...And now I have it! A search encompassing a fair number of years has culminated with the purchase of an MS-61 1882-H Newfoundland $2 gold coin. This is like a dream come true from the first time I knew that this coin existed until now. FYI, I bought the book, "The Gold Coins of Newfoundland 1865-1888" shortly after it was published in 2017.

In 1865 the Royal Mint began striking new coins exclusively for Newfoundland including a $2 gold coin for a then population of 122,631 people. You will notice the conversion values for this coin on the reverse of 200 cents/100 pence. This is related to Newfoundland's coinage being based on the British Pound well before Great Britain adopted the decimal  system for its currency. Thus there was 240 pence to the pound which converted to $4.80 in Newfoundland currency.

The Newfoundland $2 gold coins were struck for circulation irregularly between 1865 and 1888 from a low mintage of 2,500 to a high mintage of 25,000. Incidentally my coin has a mintage of 25,000. The 1882 coin also has an H mintmark denoting that it was struck at the Heaton Mint in Birmingham. This coin was designed to be nearly equivalent to the American Gold Eagle which also circulated in Newfoundland. A US gold eagle contained 0.48375 ounces of gold while the 0.91666 fine Newfoundland $2 coin  had 0.0981 ounces of pure gold. Thus the Newfoundland $2 gold coin was worth $2.0277 US dollars. The diameter of the Newfoundland $2 coin is 17.983mm and the weight is 3.328 grams.

I have been looking for a suitable yet affordable example of this coin for many years. My problem is that this coin is scarce and was popular as a circulating coin. Thus there are very few nice looking coins to be had. I had decided that if I was going to pay good money for this coin, I wanted it to look nice. With only a handful of MS-65 coins and steep prices for an MS-64 coin, I was looking for something in the AU-58 to MS-62 range. Without really looking too hard this coin popped up on e-bay with a best-offer option. I put forth my best offer and it was a sale. The gold toning on this coin gives it contrast. As such it is a very nice looking coin with lots of eye appeal. Gary