Why didn’t the U.S. Mint strike any $20 gold coins until 1849?
There simply was no need for that large a coin in an era when a day’s wages were counted in cents rather than dollars. A $20 coin would have been equal to several month’s wages for most people, so there was no point in making them. Even when the economy reached the point where the coin had some practical purpose, that purpose was merely to provide banks with an easy to handle bulk coin that could be stored to serve as a reserve to back the business. Even in the heyday of the $20 gold piece there were few people who could afford, or needed, to carry even one or two of the coins in their pocket. Why was the 1845-0 quarter eagle first described as “Unlisted in the Mint Director’s Report,” and then given a mintage figure of 4,000? The coin was not listed originally in the director’s report because it was struck in January of 1846 and included with the coins of that year. A search of the Mint archives discovered a delivery by the coiner of 4,000 pieces on Jan. 22, 1846, which happened to be
