What is Pre-1933 Gold?

 

What is Pre-1933 Gold?

In 1933, during the height of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt took drastic action to help inject life into the American economy. Through Executive Order 6102, Roosevelt banned the private ownership of gold, effectively ending the U.S. gold standard. For coin collectors, this led to another important development in the history of the United States Mint. After Executive Order 6102, the U.S. Mint was forced to melt all 1933 gold coins and cease the production of circulating gold coins in the future. 

While the U.S. Mint still releases gold bullion coins like the American Gold Eagle annually, 1932 was the last year that the U.S. government issued gold coins for general circulation purposes. The decision to end the gold standard proved highly controversial, and economists today continue to debate whether the move was effective in pulling the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Movements advocating for a return to the gold standard occasionally make national news, though experts say that it’s unlikely we’ll ever see the U.S. use gold for currency again. 

In 2025, pre-1933 gold is considered a numismatic investment, meaning that these old gold coins typically sell for an additional premium over melt value. Buying pre-1933 gold can be a great way to diversify your gold portfolio. Since pre-1933 gold coins are numismatically valuable, factors like condition, rarity, and potential errors can greatly impact the value of your investment. In other words, buying pre-1933 gold can be a bit more complicated than buying standard bullion gold coins. 

On this page, learn everything you need to know about pre-1933 gold.

Are Gold Coins Legal Tender? 

Gold coins are technically still legal tender in the United States, but with a couple of important caveats. First, the melt value of any U.S. gold coin vastly exceeds its face value, or denomination. As a result, gold coins are legal tender because they have denominations, but you’d be a fool to spend them for face value. 

Second, the U.S. gold coins you see produced today, such as the American Gold Buffalo Coin, are not meant to be circulating coins. In other words, these bullion coins are intended for investors and collectors rather than for commerce. This makes modern U.S. bullion coins fundamentally different than pre-1933 gold coins, which were minted for use as currency and were, at the time, worth around the same amount as their face values suggest. 

Gold coins are legal tender in the sense that you can use them to pay for goods and services, but they’re rarely used this way because their value greatly exceeds the denominational value each coin has. 

When Did the U.S. Stop Circulating Gold Coins?

The United States Mint was forced to cease production of circulating gold coins in 1933 under the orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt, in order to combat gold hoarding that he felt was worsening the Great Depression, banned private gold ownership through Executive Order 6102. In this highly controversial order, American citizens were required to turn their gold bullion over to the U.S. government. 

Coincidentally, the U.S. Mint had already started minting a new gold coin in 1933, leading to the creation of one of the most interesting – and valuable – gold coins in American history. 

About the 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle Gold Coin

In order to follow Executive Order 6102’s prohibition of private gold ownership, the U.S. Mint was ordered to cease the production of U.S. gold coins. There was just one problem with this plan… the U.S. Mint had already begun minting a new coin, the 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle. Historians believe that 445,500 copies of the coin had already been minted in 1933.

To solve this discrepancy, the mint was forced to melt down all of the 1933 Gold Double Eagles it had already produced except for two coins. If you’re familiar with the history of American numismatics, the next part of this story should seem familiar. At least twenty additional 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle Gold Coins were stolen by mint employees, resulting in a total initial circulating supply of twenty-two coins. 

The U.S. Secret Service pursued the remaining coins, eventually destroying nine of them. So how many 1933 Double Eagles are still around? There are thirteen 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle Gold Coins left in the world. It is still illegal to own any of these coins, since they were never officially released by the U.S. Mint, except for one, which belongs to an anonymous collector who purchased the coin from Stuart Weitzman in 2021 for a record-breaking $18.9 million. 

Investing in Pre-1933 Gold Coins

Pre-1933 coins make great investments. These coins carry numismatic value, which means that they sell to collectors for more money than the gold they contain is worth. Injecting numismatic value into your portfolio is always a good idea, since it helps you diversify and gives you another way to profit as your rare coins appreciate in collectability over time. Compared to modern bullion coins like the Gold Eagle, pre-1933 gold coin mintage numbers are typically very low, making them rare and valuable to collectors. 

That being said, collecting numismatic pre-1933 gold coins requires a bit more work than investing in the latest U.S. gold bullion coins. When you buy numismatic coins, considerations like rarity, condition, and even mint-made errors come into play, making it a trickier market than traditional bullion coins. 

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of investing in pre-1933 gold. 

Advantages of Buying Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Coins

Buying pre-1933 U.S. gold coins can be a fantastic way to inject more numismatic value into your portfolio, allow you to buy fractional gold at affordable prices, and give you a set of great conversation pieces from a unique and bygone era of American history. Let’s take a closer look at the upside of investing in gold through pre-1933 gold coins. 

Numismatic Value

Numismatic value is probably the number one reason why investors love pre-1933 gold coins. With a few notable exceptions, bullion coins tend to sell for only a modest premium over melt value. This is because modern bullion coins like the American Gold Eagle are produced annually in high quantities, and that’s unlikely to chance any time soon. 

By contrast, pre-1933 coins will never be produced again. Combine that with their limited mintages compared to some modern bullion coins, and you’ve got a recipe for numismatic value. Numismatic value refers to the value added to a coin because of its rarity, condition, or collectability. As a result, you’ll often find additional premiums baked into the value of pre-1933 gold coins. 

Adding some numismatic value to your portfolio is a good strategy for diversifying your gold collection. Holding onto some numismatic gold coins can help your portfolio thrive, even during periods where the spot price of gold is declining. 

Historical Significance and Uniqueness

Historical significance can be hard to quantify, but it’s impossible to deny the importance of pre-1933 gold coins to the history of American numismatics. Rather than the pristine, uncirculated look of a modern bullion coins, most pre-1933 coins show their age. You’ll be able to see the coin’s circulation over the course of nearly 100 years or more. 

