[Jim Verdolini]

“Gold and silver has practical purposes, but their main value comes from them being pretty. The materials historically have value, and maintain their value primarily because people believe them to have value. They really don’t have as much “intrinsic” value as you credit them with”

OK, lets shift the argument a bit. I have a few double eagles from the US Mint that have a ‘value’ of $50 on the coin. The 1 OZ gold vale, the real value, is almost $800. Is not the government selling me a coin with a government value value 1/16 of its actual value and is that not fraud?

By government value, I mean, the amount of goods I can legally ourchase across the counter with my $50 gold piece even though the coins is worth 16 times more than that on the commodities market.

[bcsco]

I have a few double eagles from the US Mint that have a ‘value’ of $50 on the coin. The 1 OZ gold vale, the real value, is almost $800. Is not the government selling me a coin with a government value value 1/16 of its actual value and is that not fraud?

What did you pay per coin for possession?

[untrained skeptic]

Those are uncirculated coins that are meant for collectors. They don't want to mint them with a face value that might somehow be worth more than what they are selling them for as collector's items because they would then get people turning them back in for cash. Therefore the face value will always be lower than the value of the gold, and obviously lower than the price they charge for them.

It's not fraud because they make no secret of the fact that you are paying far more for the coin than it's face value.