hi, I'm fourteen years old, and I have a few silver coins, but not many (3 kennedy halves 1 franklin half 3 rosies and 3 mercs). and I was wondering if I were to invest in silver or gold, which one should I go for? Since i'm 14, I am on a budget of $35 a month, but I can save up money for silver or gold. I'm wanting it for a long term investment into them because the market for both metals is probably just going to go up. And not to mention christmas is coming up, and my birthday is a few months afterwards, so there is some extra money too. Also, if i were to go for one, what should i look for bars or coins? Thanks, Mizozuman2
Personally I wouldn't worry so much about "investment" at 14. I know your head is in the right place, but you have plenty of years for that. I would concentrate on education, learning the coin market, how to grade, how to buy and sell, etc. If I were advising my son of 14, I would suggest if he really wanted to have exposure to PM, but also liked coin collecting, to combine the two. Pick a series that the cost is mainly the bullion value of the coin, but collect the set. Franklin halves or the WL short set are two that come to mind. Work on getting the best coins you can for close to bullion value and complete those sets. When you are done, you will have learned grading, how to select coins, and hopefully enjoyment that comes from pursuing a goal rather than simply accumulating more bullion. Just my opinion. Chris
well, i am starting a collection of rosies (1946-present). so would that be a good set to start on? i am thinking about the franklin sets, but i'm not really close to any actual coin collecting shops for a good 30-45 minutes. and i don't really trust people on the "bay"...
I would say silver. I am 16 and when silver was $20 an ounce I just got an ounce a week and you can see thats a pretty penny. With $35 a month, your best off getting silver.
I aim for 100 to 1 silver/gold ratio...Once you have 10 ounces of silver you should try to save for a 1/10 ounce gold coin.
Mizozuman2, I was going to suggest Roosevelt Dimes to you but you beat me to it by starting a set. TAKE IT SLOW and study the fine points of this coin. A good Roosie book would really help. Most of the dates can be obtained in MS grades for less than $100. They get really expensive starting 1949-P&S,1950-S,1955-P, 1961-P--TO DATE. Very Good Luck to You. zeke
It's tough to start on gold with a $35 budget, you could always try out the gram bars and the1/10th gold eagles will set you back close to $200. With the price of silver right now, you could easily do bars and rounds. But if you're considering working on the series one rosies then that would be a fun project and you should be able to fill that one fast with the budget. Best of luck to you on whatever you choose, its going to be fun either way.
roosevelts are a good place to start. you think maybe 3 bucks a pop, you could complete your set in a few months.
At age 14, coins make a wonderful hobby but a terrible investment - especially since the prices are much higher now than a few years ago. Buy them because you like them but not for appreciation. There are stock mutual funds that will permit you to open an account and add to it every month or two. Over the long term, that will most likely provide a far greater investment return.
$35/month would by some nice MS graded & slabbed Franklin Halves over the year. You get silver, plus IMHO, a good shot at collector appreciation.
Kudos to you for thinking about your future, mizozuman2. There are many things to consider when investing in coins. For one, if and when you plan to sell you will need to pay capital gains tax, so keep receipts for all purchases and sales so you can accurately claim that, and not have to worry about the IRS which can be a real pain. Keep in mind that to break even on a sale you will need spot price to rise about $5 bucks since you will buy for over spot and often sell for less than spot, so investing for the long term is the way to go if you are interested in precious metals. There is no guarantee they will outperform other asset classes, but the one thing they do provide is the promise that they will always have some level of value no matter what. They can't go to zero like paper assets can. I have posted numerous times around here that I think silver is the best investment, primarily because it has very little supply above ground, the lowest in 7 centuries, less than a year's worth of mining supply, and mining supply does not meet total demand. As for whether coins or bars, I prefer coins because they are easier to test for counterfeiting and have nice designs, but if you like bars go for Johnson Matthey or Engelhard since they have serial numbers and will keep their premiums. In both cases I am referring to 999 fine bullion. I also like 90% US coinage but prefer the better purity stuff. 1 oz of silver right now is slightly more than your monthly allowance. While I do like gold and platinum, I like silver better since it is a monetary metal and its industrial demand its will continue to rise, where as gold has no industrial demand and platinum is used in special cases. Silver however is the best thermal conductor of any metal, best semiconductor of electricity, and most reflective metal. It's not just the best metal for these technological uses, but it's also better than anything man made, and it is a finite resource that can only be created by a supernova.
I agree with Inflexion. Silver prices although they are up overall, should be much higher! The price of gold is too volatile, too expensive. Once the econ recovers and the fed stops printing (if that ever happens), gold will crash again. I think that at your age you should be more worried about learning coin grading, market trends in the precious metal market, etc. On your budget, you can probably get a silver bullion coin every 1.5 months. Silver eagles are a great place to start. Oh and one more thing... enjoy being 14! Do well in school, get a good job, make a lot of money, then you can buy any coin you want!
[video=youtube;spB7EM1sbRY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spB7EM1sbRY[/video] Welcome to the forum dear fellow......
This doesn't make sense to me. If silver prices "should be much higher" they would be higher. Silver prices are already above the cost of production, so that is no longer the tailwind it used to be. If the demand for physical was there, the price would be higher. So I think it might be correct to say that silver prices are likely to go higher [for a variety of reasons, including pure speculation], but right here and now they are where they are supposed to be. Supply and demand really works. Regarding gold, it is almost always less volitile than silver and if gold crashes, so will silver. At least that's been the historical relationship, so it's probably the way to bet until new information becomes available.
