10 Florida Goldback | Aurum Gold Foil Note (24k)

Description

By 1912 a railway ran all the way to Key West, across open water. The 10 Florida gives that feat to Innovatio — Innovation — in the form of a flapper riding the Florida East Coast Railway with her ticket in hand.

The artwork

Henry Flagler pushed the FEC south and completed it with the Overseas Railroad, an engineering achievement that reshaped what the state could become. The note reads that history as freedom of movement: the flapper is the passenger who got the opportunity the line created, and the principle inscribed alongside her is “Innovative ideas build futures”.

The detail is precise rather than generic:

• The locomotive is modelled on FEC No. 153, tying the design to a specific machine and the milestones it ran through.
• The arches echo the Overseas Railroad itself, the span that joined Florida's east coast to the rest of the country.
• A sandwich tern, a brown pelican and dolphins carry the theme of forward momentum through the state's own wildlife.

Taken together it is a design about resilience as much as invention: the line was built, wrecked and rebuilt, and the artwork treats that as part of the achievement.

Who this note suits

The 10 is where the series stops being pocket money. It contains 1/100 of a troy ounce of 24-carat gold — twice the 5, ten times the 1 — and it is the largest denomination most UK collectors buy more than one of. If you are assembling a Florida set, this is usually the note that decides how serious the set is going to be.

It also suits display. At 14.28 cm long it holds its own in a frame in a way the smaller notes do not, and the railway composition reads well at arm's length.

The candid part: the premium over the gold price is lower here than on the small denominations, but it is still a premium, and a substantial one. A 1/10 oz Britannia or a small bar will give you more gold for the same money. Buy the 10 for the artwork, the format and the series, and treat the metal as the floor underneath it rather than the reason.

Make it part of your story

Choose a Florida design for a memory of the coast, a family connection or simply the detail that catches your eye. A gold note gives that choice a physical place in your collection.

The price includes artwork and manufacture as well as gold. Condition and collector demand can affect resale.

Specifications

• Contains 1/100 troy oz (0.01 oz) of 24-carat gold.
• Grade: (U) Crisp Uncirculated
• Metal content: 0.01 troy oz
• Purity: .999
• Thickness: 0.10 mm
• Size: 6.5 cm x 14.28 cm (2.56 in x 5.625 in)
• Manufactured in the USA.

The Florida Series

Each denomination carries its own original artwork and a proportional quantity of 24-carat gold. View all Florida Goldbacks, read the Florida collector guide, or browse every Goldback series.