"Big Easy" Gold… No April Fooling

 

Today, many Americans associate New Orleans with Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, Creole culture and Southern charm. What few realize is The Big Easy was also an economic powerhouse in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

As of the mid-1800s, the city was the fifth largest in the nation, its port was the third busiest, and it was the South’s undisputed hub of finance and trade.

 

Not surprisingly, this prosperous city required a tremendous amount of hard money to fuel its commercial activity. This is why the United States opened one of its first branch mints in New Orleans.

 

As is typical for the branch mints, the New Orleans facility struck far fewer coins than the ‘mother’ Philadelphia Mint. As a result, ‘O-mint’ gold coins are dramatically scarcer than their Philadelphia, or even their San Francisco counterparts.

 

In 1901, for instance, the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints collectively produced 4,500,000 $10 Liberty coins. The New Orleans location struck just 72,041! Despite the wide differences in mintages, not all New Orleans gold coins are getting the recognition they deserve. In particular, the $10 gold Liberty coins appear dramatically undervalued.

This month, we’re pleased to offer a group of New Orleans $10 Liberty coins in Uncirculated condition dated 1888-1906. Despite selling for under $1,500 per coin, these pieces are shockingly difficult to find. We started accumulating these pieces last summer, thinking we could locate at least 100-200 coins.

 

Unfortunately, we only found 53 pieces, despite searching everywhere we could in the marketplace. During that same time period, we could have bought literally thousands of common date Uncirculated $10 Liberty coins from the Philadelphia or San Francisco Mints – but, New Orleans coins were few and far between.

 

ASI is excited to offer these coins which have proven to be scarce. Call 800-831-0007 or email me today to add these hard-to-find coins with real potential to your portfolio. Our limited supply will not last long at this price.

 

 

When the first United States Mint was founded in 1792, America’s territory and population was very much concentrated along the eastern seaboard. The vast majority of all commerce and trade took place between Baltimore and Boston, thus, the Philadelphia Mint was superbly located.

 

Furthermore, American money was just one of many currencies that circulated in North America. Merchants would happily accept Mexican, Spanish, British, French or even Dutch coinage - basically any trustworthy coin was accepted.

 

Over the following 20 years, America’s boundaries and population centers shifted dramatically. With the Louisiana Purchase, the United States absorbed France’s important city of New Orleans and a tremendous swath of Western land. Frontiersman began settling in the hills of North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. All of a sudden, Philadelphia was no longer at the center of American population or trade - the need for branch mint locations emerged.

 

In 1835, the U.S. federal government authorized three branch mints:

The first two were opened more as a matter of convenience; gold had been discovered near those locations, and the government wished to produce coinage near the mines themselves.

 

The New Orleans facility was opened to service the needs of local merchants and bankers. At the time, Mexican gold coins were plentiful in Louisiana, but the United States preferred to have its own currency circulate in the South.

 

While the city of New Orleans was prosperous, the Mint itself saw limited success. The building was constructed on swampy lowland, leading to many floods and structural issues. Its equipment was not always as sophisticated as the presses used in Philadelphia - many New Orleans coins exhibit weak strikes and incomplete design detail. Even the Mint’s reputation for accuracy was questioned; a newspaper once accused the mint of not knowing how to conduct a proper assay!

 

The New Orleans Mint experienced further difficulty in 1861, when Confederate troops seized control of the building as the Civil War began. Remarkably, the Mint would not reopen until well after the war concluded. The facility officially reopened in 1876, but not a single coin was struck there until 1879.

 

Even after production resumed, the primary focus was on silver dollars, not gold. As demonstrated by mintage records, the New Orleans Mint clearly dedicated the majority of its resources to striking silver Morgan dollars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1904, for example, the Mint produced over 3.7 million silver dollars compared to just 108,950 $10 gold Liberty coins.

 

       1. rarity vs. the most common date, and,

       2. price vs. the most common date.

 

We found eleven O-mint $10 Liberty coin dates rarer than the most available ‘generic’ date. These dates have total populations of 600 pieces or less in MS61, compared to a population of over 18,000 for the most common 1893 Philadelphia issue.

 

Such a dramatic difference in rarity would suggest a tremendous premium. In actuality, these particular dates trade for less than double the generic price. A common-date MS61 $10 Liberty currently wholesales for $750-$800. These New Orleans $10 Liberty coins can be purchased for less than double the price. Simply put, there is a major disparity between price and rarity.

 

Over the past year, we have put together this small group of coins that meet our criteria. The following dates we are offering have an average PCGS/NGC population of less than 280 coins. Meaning they are on average 67 times rarer than a common date MS61 $10 Liberty coin.

 

       1888-O

       1892-O

       1893-O

       1894-O

       1895-O

       1897-O

       1899-O

       1901-O

       1903-O

       1904-O

       1906-O

 

Even the highest population of the dates above is over 31 times rarer than a common date MS61 $10 Liberty coin. We have done the hard work; all you need to do now is…

 

 

The New Orleans Mint has a fascinating history that involves America’s early expansion and the Civil War. Not only does it have an intriguing back story, but the Mint produced some of America’s scarcest gold coinage. Many O-mint coins trade for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, in any grade, while others remain severely underappreciated.

 

We see New Orleans $10 Liberty coins in MS61 as being severely undervalued. These historic Uncirculated New Orleans Eagles are wildly rarer than their common Philadelphia and San Francisco counterparts, yet they can be purchased for a modest premium. The rationale behind these coins can be boiled down to one sentence: over thirty (30) times rarer for less than double the price. Coins with this kind of superb ratio seldom stay undervalued, or in our inventory - for long.

 

This month, we have just 53 of the following MS61 $10 Liberty gold coins (certified by either NGC or PCGS):

 

 

All coins are minted at the New Orleans Mint in the following dates:

 

       1888-O

       1892-O

       1893-O

       1894-O

       1895-O

       1897-O

       1899-O

       1901-O

       1903-O

       1904-O

       1906-O

 

This is the delivered price.* There is no additional cost for shipping, handling or insurance. While supplies last, the price you see is the price you pay.

 

Call – 800-831-0007 - or e-mail me today to purchase your coins and to take advantage of this low price before the market discovers the price anomaly.