1 Ounce American Gold Eagle

[oldschool]

Quick question and no googling! Who can first post what the reason was for the production of the 1986 American Gold Eagle?

[oldschool]

okay was that a dumb question or what? After all I am a newb!

[FishyOne]

To provide U.S. consumers of gold the option of buying U.S. mint products.

 

That's my guess!

[oldschool]

Close but not quite.

[coinman_23885]

Close but not quite.

 

I think he is right. They were meant for investment portfolios including retirement accounts.

[oldschool]

He is partly right. What was the main reason for the minting of the Gold Eagle. There was a particular reason.

[oldschool]

And the answer is, for all those playing the game:

 

With the public receptive to the issuance of gold coins, and with President Ronald Reagan's 1985 ban on the importation of Krugerrands due to South Africa's apartheid policy, Congress authorized U.S. gold bullion coins, the American Gold Eagle, which are legal tender and which began to be struck in 1986.

[coinman_23885]

Citation?

[FishyOne]

And the answer is, for all those playing the game:

 

With the public receptive to the issuance of gold coins, and with President Ronald Reagan's 1985 ban on the importation of Krugerrands due to South Africa's apartheid policy...

 

I had forgotten Reagan banned the Krug. I wasn't buying back then (poor college student) but do remember it now.

[Conder101]

Old school is correct. After gold became legal to own Americans did start buying gold bullion coins and the premier coin at the time was the Kruggerand and a LOT of Kruggrands began flowing into the US. ( The US Arts medallion series was started in 1980 to provide an alternative, but they weren't coins and the ordering process was annoying complex so they didn't become a serious alternative.) But the black suppression policies of apartheid in South Africa made the importation of so much gold from there politically embarrassing. (From the LA Times "But of all the sanctions, the Krugerrand ban was designed to have the most economic bite: South Africa derives half of its foreign exchange earnings from Krugerrand sales, and the United States historically has been the biggest market").. So in 1985 Reagan banned the further import of Krands dated 1985 or later. (The earlier dated coins could still be bought and sold, I'm not sure if the earlier ones could still be imparted. Probably not.)

 

Fortunately they were smart enough to realize that cutting off an item in high demand won't stop that demand. (If they had done nothing there would probably have been a lot of smuggling of earlier dated Krands into the country.) The Arts medallion program had ended in 1984 so the government created the 1986 US Eagle program. It provided a gold alternative and also created a silver version to replace the GSA sales that had been doing a poor job in disposing of the Strategic Silver stockpile.. Since it also required the gold to be purchased from domestic producers it provided a subsidy and price support to US mining companies.