2023 1 oz American Buffalo Gold Coin (BU) 0.9999 Fine Gold

  

This 1 oz coin was the first in the U. Mint's history made from pure 0.9999 fine gold (that's 24k gold - in the coin world, we generally use "millesimal" fineness, or purity measured by thousandths of an ounce). Interestingly, the first modern U. Gold bullion coin, the American eagle, is minted in 22-karat crown gold (just like the Krugerrand). The global popularity of Canada's pure gold maple leaf coins convinced the U. Mint that Americans needed their very own pure gold coin. Thus, the American buffalo gold bullion coin was born. The American gold buffalo's design pays homage to the Wild West period of American history. Its gold content reminds us that, when the West was won, bounties were paid and bets were settled in real gold and silver. Get your very own piece of timeless Americana today! 2023 1 oz American buffalo gold bullion coin highlights. One troy ounce of 24-karat gold, the first coin from the U. Mint made from 0.9999 pure gold. These legal-tender coins are minted at West Point and are guaranteed for weight and purity by the U. If you order 10+ of the same coin, we'll secure them in protective tubes instead. The American gold buffalo coin's design in detail.

The gold buffalo features the celebrated artist James Earle Fraser's 1913 portrait of an indigenous American chieftain on the obverse side. Similarly to the design of the American gold eagle, this "portrait" isn't a specific person's face.

Rather, it's a composite of several different individuals who posed for Fraser, including Chief Two Moons of the Cheyenne nation, Chief Iron Tail of the Oglala Lakota tribe, and Chief Big Tree of the Kiowa. John Big Tree, of the Seneca Nation, also posed for Fraser and claims the finished design uses his "profile from his forehead to his lip" - a claim Fraser disputed. Fraser's finished design has become an icon, representing the indigenous peoples who roamed the Great Plains for centuries before the first cowboy ever climbed on a horse. The reverse of the American gold buffalo coin shows a rugged American bison (aka buffalo) standing side-on. American bison roamed the great plains in uncountable numbers until the age of steam engines and gunpowder nearly drove them to extinction. Together, the idealized Native American portrait and the buffalo symbolize the era of the Wild West, the last time our nation had an unexplored wilderness. The last time an American could get a fresh start by simply packing up and walking toward the sunset. An era before technology wrestled the unruly wildlands into submission - a time that many of us yearn for, whose passing many of us mourn. When James Earle Fraser was four years old, his family moved to South Dakota, where he lived in a boxcar, slept on the floor wrapped in painted buffalo skins, and learned to make arrowheads from Sioux children. He began sculpting intensely after he spoke to his neighbor, an amateur sculptor, and found out about a stone quarry near his house where he could find plenty of slabs to carve. He eventually studied in France, where he received a prize from the American Art Association of Paris. He was commissioned to create sculptures for the Supreme Court, Archives, and Department of Commerce buildings, as well as historical, presidential, and military portraits. Despite his time away from South Dakota, the people and places he discovered as a child never left him. He also designed the Buffalo Nickel and the United States Victory Medal, and was the recipient of the gold medal for sculpture from the National Institute and American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fraser married his former student, artist Laura Gardin, and they lived and worked together in Connecticut with their two cocker spaniels, ? This item is in the category "Coins & Paper Money\Bullion\Gold\Coins".