American Arts Gold Medallions (1980-1984)

About This Coin

Conceived as the United States' answer to the South African Krugerrand and other foreign gold bullion coins, the American Arts Gold Medallions program (1980-1984) represented Congress's first attempt to offer Americans a domestically produced gold investment vehicle. The series honored ten prominent American artists, writers, and performers — including Grant Wood, Marian Anderson, Mark Twain, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Armstrong — with one-ounce and half-ounce gold medallions bearing their portraits. Despite the program's ambitious cultural vision, the American Arts medallions were a commercial failure: produced at the Philadelphia Mint with a combined mintage of only 1,375 pieces for some issues, the medallions lacked the legal tender status and face value that made competing products like the Canadian Maple Leaf and the soon-to-be-introduced American Gold Eagle more attractive to investors. The program was discontinued after 1984, and Congress authorized the American Eagle bullion coin program in 1985 as its replacement. Within the U.S. Mint Medals series, American Arts Gold Medallions occupy a unique niche as a failed but fascinating experiment in American bullion policy, and their low mintages have transformed commercial failures into numismatic successes. A notable auction result reached $2.5K in MS67 grade at eBay, with the scarcest issues commanding premiums that their original buyers could never have anticipated.