Roosevelt’s Executive Order for American citizens to turn in all of their gold coins that were not collector’s coins. The United States repealed President Franklin D. Through the Great Depression and the first two World Wars, gold once again took centre stage, with the 1944 Brenton Woods agreement giving way to a new gold standard.American citizens could not legally own gold bullion coins until January 1, 1975. Gold maintained its importance to the Americans during and after the US civil war, giving way to the resulting gold rush of the 1870’s. This gave gold a fixed price as it pertained to the US dollar, allowing for gold and silver coins to become legal tender.

The United States congress also saw gold as a critical asset in politics, passing the Mint and Coinage act. Gold maintained its dominance across humanity throughout the times of the bible and Jesus himself, throughout the Roman empire and continued on during the dark ages. The Aztec and Incan cultures also coveted gold for the same reasons, using it as a status symbol to denote the various classes of people within their civilization. Later on, the ancient Greek culture adopted gold as a direct form of currency and glorified it as an asset fit for the gods themselves, enshrining the metal as one of the most important pieces of their culture. The Kingdom of Lydia was the first recorded civilization to use gold as a direct source of currency, whereas the Egyptians weaved gold into their already established agricultural forms of currency. For the Egyptians, gold held a special place to them and found its way into their well documented mythology, used in their most sacred structures and even took form as a hard type of money. The first widespread use of gold by a civilization occurred with the ancient Egyptians in around the year 3000 BC.

Whether it be in the form of jewelry, money or in industrial use, the history of gold is nothing short of fascinating. Gold’s journey throughout the ages is one with many twists and turns, highs and lows, yet it somehow always manages to maintain its universal allure to us. The timeless nature of the metal is hard to put into perspective when one considers that it has been influencing our decision making in various fashions dating back to 40,000 BC. There is simply no other asset, precious metal or otherwise, that has captivated every culture through every time period of our civilization like gold has. Gold has fascinated humans from the very first moment it was discovered and continues to do so today.

Us gold coin history