Although the double eagle was not authorized until 1849, fifty-seven years after the act which authorized the eagle, half eagle, and quarter eagle, more double eagles have been coined than of any other denomination of gold, and the intrinsic value thereof is more than twice that of all the other gold coins put together. The total value of all gold coined in the United States Mints, except the double eagles, from the organization of the Mint in 1792 to June 30, 1897, is $548,840,918. The value of the double eagles coined since 1850 (the first year of their coinage) to June 30, 1897, is $1,337,498,040.
A circular issued by the United States Treasury Department says, "The total coinage of gold by the mints of the United States from 1792 to June 30, 1897, is $1,886,338,958, of which it is estimated that $671,676,250 is now in existence as coin in the United States." The pamphlet explains in detail the basis upon which the estimate of the gold coin in the United States was established, and says, "It will be seen that more than two thirds of the gold coins struck at the mints of the United States have disappeared from circulation." This is an astounding statement. What has become of all this vast store of gold, amounting in value to $1,214,662,708, or more than ninety per cent of the value of the entire issue of double eagles?
It is not a mere theory of mine that the disappearance from circulation of about two thirds in value of all the gold coins struck at
$20 gold piece. Clark, Gruber & Co., Denver. 1861.
the mints of the United States is due in part to the preponderance of coinage of double eagles. Thirty-seven years ago the director of the Mint called attention to the matter in his official report as follows: "The chief design of a National Mint is to subserve the interests of the people at large preferably to a few large owners of bullion or coin. The interests of the public and of depositors are not always concurrent in the matter under discussion. . . . The plain effect of issuing gold coin of a large size is to keep down the circulation of specie, and increase the use of paper money."
