½ Utah Goldback - Alpha Edition (α) | Aurum Gold Foil Note (24k)

Emigration Canyon was the last stretch of the trail before the Salt Lake Valley opened up in front of the handcart companies. The ½ Utah Goldback puts you there, mid-climb, with Patientia at the handles.

The artwork

Patientia is endurance rather than mere waiting. She appears as a pioneer woman pushing a handcart through the rugged ground of Emigration Canyon, the final passage for the handcart companies who entered the Salt Lake Valley in the mid 1800s. Those travellers pressed on under extreme hardship and reached the valley only after months of gruelling travel, and the artwork is a record of that determination.

• Western meadowlarks flying above the pioneers — the hope and guidance needed to finish such a journey.
• Sego lilies in the foreground, Utah's state flower — heralds of survival and peace.
• Honeybees, the state insect, revealed in the UV layer swarming the lilies.
• Angels, also in the UV layer, walking beside the pioneers to guide their footsteps along the trail.

Every element points at the same idea: what the pioneers went through, and what it cost them to find patience inside the suffering. The enduring principle along the bottom reads "They shall walk and not faint" — Isaiah 40:31.

Who this note suits

The ½ sits between the ¼ and the 1, and it is bought for three reasons: completing a Utah set that would otherwise skip a denomination, gifting, and having something to hand round without worrying about it. It frames well alongside the ¼, since the two share a note size and read as a pair.

It holds 1/2000 troy oz of 24-carat gold. Put plainly, two thousand of these make one troy ounce, so the metal in a single note is a very small quantity.

The candid part: at this end of the range the premium over the gold price is high, because the design work, the polymer, the UV printing and the manufacturing are all paid for out of a fraction of a gram. If your aim is the most gold for your money, a Britannia, a Sovereign or a cast bar beats a ½ Goldback and it is not close. This note earns its place on artwork, format and collectability, not on gold per pound.

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 1/2000 troy oz (0.0005 oz) of 24-carat gold.
• Grade: (U) Crisp Uncirculated
• Edition: Alpha (α)
• Metal content: 0.0005 troy oz
• Purity: .999
• Manufactured in the USA.

The Utah Series

Utah was the first Goldback state series, and in 2026 it became the first to be refreshed. Each denomination carries its own original artwork and a proportional quantity of 24-carat gold. View all Utah Goldbacks or browse every Goldback series.