How many gold coins are taken out of general circulation every year?

Question

I imagine there MUST be some out there. There has to be at least SOME $5 Half Eagles, $10 Eagles, and $20 Double Eagles being put into circulation by accident or by theives who don;t know what they have stolen.

Is the 5, 10, and 20 denomination stamped on the coin? Is is ever possible a thief or an idiot could look at it, see it was stamped Five Dollars and go and spend it on Whoppers?

It MUST happen.

Well, yes, of course a only a moron would spend a gold coin. But do they look so different from a Golden Dollar that they couldn't be mistaken for a common coin? And if they are, in fact, stamped "Five Dollars" it would seem to me a dimwitted theif or perhaps an adolescent would spend it thinking it was just worth the five dollars stamped on the coin.

Answer 1

I think it's impossible to give you an answer on this. We'd actually have to know how many were out there circulating in the first place. Secondly, where would they spend it? I read an article a while back about a man who was arrested because he paid with 50 $2 bills (he was a collector and had been looking for interesting serial numbers and silver certificates). Likely if you had a gold coin to spend no one would want to take it because they wouldn't believe it's money. Sad as it may seem, banks would probably be the same way. Many tellers probably have never seen one before. When such coins are brought in to a bank, it's standard policy to inform the police so they can be on the look out for a theft report to match.

Answer 2

There are some put into the Salvation Army Christmas pots in the Chicago area every year. No one know who is doing it but it has been going on for a good number of years. They think it may be a family. The coins are sold at their collector values. I believe most maybe are $5 or $10. Most people would notice the difference in a older gold coin, for one thing, the date before 1933 gives that away. Put a real gold coin up against a President dollar and there is a difference in color. Of course some may get into circulation of a very short time under the circumstances you said, a dumb thief. It would not take long to be spotted and pulled. Yes the denominations are on the coins. Anything is possible but not always plausible. I get 2 weekly coin newspapers as well as a lot of monthly magazines on coins and have not heard of any gold being found by anyone in a good many years, except the Chicago thing.

Answer 3

you might be right, but for me i would ask the question from the opposite point of view, which is, would any average person working behind the counter even recognize a gold coin to be a *real* coin to be accepted for payment, being that they have been out of general circulation for almost 75 years?

our teenagers and other younger people who typically work as cashiers are a pretty *clueless* bunch nowadays...

Answer 4

Possible, yes.
Probable, no.
Only a total moron would spend a gold coin. But if one does, I have some stuff to sell. :-))