I know it's more or less a gimmick that Swarovski branded some of the Canada silver rounds. But, they're really neat looking from the pictures I've seen. Anyway, what is the actual spot value of the gems set into the coins?
The wife sometimes gets their (Swarovski) beads/gems for her beading projects. Can't picture them in/on coins..........
I think it's a nice change of pace over, say, enameling or paint. I'd probably prefer gold gilding/plating over it though. I also prefer the ones where they're integrated with the relief design of the devices, such as on the eyes of these critters, as opposed to the randomly designated gem ones:
I'm not sure where to get Mongolian coins save for eBay, Amazon, etc. Maybe slabbed would be a good idea if going that route. And, I mistook the two coins I posted to be from Canada instead of Mongolia lol. Swarovski is really branching out!
It is just expensive leaded glass. Several are coated with a colored/rainbow, etc. to give a color. Nice glass, but most that size are cut by machines in India or elsewhere, value is what additional the market will pay for in the coin, about zero by its self. Now if it was a genuine ruby chip, it would add .50-1.00. Buy the coin, not the gimmick.
Yeah, the relief details are great on the coin by itself. They could have made the eyes pop out some other way (e.g. gold gilding), but it's still nice to make it stand out as many of these night creature's eyes glow at night.
IMO, for the bullion pieces being offered by the global mints (Canada, Perth, etc...) in low mintages, buy them because you think they're cool, not because you think the low mintage means increased value in the future. Some of the new bullion, IMO, lacks general detail. For example, some of the Canadian design renditions of the bald eagle, IMO were comical. They looked more like chickens than eagles. But the Australian Wedge Tailed Eagle design, IMO, was very cool and I bought 2 of them. I bought them graded because I wanted that little extra level of protection from the elements. In short, IMO, buy these bullion coins for the pleasure of the design, not because you think they'll go up in value.