Pre-1933 coins also visually harken back to a different era of American coinage. To many collectors, pre-1933 U.S. gold coins represent some of the most creative, unique designs in U.S. Mint history. Aside from being a great conversation piece, a collection of pre-1933 U.S. gold coins can diversify the visual appearance of your coin collection. 

Not all investors care about historical significance and uniqueness, but those who do will find that collecting pre-1933 gold coins is a rewarding – and potentially profitable – pastime. 

Affordable Fractional Gold Coins

Modern fractional gold coins typically sell at higher premiums over melt value than you’ll find 1 oz gold coins listed for. Both the high production costs and limited mintages associated with fractional gold coins contribute to higher premiums on the retail market. Pre-1933 gold coins, however, almost always weigh less than a full troy ounce. 

Additionally, fractional gold coins minted prior to 1933 may be a good way to invest in fractional gold without paying the high premiums associated with modern fractional coins like the 1/10 oz American Gold Eagle. Demand for pre-1933 gold coins can vary from year to year, but common-date fractional pre-1933 gold coins tend to sell at reasonably low premiums, especially in poor condition. 

Disadvantages of Buying Pre-1933 Gold Coins

Two big disadvantages of buying pre-1933 gold coins include the significant learning curve for new investors and the difficulty of selling numismatically valuable gold coins. Below, we’ll take a closer look at these two downsides to investing in numismatic American gold coins.

Learning Curve For New Collectors

Since most pre-1933 gold coins are collectible, investing in this category of gold bullion requires collectors to learn more about how numismatic coins are traded. When you buy or sell a modern gold bullion coin, prices depend mainly on the current spot price of silver and the size of the coin you’re purchasing. But when you invest in pre-1933 gold coins, additional factors like rarity, condition, and even mint-made errors can play into your coin’s total value. 

As a result, one downside of investing in pre-1933 gold coins is the learning curve. When you buy old U.S. gold coins, you’ll usually pay a premium over melt value, depending on the coin’s rarity, condition, and collectability. For new collectors, this can be a difficult market to navigate, especially compared to traditional modern bullion coins. 

Selling Difficulty

You’ll face the same issues selling pre-1933 gold coins that you experienced buying them. The value of a pre-1933 gold coin can vary considerably depending on its rarity, condition, and even the presence of mint-made errors. This means that you’ll need to develop a keen sense for how these factors play into your coin’s value before selling. 

Finding a suitable buyer for your pre-1933 gold coins can also be a daunting process. Since modern bullion coins are primarily traded for their precious metal content, it’s never difficult to find a buyer willing to pay market value for your Gold Eagle or Gold Buffalo. But when you’re selling a rare pre-1933 gold coin, extracting maximum value from your collection means finding a collector who understands and is willing to pay a fair market rate for your coin. This is one of the core differences between numismatic and bullion coins when it comes to resale.

How To Evaluate Pre-1933 Gold Coins

Luckily, buying and selling pre-1933 gold coins doesn’t need to be difficult. There’s a massive community of coin collectors online, and coin collecting resources can help you understand how pre-1933 gold coins are evaluated, graded, and valued.

Typically, pre-1933 gold coins are evaluated based on three main factors:

1. Rarity and Mintage
2. Condition
3. Mint-Made Errors and Varieties

Rarity and Mintages

Rarity is always an important factor in the valuation of numismatic coins, including pre-1933 gold coins. The first step in determining the rarity of a pre-1933 gold coin is to look at its mintage, which is the number of coins minted with your coin’s date and mint mark. Mintages for pre-1933 gold coins can vary widely from mint to mint and from year to year, so figuring out how many specimens of your coin were produced can tell you how rare it may be. 

When you assess a gold coin’s rarity, make sure that you’re looking at the right mint mark, date, and variety (if applicable). 

Condition

Condition is likely the most important factor used to determine the market value of any rare coin. Some pre-1933 gold coins are worth only face value in average condition but can sell for tens of thousands of dollars in mint-state (MS) condition. As you can see, it’s very important that you understand the approximate condition of a pre-1933 gold coin before buying or selling. 

Determining the condition of a gold coin can be tricky, especially if you’re a new or inexperienced coin collector. Online resources from grading companies like PCGS and NGC can help you get an approximate coin grade at home, but we recommend a professional grading service for particularly rare or valuable pre-1933 gold coins. 

Mint-Made Errors and Varieties

Some pre-1933 gold coins feature rare mint-made errors, which can add quite a bit of money to their value. Mint-made errors are mistakes made during the minting process by the U.S. Mint. Mint-made errors are always rare, and they’re especially rare to find on pre-1933 gold coins. If you suspect that your pre-’33 gold coin has an error, be sure to reach out to an expert to confirm and classify the error. In these cases, we also recommend a professional grading and authentication service. 

Other pre-1933 gold coins may be rare varieties. Varieties are not the same as mint-made errors. Usually, coin varieties are intentional design differences introduced by the U.S. Mint that can vary in rarity and desirability. 

Final Thoughts: Should You Buy Pre-1933 Gold?

Pre-1933 gold can be a great way to immerse yourself in American coinage history, and some collectors actually prefer pre-’33 gold to modern gold bullion coins produced by the U.S. Mint. While there’s a substantial learning curve for new collectors who want to begin investing in pre-1933 gold coins, these coins can inject numismatic value and diversity into your bullion portfolio. 

Whether you’re a fan of classic pre-1933 gold coins or you prefer modern U.S. Mint gold bullion coins, Hero Bullion is your source for all things shiny!

You might also be interested in: 

• Is It Illegal to Own Gold in 2025?
• History Lesson: What Happened to the Gold Standard?
• How to Get Your Coins Appraised?