The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 33, August 13, 2006, Article 21

HARRY X BOOSEL AND THE ARAMCO SAUDI ARABIAN GOLD DISCS

John Eshbach writes: "As was noted in this week's E-Sylum, Harry
Boosel was Mr. 1873.  He also researched the gold discs struck at
the U.S. Mint in the 1940s.  His article in the July 1959 issue of
The Numismatist, "Why Those Saudi Arabian Gold Discs" is the sole
source for subsequence articles on this little known bit of American
numismatics.

Talking about the gold discs with John J. Pittman years ago, he
recalled being at the Philadelphia Mint at the time the discs were
being struck.  He said a single press located behind secure green
curtains was used.  The area was off limits but of course, John took
a peek behind the curtains to see what was being struck.  Harry X
Boosel was from Chicago and was the Industrial Security Administrator
of the Navy Material Inspection Service for the central United States.
He later moved to Florida and he or his wife Tilly occasionally
exhibited the two Saudi gold discs at ANA conventions."

[A web search found the following item from the September/October
1981 print edition of Saudi Aramco World:

"To collectors, however, the most interesting Saudi gold coins
weren't coins at all; they were "gold discs" Similar to coins, they
were minted by the Philadelphia Mint in the 1940's for Aramco, and
bore, on one side, the U. S. Eagle and the legend "U. S. Mint,
Philadelphia, USA" and, on the other side, three lines on the fineness
and weight. They looked like coins, they were used as coins, but,
technically, they weren't coins.

In the 1950's, numismatists were puzzled by these "discs" until-in
1957 - the story emerged in The Numismatist. Aramco, required to
pay royalties and other payments in gold to the Saudi government,
could not obtain the gold at the monetary price fixed by the United
States so the U. S. government specifically began to mint the "discs"
- actually bullion in coin form for these payments. In 1945, for
example, the mint turned out 91,210 large discs worth $20, and, in
1947,121,364 small discs worth $5, according to The Numismatist."

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

To see one of the 1945 coins recently auctioned by Heritage: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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