American Gold Eagle (1986– )

Congress answered the Krugerrand era with a bullion coin wrapped in Saint-Gaudens' 1907 Liberty. The Gold Eagle became the standard US retail gold unit: legal tender at a nominal $50, IRA-eligible, and backed by law requiring its gold be newly mined in America. At current prices one coin carries about $4,600 of metal — 92 times its face value.

The alloy recipe — 3% silver, ~5.3% copper — is a deliberate echo of the historic US 'coin gold' standard, chosen so the coins wear like their 1907 ancestors.

Check these before treating any gold piece as melt. Think you have one? Check recent auction records before selling, and read the grading basics first.