What’s the first image that comes into your mind when you think of wealth and prosperity? For many of us, it’s tall, shining stacks of gold. For families like the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Tiffany’s that gold took the form of these $10 U.S. Gold Liberties, struck by the U.S. Mint in 90% pure American gold.

They circulated widely in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but then tragedy struck. President Franklin Roosevelt made private gold ownership illegal in 1933, and millions of these beautiful, golden pieces of U.S. history were recalled and melted down into the gold bars now housed in Fort Knox. It’s estimated that less than 10% of all vintage U.S. gold coins still survive.