The early gold coins of the United States have long been of interest. When numismatics first became a national hobby in the 1850s, some of the wealthier collectors sought specimens of this early coinage but the going was difficult because much of it had been melted over the years. Today, even those early gold coins that saw a fair amount of marketplace use are still the subject of spirited bidding when offered at public auction. The rarity of these early gold coins was due to a variety of causes, but the main problem was a decision made in 1791 but not understood for some years. When it finally became evident that a correction needed to be made, Congress, in a time-honored tradition, did nothing until 1834, more than 40 years later.
During the early 1780s, the Confederation government had wrestled with starting a national coinage, but little was accomplished. In 1784, Congressman Thomas Jefferson, later to become president, devised a well-thought-out scheme of coinage that involved all three metals: gold, silver and copper. The gold and silver metals were considered of equal importance under his plan; this was called bimetallism as opposed to a single-standard coinage system of gold or silver. In the end, the poverty of the Confederation government doomed the Jefferson plan, but in April 1789 the new federal government began operations, and it was soon under pressure from both business interests and the public to create a national coinage. In March 1790, the House of Representatives asked Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton for a comprehensive report on a mint and coinage. Hamilton’s report was completed
