2107

1927 $20 St. Gaudens NGC MS64

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:275.00 USD Estimated At:550.00 - 650.00 USD
1927 $20 St. Gaudens NGC MS64
Lot of 3 coins.

Full glowing mint luster, the color of, well, gold! A precious commodity in 1927 as it is now. In the 1920s, when gold was the money and the fixed standard of value, the price of a gallon of gasoline was 17 to 19 cents; today, when gold is a "barbarous relic" of the past, and credit or paper takes the place of the "standard" we see ever-spiraling prices. Gasoline is well above $2.50 now here in the USA -- this could never happen were $20 gold pieces still the money of account and the standard backing America's currency.

Think of it this way: in 1927, the year of this one-ounce $20 gold piece, you could buy 105 gallons of gasoline with it (at 19c a gallon, the price back then). Today, with gold hovering at $440 an ounce, the same $20 gold piece, the same one-ounce (forgetting it's collector value) will buy you -- are you sitting down -- 176 gallons of gasoline! Try doing that with a $20 paper bill over the next 80 years and see what it buys you. (#9186)