Gold coins that were money first
These coins were not made for investors. They were made to be spent — a pound, twenty lire, twenty francs, fifty pesos — and they are bought today for the gold in them. That double life is what makes them the odd corner of a bullion market otherwise made of coins minted to be bought.
| coin | fine gold | purity | struck | typical price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sovereign | 7.32 g | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | United Kingdom · since 1817 | — |
| Marengo 20 Lire | 5.81 g | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | Italy · 1861–1897 | — |
| Napoléon 20 Fr | 5.81 g | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | France · 1803–1914 | — |
| Vreneli 20 Fr | 5.81 g | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | Switzerland · 1897–1949 | — |
| 50 Pesos | 37.50 g | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | Mexico · 1921–1947 | — |
The Sovereign has been struck since 1817 and has never stopped: 7.3224 grams of fine gold in a 22 carat alloy hard enough to survive a pocket. It is the small coin of the European market, quoted by nearly every dealer on this map, which is exactly what makes its spread worth looking at — the same coin at forty shops is a clean read on who is cheap.
The 20-franc coins of the Latin Monetary Union — the Italian marengo, the French Napoléon, the Swiss Vreneli — carry 5.8064 grams each and have their own page, because they are three coins of one standard rather than three coins of one era.
The 50 pesos is the outlier: 37.5 grams of fine gold, more than an ounce, struck for the centenary of Mexican independence in 1921 and restruck ever since with the 1947 date. It is the largest coin on this site and, gram for gram, often among the cheapest — a big coin is less workmanship per gram of gold.
A historic coin carries one risk a modern bullion coin does not, and it has nothing to do with price: the market uses the same word for different coins. Marengo names the 20 lire here and also a Napoleonic 20 francs of 1801; Helvetia names the Vreneli and also an earlier Swiss 20 francs. Read the year and the weight on the dealer’s page, not the name.