Wiktionary
n. 1 (&lit gold coin English) 2 (context Australia New Zealand informal English) A one-dollar or two-dollar coin.
Wikipedia
A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold.
Traditionally, gold coins have been circulation coins, including coin-like bracteates and dinars. Since recent decades, however, gold coins are mainly produced as bullion coins to investors and as commemorative coins to collectors. While also modern gold coins are legal tender, they are not observed in everyday financial transactions, as the metal value normally exceeds the nominal value. For example, the American Gold Eagle, given a denomination of 50 USD, has a metal value of more than 1,000 USD.
Together with gold bars, gold coins are possessed by central banks as gold reserves within the larger category of forex reserves. When most countries had a gold standard, gold was also used to back paper money: a specific banknote could, in theory, be exchanged into a specific amount of gold.
Gold has been used as money for many reasons. It is fungible, with a low spread between the prices to buy and sell. Gold is also easily transportable, as it has a high value to weight ratio, compared to other commodities, such as silver. Gold can be divided into smaller units, without destroying its metal value; it can also be melted into ingots, and re-coined. The density of gold is higher than most other metals, making it difficult to pass counterfeits. Additionally, gold is extremely unreactive, hence it does not tarnish or corrode over time.
Usage examples of "gold coin".
I allowed myself a moment to savor her unaccustomed elegance and realized she was enticing the knot of eager and noble youth around her to wager on the fall of a delicate set of applewood runes, tucking silver and gold coin discreetly into the little velvet bag on a ribbon at her waist.
But I had consulted many a map in recent years to find the location of East Anglia, and I soon saw below me an immense castle with ten rounded towers which I believed to be the very one engraved upon the gold coin which Raymond Gallant had long ago given me.
Willard had never even seen a gold coin, let alone felt or hefted one.
He stepped aside for a grey-haired man who counted solid gold coin into his palm.
Their arms have one gold coin and a hundred silver, upon a bloody sheet.
Separating these I was looking at a gold coin about the size of a half dollar, bright and shining as if it had just come from the mint.
She reached into the pocket of her blouse, and pulled out the gold coin he had thrown into the grave earlier that day.