Hello! I have been working on filling my Dansco7070 type album and now want to start focusing on the gold page. I do not have so much experience in purchasing gold coins and hope to get some input on what to look for in terms of quality and authenticity. I have already seen some potential coins I would like to buy - the two main types of quarter and half eagle. For instance these links - can I just looking at these photos evaluate if the authenticity and quality is in balance with the ask price? Thanks for any help and taking your time! Best, Lars Quarter Eagle - Liberty - 1856 - claimed uncirculated: Ask price $330 https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=101186945&fks=101186945 Quarter Eagle - Indian - 1908 - claimed uncirculated: $330 https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=101186630&fks=101186630 Half Eagle - Liberty - 1893 - claimed uncirculated: $470 https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=101187509&fks=101187509 Half Eagle - Indian - 1913 - claimed uncirculated: $460 https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=101186146&fks=101186146
to me they do show slight ware maybe about uncirculated, would be a more realistic condition so those prices would be on the higher side, just my two cents.
I bought my first gold coin a few weeks ago. Bought one of those $50 gold eagles (1 oz.). My first coin purchase in a few years after taking a break. Kind of fun to track/watch gold prices more closely.
The best rule of thumb for buying coins is this - only buy from trusted and respected dealers. Now you can use the word sellers in place of dealers if you want but in general you're going to have a hard time finding trusted and respected sellers who are not dealers. As for this - Maybe, but that depends on you and your abilities. Do you trust your ability to authenticate a coin based on a picture ? For what it's worth, I sure don't trust my own. At least not with most coins. What I mean by that is this, yeah bad counterfeits can often be identified in a picture. But good counterfeits, unless the pictures are very high quality and unless your knowledge, experience, and ability are superb - they rarely can be. Then you have to consider your own ability to grade coins based on a picture, and/or in person. If you do, fine. But if you don't, then you shouldn't be buying coins that way.
You can buy UNC slabbed examples for those prices easily and just crack them out, much safer option for your situation and will take a lot of the worry out of the equation.
Yup, ya can. But in this day and age you still have to worry about whether or not the slab is genuine, as well as the coin inside it. Any way ya look at it you cannot get away from that fact that buying from a trusted and respected dealer is your sole best option. It always has been, it always will be.
Right definitely have to still do your due diligence with slabbed coins as well and agree a respected dealer is the way to go. In this instance though when the coins linked are priced the same or more as certified as authentic options (and yes they certify fakes once in a blue moon that is beyond an outlier though) it's a no brainer for someone new to purchasing gold coins even if just to crack out for an album. TPGs garner a lot of criticism for many things from folks but one area where everyone should be on the same page is their enormous value in the exact situation as the OP. They allow safe(r) entry into the hobby. As for the fake slab situation, go with a newer NGC slab and use their images and that issue is eliminated.
I don't disagree that buying a slabbed coin is the better option. My only point is who you buy it from is still more important. It's kinda like buying a watch. Would you buy a watch from the guy selling them from his trunk in the grocery store parking lot - or a jewelry store ? Well, buying a coin, even a slabbed coin, from somebody you don't know from Adam is very much like buying a watch from the guy in the parking lot. In fact it's no different at all.
Assuming they're authentic (purely for sake of argument), the Indians are heavily circulated, and should sell for bullion value, cleaned or not. The Liberty gold is borderline AU-Uncirculated, and the price is a little high on both of them. As type coins, these are commonly found uncirculated. I'm assuming based on the links that you're located in Norway, and I don't know what the availability or going price is for AU-Uncirculated US gold is there, nor do I know the sales tax/VAT or import rules. As deceptive counterfeits exist of these coins, buy these from a trusted dealer if you have one locally, or one in the US. A place like Apmex, which is a huge bullion dealer in the US, always has plenty of these coins, and they are constantly adjusting prices to react to the price of gold. I don't know if there is a similar dealer you can deal with without incurring international shipping fees and customs fees.
I have recently seen two postings on our local Craigslist for gold coins - a one ounce AGE and a one ounce Maple Leaf - for $30 over spot. Would really love to, but really don't trust them that much.
