For many collectors, the decision to focus on early United States gold coins is an easy one. These are some of the rarest, most historic and aesthetically appealing pieces ever produced by the United States mint. Once the decision has been reached to begin a collection of these coins, how do you start?

In their recent May 2009 Central States auction, Heritage sold a number of very important high grade Three Dollar gold pieces. These were from the American Princess collection which, to the best of my knowledge, was one of the top collections of business strike Three Dollar gold pieces to ever be assembled.

Since the publication of my book “The Insider’s Guide to Collecting Type 1 Double Eagles” in 2002, this has been one of the strongest and most avidly collected areas in the entire U.S. coin market. I think this is the case for three reasons: 1. Size: New collectors can relate to big, attractive coins and Type One double eagles are exactly the sort of coins that are easy for dealers to sell (and for collectors to buy). 2.

In the last few decades, specialized (and highly specialized) collecting has become all the rage in numismatics. But back in the day, anyone who was anyone collected coins by type. I believe that the type method of collecting still applies well to United States gold; especially those coins produced from 1838 through 1933.

Proof gold coinage has been called the “caviar of numismatics” – and with good reason. Everyone loves a nice Proof gold coin and there is no denying the rarity of these issues. But compared to Proof Bust silver coins, most Proof gold is common. I would contend that Proof Bust silver coinage is one of the most fascinating—and undervalued—areas in all of numismatics.

In the first part of this article, I discussed gold dollars, quarter eagles, three dollar gold pieces and half eagles priced below $5,000 that I felt were good values. In the second part, I am going to continue the same format but focus on eagles and double eagles.