5 South Dakota Goldback | Aurum Gold Foil Note (24k)

South Dakota now sells more than $10 billion of agricultural produce in a typical recent year, and it is one of the top US producers of corn, soybeans and wheat. The 5 Goldback puts that on a note: Industria, in her first Goldback appearance, walking a farm at harvest.

The artwork

Industria means Industry, and she is not posed. She walks through the fields with one hand holding her hat and the other arm looped through a basket of corn, her sundress caught by a warm late summer breeze. She is smiling as she runs her hand along the leaves of the corn stalks beside her, heading towards a cornucopia piled with the harvest.

The setting is filled in properly rather than sketched:

• Corn, honey, hay, wheat, sunflowers, pumpkins and more surround her.
• Grain silos stand behind, one being filled by an auger and painted with the Stars and Stripes.
• The inscription reads “Abound in Good Works”.

The design came out of the artist's travels across the South Dakota plains along Interstate 90, near Rapid City. That country has a hard settler and homesteader history: crops that failed, neighbours who gave up, and those who kept working eventually taking in abundant harvests.

The sunflowers. Grown now for oil, birdseed and eating, with a long medicinal history behind them, they stand here for hard work earning credibility. They ask the viewer to stand tall and pay obeisance to the source of their blessings, as the flower turns to the sun each day. They also carry the idea of increase: more abundance, and seed to plant for the harvests after this one. Look towards light and truth, and teach the next generation to do the same.

The honey. Honey is the result of many generations of labour, and a long-standing symbol of working together and of hard work paying off. The honey bee is South Dakota's state insect, and its pollination is what lets plants set fruit at all; without it the world would starve. The note invites you to work as the bees do, using the spirit of industry to bring on the next harvest while still enjoying the present one.

Who this note suits

At 1/200 troy oz the 5 holds five times the gold of a 1 while staying an everyday purchase. It is the middle of the range, and the denomination most people settle on once they have handled a 1 and want more weight without a large jump in outlay. It also works well as a gift: the harvest imagery reads clearly to someone who knows nothing about gold, and the note is large enough to display properly.

The honest limitation is the same one that applies across the format. 0.005 troy oz is a small amount of metal and the premium over the gold price is substantial, so a Britannia, a Sovereign or a cast bar will beat this note on gold per pound without any argument. Buy the 5 for what it is: fractional gold you can actually hold, in a design worth looking at.

UK buyer notes

Yard Mint supplies Goldbacks from UK stock. They are treated as VAT-exempt investment-gold wafers, so there is no VAT to add at checkout.

Goldbacks are not UK legal tender. They can be bought, owned, sold, collected and voluntarily exchanged where both parties agree, but no UK business is required to accept one. They also do not share the Capital Gains Tax exemption that applies to Britannias and post-1837 Sovereigns, which are sterling currency. VAT and CGT are separate questions with different answers.

Resale depends on the gold price, the condition of the note and buyer demand at the time. A collector premium is not guaranteed.

This is general information, not personal tax or investment advice. Tax treatment depends on current rules and individual circumstances.

• Contains 1/200 troy oz (0.005 oz) of 24-carat gold.
• Grade: (U) Crisp Uncirculated
• Metal content: 0.005 troy oz
• Purity: .999
• Thickness: 0.10 mm
• Size: 6.5 cm x 13.01 cm (2.56 in x 5.125 in)
• Manufactured in the USA.

The South Dakota Series

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