![]() Buying Gold Coins: Separating "Value" From "Price" That means you'll want to bone up on minting standards, grading, rarity, the completion of coin "sets," and display methods before you begin purchasing.īut if you're trying to establish a hard-asset reserve against the next financial Armageddon - or want to be able to sell at a profit next month or next year - then you are playing in our ballpark and are definitely an investor.Īnd means you should target the basic bullion coins. If you think the coin designs are beautiful, enjoy knowing about their designers and the history of the images depicted, and love how it feels to hold and look at them, then you're probably more of a collector than an investor. There's no wrong decision, but you do need to know - because that decision should determine just what kind of coins you are willing to buy. The most important step that you need to take is to determine just why, exactly, you wish to buy the gold coins in the first place.Īre you looking to buy them strictly as an investment - a hard-asset addition to a portfolio that's otherwise composed of stocks, bonds, funds and other such "intangible" assets? Or are you more likely to become a collector? And do you understand the difference between "price" and "value?".Are you an "investor" or a "collector?".Given these insights, if you still want to buy gold coins, you need to understand two things: And with some "collector" coins, investors are often chagrined to discover that there's virtually no secondary demand at all - making it almost impossible to sell them, let alone recouping one's investment. Then there's the "liquidity" issue: Gold coins can also be more difficult to sell than physical gold - particularly when it comes to very rare coins. That last valuation variable is especially subjective, since grading standards vary widely and appraisals can differ depending on which "expert" is evaluating a given coin. Instead, they're determined by subjective measures like scarcity, design, condition, and quality. Once that happens, gold-coin values become almost entirely divorced from the price of gold itself. With bullion-based coins, this markup is generally fairly modest - from 3% to 6% above the " spot price" for physical gold (though during periods of heated demand, coin premiums can approach - and sometimes even exceed - 25% or even 30%).īut you move away from bullion-based coins - and into the realm of rare or collectible coins - the markups become even more pronounced. The reason is simple: Due to the costs of minting and marketing, even the most basic of bullion coins carry a markup - a premium over the price of gold itself. Other than that, you can generally find better places for your investment dollars. I'm talking about bullion-based gold coins. ![]() First timers often arrive and are confused by all that's available - including rare and antique coins, and a numbing array of "collector" and "commemorative" coins.īut here's a rule of thumb that will make things simple: If you're an investor looking to bolster your portfolio with a modest helping of " hard assets," there's really only one category of gold coins to consider. dollar that continues to weaken - it's no surprise at all that the world coin markets are attracting buyers like moths to a flame. With gold having doubled in price over the last four years - not to mention a U.S. ![]() In fact, I'm going to let you in on a secret: If you're looking at gold coins as a true "investment," there's only one kind to consider. So does this mean you should run out and stock up on gold coins? In fact, as one bullion-dealer executive said in reference to India's fifth-largest city: "In Chennai, even the poor buy gold." Take India, where the State Bank of Travancore announced in late April that a program to sell gold coins through five of its branches would be expanded to 60 branches in a single months' time. Mint buyers ordered 107,000 ounces of bullion Gold Eagles - the third-best May in the series' 25-year history.Īnd this soaring interest in yellow-metal coinage isn't limited to the U.S. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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