The American Eagle gold bullion coin was authorized by an act of Congress in 1985.  The political motivation for the program was to directly compete with the South African Krugerrand which had a massively unpopular apartheid government at the time.  The Act was cleverly designed to give American gold buyers an exact drop in for the Krugerrand, a 1 troy ounce coin, 91.67% pure gold.  As the coin is not 24K, it actually weighs 34.1 grams, the balance being made up with copper for the K-rand, and a small amount of silver for the Eagle.  They come in 4 sizes/weights 1 oz, 1/2 oz , 1/4 oz, 1/10 oz, an exact copy of the options available in Krugerrands.  There are two types of reverses, the image above a type 2 which began mintage in mid 2021. 

Further, the law required that the gold be American mined and American refined, so there was to be no going out on the international market to buy gold from South Africa to make planchets to supply the U.S. Mint.  This last requirement made sense in 1985, but with South Africa moving to a democratic government, it hamstrung the U.S. Mint in 2020 as US suppliers of planchets were unable to buy or refine gold from the international markets despite the American mines and refiners being shutdown due to Covid madates. 

Eagles are available in a variety of dates at a reasonable premium over spot. Check the Inventory or contact us for availability or any questions.