New Circulation Gold Issue, When Was The Last Time A Country Issued Gold Intended For Circulation? (2024)

Report this Post to the Staff

Zimbabwe has a population > 15M. I don't see how releasing 2K 1 oz gold coins would have much of an effect on the inflation rate there.
https://furtherafrica.com/2022/07/2...-gold-coins/

To answer the question in the title ...

This Iranian gold coin struck as late as 1973 purports to have been a gold coin for circulation: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces33381.html

Maybe there was something even later?

It seems that the 100 Latu gold coin from Latvia struck in 1998 was the last gold coin intended for circulation.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces46991.html

Edited by NumisEd
10/30/2022 4:53 pm

Although the 100 Latu may have legal status as circulation coin,
I doubt that it ever freely circulated. Much more of a minor store of wealth, made available to the Public.

Numismata indicates that it is .998 pure.
Pure gold is way too soft to be practicable for normal circulation.
NGC lists 100 Latu in proof only
I guess that it was freely available for sale over the counter from issuing banks, to confirm it's legal basis as a circulating coin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a more general sense,. gold coins in most countries around the World had been withdrawn from

by 1914, just before WW1, to be replaced by paper for gold coin exchangeable Notes. Gold coins continued to be minted to back up the Note issue.

Very few gold coins were minted after 1932, when most countries around the World came off the 'Gold standard'.
After this time, Notes were no longer exchangeable for gold coin.

Today, gold coins are available for purchase for private bullion purposes, or, (in proof form, at a large premium), for collectors.

Quote:
It seems that the 100 Latu gold coin from Latvia struck in 1998 was the last gold coin intended for circulation.

That's probably a translation error. Nobody would make .999 gold "for circulation"; it's too soft.You'd lose too much gold though wear and tear.

The only people who have made "circulating gold coins" post-1933 have been for ideological reasons. Islamic State, for example, made "circulating" gold and silver coins for use within their zone of control, in order to comply with their extreme interpretation of Sharia Law. They probably never really saw "circulation" in the conventional sense of that word, as not even Sharia Law can overpower Gresham's Law, especially in the middle of a warzone.

The new Zimbabwe gold coins have already been discussed, in this old thread.

I'm under the impression that financial events of WWI, global recession and WWII led to the demise of circulating gold coins

The idea to circulate gold coins in todays world should be put to rest. Imagine getting paid in gold coins and not knowing if they are gold plated toxic metal.

My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseries
My numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htm
Regularly updated at least once a month.

During the latter part of the 19th Century gold coins did in fact circulate, but in many countries, they circulated in parallel with an equivalent note issue.
In the Australian example, Half Sovereigns specifically intended for circulation were struck in about 10% of the numbers of their full Sovereign date equivalents. Thus the Half Sovereigns (especially those dated from 1855 to about 1870), sustained much more wear than full sovereigns, and so Half Sovereigns in high grades are more valuable to collectors than the equivalent dated sovereigns of this period.

In the Middle East during this time, gold was much more trusted than Notes. British Gold Sovereigns bearing a fixed date of 1925 commonly circulated throughout the Middle East up until the start of WW2, and after that time, were used as a store of private wealth.

These days gold is traded on World markets just like any other commodity, such as base metals crude oil or wheat, but it is still used as a store of wealth by national treasuries and private individuals.

Edited by sel_69l
10/31/2022 6:31 pm

Tonga released the Gold Koula in 1962 and these were meant to circulate at £4 each with the half and quarter Koula as well. Of course most Tongans in 1962 were extremely poor and could not have these coins in their pockets.

£4 in 1962 had the buying power of around $150, but most people in Tonga were subsistence farmers and the average wage was 4/- for a day's work. Hence the use of the 4/- notes there in Tonga and Samoa and later ½ Pa'anga notes along with the 50 cent note of Fiji. Fijian and NZ coins were used in Tonga in the 1950s and 1960s until 1967 when the decimal Pa'anga was released.

Most of the Gold Koula coins were brought up by collectors in America and Europe, where gold ownership laws were less restrictive. I have several coin magazines from the 1967 - 1978 period, and all mention how gold ownership was banned in 1967 except for pre 1838 collectors coins and then heavily restricted by 1974 to be investment only grade.

My guess is many of the Koula sold to Arabs, who were using sovereigns as currency through the 30s to 70s, in fact that was why The Royal Mint started making sovereigns again in 1957 - to serve that Arab market.

There was a rash of collectors gold coins with face values often above metal value from around 1967 onwards, mostly from 3rd world countries like Guinea, Haiti, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Fujeira etc.

In the west it seems 1932/33 was when they put the kibosh on circulating gold. The last Commonwealth gold was 1932 dated half and one sovereigns minted in Pretoria, South Africa (Australian and British minted coins stopped in the 1920s), and the USA of course very early 1933, where the FBI went gangbusters on anyone with a gold coin from 1933 or later.

One of the problems with circulating gold currency is the unstable price of the metal. Before 1968 price was steady at $35 per troy ounce, and regulated at that level. By 1973 (post Bretton Woods) the price was in a range of $65 to $125 an ounce. It is impossible to have a stable circulating currency if the value of the metal exceeds the face. All the coins disappear from circulation immediately.

In 1976, Canada started issuing proof $100 coins containing one half ounce gold. They were made of coin metal, so theoretically could have circulated, and they were made in substantial quantities (ca 200,000 per year). In 1976 US/CAD dollars were close to par, and the price of gold was in a range of $100 to $140 US per troy ounce, so the gold value of the coins was less than the $100 face. These coins COULD have circulated, in theory anyway, because there was no value in melting them. But by 1986, gold had reached the $350 per troy ounce range, making the metal far more valuable than the $100 face. Canada stopped making them and switched to making undenominated gold bullion rounds. These have a face value, but it is far less than the value of the gold.

Edited by thq
11/02/2022 09:45 am

Quote:
That's probably a translation error. Nobody would make .999 gold "for circulation"; it's too soft.You'd lose too much gold though wear and tear.

AFAICT the trick is that the coin was released at face value (the gold prices at the time allowed that), and, as far as I can tell from the official announcement, they hadn't realized that there's a reason most circulating gold coins contained deliberate impurities, and thought that .999 would make it more desirable as gold.
So, nominally intended to circulate, probably didn't see any actual circulation.

IIRC there had been some even later issues of legal-tender gold coins at face value, though. (For silver it's still fairly common, but I'm not sure about gold.)