50 Oklahoma Goldback | Aurum Gold Foil Note (24k)

Oklahoma averages more than 60 tornadoes a year, including some of the most powerful on Earth. The 50 puts the response on the note rather than the disaster: a woman kneeling steady in the grass with a funnel already turning behind her.

The artwork

The virtue is Vigilantia, Vigilance. She kneels in tall prairie grass, composed rather than braced, while the tornado spirals across the skyline. Her equipment case in the foreground carries the name Vigilantia, stated plainly rather than symbolically.

What sits behind her is real working kit from Oklahoma's severe-weather research, a field the state is known for worldwide:

• A Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar unit.
• A mobile mesonet vehicle.
• A weather balloon.

The reading the design invites is a specific one. Oklahoma does not simply endure its storms; it leads the science of understanding them, and the character of its people tends to show most clearly in the days after one has passed.

Inscribed at the bottom is 1 Corinthians 16:13: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.”

Who this note suits

The 50 holds 1/20 of a troy ounce of 24-carat gold, fifty times the metal in a 1 note. It is also a physically bigger format at 7.6 cm x 16.4 cm, wider as well as longer than the notes below it, and detail that is fiddly on a small denomination has room to breathe here.

It suits a collector completing an Oklahoma set from the top down, or a buyer who wants a single note as a display or gift piece. Premiums per gram fall as the denomination rises, so this is among the more efficient ways into the format.

Efficient is relative, though. You are still paying well above the gold price, and 1/20 oz of gold in coin or bar form costs considerably less. If you want metal, buy metal. If you want this artwork in gold, buy the note.

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 1/20 troy oz (0.05 oz) of 24-carat gold.
• Grade: (U) Crisp Uncirculated
• Metal content: 0.05 troy oz
• Purity: .999
• Thickness: 0.10 mm
• Size: 7.6 cm x 16.4 cm (3.0 in x 6.46 in)
• Manufactured in the USA.

The Oklahoma Series

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