PART ONE: GOLD DOLLARS, QUARTER EAGLES and THREE DOLLAR GOLD PIECES Gold coins were struck at the San Francisco mint from 1854 through 1930. During this 76 year period, gold dollars, quarter eagles, three dollar gold pieces, half eagles, eagles, and double eagles were produced. Traditionally, the popularity of San Francisco issues has trailed the other branch mints. But with the discovery and recent sales of the Brother Jonathan and S.S.

No one intentionally sets out to create a mediocre coin collection. But many collectors–new and old–make a number of basic mistakes that trap them into a cycle of mediocrity. Here are some suggestions that will make your collection better–and make you a better collector in the process.

For the new collector, one of the most difficult–and important–decisions he faces is what to collect. There are a number of factors that shape any eventual decision. These include price, practicality, availability of coins and aesthetics or personal taste. Nearly every collector, whether he is a seasoned veteran or brand new, has budget considerations.

In the past few years, there seems to have been an explosion in the availability of rare date United States gold coins. Many issues that were considered very rare a few years ago now seem almost commonplace. Is this actually the case–or is this perception totally incorrect? The correct answer lies somewhere in the middle.

About five years ago, a dealer who specialized in ultra-expensive United States coins had an advertising campaign that said, basically, your entire coin collection should be able to fit into a single PCGS/NGC coin storage box. Such a box holds exactly twenty coins. This was obviously an elitist sentiment and it was generally derided as being pretentious. But I thought it had some merit.

The Carson City ten-dollar gold piece or eagle series is the most difficult of the three gold denominations struck by this mint to collect. It contains the single rarest gold coin ever struck by this mint: the 1870-CC eagle, which is even rarer than its more celebrated and far more expensive counterpart, the 1870-CC double eagle. The completion of a Carson City eagle set is a very formidable task.