From Coin Week, Silver Springs, Florida
Monday, December 29, 2025
They look like coins. They circulated like money. Yet the U.S. Mint never meant them to be coins at all.
In the mid-1940s the mint struck one of the most unusual forms of American gold ever produced: anonymous gold disks made not for collectors or commerce but to pay oil royalties to Saudi Arabia. These pieces sit at the crossroads of geopolitics, bullion, and numismatic mystery, and remain among the most counterfeited U.S.-minted gold items.
... Dispatch continues below ...
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During World War II and its aftermath, the Arabian American Oil Co., better known as ARAMCO, owed the Saudi government millions of dollars each year in oil royalties. The contract required payment in gold, not paper currency.
That requirement collided with reality.
The United States still fixed gold at $35 per ounce, while open-market prices soared far higher overseas. ARAMCO could not legally buy gold at market rates, yet Saudi Arabia refused further payment in dollars. The standoff threatened oil supplies vital to the postwar world.
Washington chose an extraordinary solution. The Philadelphia Mint struck special gold disks, bullion pieces shaped like coins but never authorized as legal tender. These disks carried weight and fineness statements instead of denominations, allowing the U.S. government to satisfy both gold restrictions and Saudi demands. ...
These disks tell a story no other U.S. gold can tell.
They represent American foreign policy pressed into bullion, and show how far the government would go to secure oil supplies.
This also challenges definitions of what a "coin" really is.
No other U.S. minted gold piece exists solely because a foreign government refused paper money. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
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Support GATA by purchasing
Stuart Englert's "Rigged"
"Rigged" is a concise explanation of government's currency market rigging policy and extensively credits GATA's work exposing it. Ten percent of sales proceeds are contributed to GATA. Buy a copy for $14.99 through Amazon:
https://tinyurl.com/3xt6uw66 [5]
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Help keep GATA going:
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
http://www.gata.org/node/16 [7]
Donations of $400 or more will entitle the donor to a 1-ounce silver round commemorating GATA's work:
https://www.gata.org/sites/default/files/GATA-silver-round-front.png [8]
