What a surprise to see a brilliantly gold dodecagonal 50 cent piece, quite a difference to our circulation Cupro-Nickel examples. For a hefty $2995 you too could own a 2009 dated gold 50 cent to mark the 40th anniversary of the first dodecagonal 50 cent first minted in 1969. This is a RAM struck coin minted for a "corporate order" as stated in the Downies sales ad. Hmmmm, what does that really mean??
The 2009 gold 50 cent features the Arnold Machin effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, the original portrait of the Queen as struck on the original 1969 issues. With a tiny mintage of just 800 coins struck of 0.999% pure gold weighing in at 33.63 grams. Just over a troy ounce of gold, this equates to approx $1520 worth of gold at current prices. Is it overpriced?
My opinion is yes, but if you are a keen collector of the 50 cent series it's going to be a must have..... if you can afford it. Born out of the lack of gold set issue for 2009, the 50 cent on it's own is much more achievable than an entire decimal coin set in gold for this year, imagine the price the RAM would put on that this year!
The gold sets were issued in 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2007 so it hasn't been a constant theme for the RAM to issue the sets. They have been limiting these to the more commemorative years. The price of gold rising steadily has obviously got the RAM marketing department thinking. An entire gold set would be an impossibility for an average collector but a single coin might just be achievable.
This coin is a real beauty, it's hard to say whether this will be a sellout or a flop issue. That's how it goes with coin collecting, sometimes it's potluck if you're collecting for profit but if you're collecting out of need then this is a must-have.
Posted by harrisk at March 19, 2009 7:21 PM
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