25 Wyoming Goldback | Aurum Gold Foil Note (24k)

Description

A bride sitting on a fence with a lit lamp in one hand and a spare flask of oil in the other. The Wyoming 25 turns a two-thousand-year-old parable about being ready into a note holding 1/40 of a troy ounce of 24-carat gold.

The artwork

The virtue is Fidelitas, or Loyalty, illustrated for the first time on this denomination as a Wyoming ranch girl waiting for her groom to arrive at their wedding. Behind her stand the Grand Teton Mountains and the small log Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration, completed in 1925 and standing in Grand Teton National Park.

The reading borrows from the parable of the ten virgins in the Gospel of Matthew, drawing a line between filling your lamp with oil ahead of a long-anticipated event and the actions loyalty demands. Being genuinely loyal to someone or something means being prepared to act on their behalf when the right moment arrives. So Fidelitas sits on a wooden fence in simple wedding attire and a bridal wreath, a lit oil lamp in one hand, a cruse of oil in the other, under the inscription "Faithful to the End".

The rest of the design fills in what loyalty produces:

• Her faithful cattle dog lies at her feet, beside a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine and a small bowl of salt spilling onto the earth — three items with a deep Christian meaning of loyalty both given to and received from Jesus Christ.
• A cow behind her represents the plenty and blessing that follow from being a loyal person.
• Wheat grows in the foreground, ready to be harvested and sifted from the tares. It stands both for the harvest that loyal deeds yield and for the separating of those who are loyal from those who are not.

Who this note suits

The 25 is a collector's denomination first. At 1/40 troy oz it holds twenty-five times the gold of the reference note in a single 15.55 cm sheet, so it suits someone completing a Wyoming set, someone who wants the artwork at a size where the detail actually reads, or someone buying one significant note as a wedding or anniversary gift rather than a handful of small ones. It is also the tidier way to hold a given amount of gold in this series, since one note replaces twenty-five.

Be clear about the cost of that. The outlay per note is much higher than at the small end, and the premium over the spot gold price remains substantial — a Britannia, a Sovereign or a bar will still give you more gold for the same money, and by a wide margin. The larger note is also less practical for anyone whose interest is small, divisible pieces they might actually exchange. Buy the 25 for the design and the set, not for the metal maths.

Make it part of your story

Choose a Wyoming note for the landscape, the virtue or the person it brings to mind. Keep it in a sleeve and enjoy the detail with someone who shares your curiosity.

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

Specifications

• Contains 1/40 troy oz (0.025 oz) of 24-carat gold.
• Grade: (U) Crisp Uncirculated
• Metal content: 0.025 troy oz
• Purity: .999
• Thickness: 0.10 mm
• Size: 6.5 cm x 15.55 cm (2.56 in x 6.125 in)
• Manufactured in the USA.

The Wyoming Series

Each denomination carries its own original artwork and a proportional quantity of 24-carat gold. View all Wyoming Goldbacks or browse every Goldback series.