For the last few years, I have been asked by Maurice Rosen, publisher of the excellent Rosen Numismatic Advisory newsletter, to be a contributor to his annual Crystal Ball survey. This feature, which generally has the participation of a half dozen or so very knowledgeable dealers, is an excellent way for me to analyze the coin market and the questions asked by Maurice are diverse and interesting.

As double eagles are clearly the most popular and highest priced gold coins produced at the New Orleans mint, I thought it would be interesting to update each issue and see what has transpired since the publication of my book “Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint, 1838-1909″ last year. Taken as a whole, the market for these issues remains extremely strong.

Even though I am a dealer who has a reputation as being very pro-collector, I hadn’t actually collected anything numismatic (with the exception of 19th century books and catalogs) for a number of years. Being a dealer and a collector simultaneously is very difficult and I certainly did not ever want to find myself in a situation where I was debating whether to sell a new purchase or to keep it for my collection.

Until the establishment of the double eagle in 1849, the Eagle (or Ten Dollar gold piece) was the highest denomination produced by the United States mint. These coins were struck from 1795 through 1804 but this denomination was discontinued until 1838 when the new Gobrecht Liberty Head design was introduced. Early Eagles have proven to be very popular with collectors over the years.

Every few days I get asked the question “what should I collect?” I’d like to make some suggestions based on three different budget levels. A quick word on coin budgets before we delve into specifics. As a collector you should not overspend on coins. Buy within the parameters that make you comfortable. Spending $750 on a gold coin doesn’t make you any less of a collector than spending $75,000.

Need to get the rest of the article from Mary. In a recent blog (July 30, 2007) I discussed my criteria for what constitutes “originality.” Using this criteria, how available are Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans gold coins? In the first of what may be a multi-part series of articles, I’m going to look at C, D and O mint gold dollars and discuss their availability with original surfaces and color.