the type 2 reverse. He found 61 examples of the coin that each had “W” mint marks which they are not supposed to have, and which are believed to have been made in error the same way as the 1999 coins of this type. Moreover, just as in 1999 when the Mint was slammed with gold bullion sales, last year the Mint also saw unprecedented demand, which may account for why this happened for the second (third when including both $5 and $10 W coins from 1999) time in the history of the series.

There is at this point no way to know for sure how many examples exist of the 2021 coin, and more of them are probably waiting to be found. But experts believe this coin is scarecer than the 1999 coins. So far PCGS has graded 2,072 of them and NGC 2,000. For now, those numbers make this the second rarest Gold Eagle.

2008-W $ $10 burnished uncirculated

2008 was the third year of the burnished uncirculated Gold Eagle program, but the only year the Mint issued three fractional sized coins. In addition, that year the price of gold hit $1,000 for the first time, and the Mint issued an unusually large number of different gold coins from thre,e versions of Gold Eagles to American Gold Buffalos not just in bullion and Proof $50 coins but also just for that year, as it turned out, in fractional sizes plus $5 Bald Eagle commemoratives.

The direct competition between Eagles and Buffalos, as Ron Guth and Jeff Garrett have argued, was probably the key factor explaining low sales of the burnished uncirculated coins. The $10 coin had final sales of just 8,883, which were the lowest for the year. That created an instant rarity that has maintained a strong premium over time. And the low sales also played a major role in the Mint’s decision to pare back its gold programs after 2008 and to cancel the fractional burnished coins for 2009 and 2010 and then in 2011 to only bring back the $50 version, making the whole 4-coin 2008-W burnished set very special too.

2006-W $50 Reverse Proof

In 2006 the Mint issued special coins and sets for the 20th anniversary of the Gold Eagle series, including a 3-coin set of $50 coins announced a mere 9 days before it went on sale that included the first burnished uncirculated coin with a “W” mint mark, a Proof and most importantly the first and only Reverse Proof coin. With a limit of 10,000, the set sold out very quickly and final sales were 9,996.

The coin immediately became by far the rarest Gold Eagle at the time, replacing the 1991 $50 Proof with a mintage of almost 25,000. The Mint probably could have made and sold more coins but decided not to do that. That and the fact that the coin remains unique for this type have continued to support a strong market for this piece.

1999-W $10 bullion made from unpolished dies

Errors among Gold Eagles are almost unheard of, and this is one of just a handful. Back in 1999, demand for gold bullion was exploding as a result of widespread concerns about the “Y2K” problem when the year 2000 began since computers had not been programmed for the change of millenium, which led many people to buy gold.

As a result, when the Mint was working feverishly to produce what would be an astounding 564,232 $10 Gold Eagles in 1999, a limited number of dies that were intended to be used for Proof coins did not receive the final polishing they are normally given at the Philadelphia Mint and were sent to the West Point Mint for striking where coins were given a “W” mint mark which normally does not appear on any bullion coins of this type.

The exact number of $10 (and also $5 coins with the same error that year) that were made is not known, but the Mint said later that 6,000 $10 coins were made, while experts believe the total is 10,000. What we do know is that currently 2,814 of them have been graded by PCGS, and another 2,754 by NGC. As for the $5 W coin from 1999, 2,768 were grade by PCGS and 3,257 by NGC, and experts estimate the mintage to be 14,500.

Sources:

Ron Guth and Jeff Garrett, The 100 Greatest Modern U.S. Coins (Whitman, 2017)