Is junk gold a thing like junk silver?

I’ve noticed with some particular coins like the Austrian 100 Corona gold coin it’s actually cheaper than buying gold in bar form.

This coin is 0.9802 troy oz. It contains slightly more gold than a $20 Double Eagle which has 0.9675 try oz.




Would you say that such coins are “junk gold” in the same way as “junk silver”?

 

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Unless you find a roll nd get to cherry pick your example.

 

What’s crazy though is that usually bars are the cheapest way to buy gold and coins always seem to have a premium over bars.

 

If I had to make the comparison, junk gold would be common date circulated US Pre-33 and other world circulation money. It's hard to imagine calling any gold coin "junk," though. A gold coin is far too precious and coveted to be compared to mere silver change.

When demand for metals was at a low several years ago, I had an LCS owner offer to sell me some circulated pre-33 at spot. I suppose you could call it junk gold at the time. Alas, I did not have that kind of cash. Right now, all of it carries a significant premium, especially the pre-33. $2.50 and $5.00 pieces are way out of whack in my own opinion, and I'm seeing $10 pieces start to follow.

However, it would appear that 1980s-1990s commemoratives with the same weight and purity as pre-33 are the closest thing to junk gold right now, since at least one shop near me puts them out with zero premium. The caveat is that would mean getting below melt if selling back to them. However, I imagine that one could still get melt or a few bucks over selling privately to the right person.

Regarding the 100 Corona, the 1915 restrikes are bullion and were never meant to circulate in general commerce. For that reason I would hesitate to call them "junk gold" in the same sense that we call old silver circulation coinage "junk silver."

I'm sure I already contradicted myself somewhere in there... yeah, commemoratives aren't circulation money. To be honest I'm not sure where the line is drawn if there is such a thing as junk gold coinage.

 

Oh yeah the pre-1933 stuff has gone up alot! I bought a few from APMEX and the price I paid (acquisition cost) is way below what the current sell price (current value) is for the same coins.

 

One of my fondest memories is going to the FUN show in Orlando about 15 years ago. A dealer had the usual junk boxes of pre-1964 silver, cull US type coins, and the like, but there was a also a box of (junk) pre-1933 gold coins. Imagine!

 

Yes, but not worth as much when you go to sell so that needs to be taken in to consideration.

 

yeah I know but that’s why I’m so shocked to see some coins even cheaper than bars.

 

From tine to time you will find that, but
for the most part coins are going to be
better especially AGE,S and Buffalo but
there our some exceptions Mexican gold
can be sold for higher premiums as there
is some numismatic value there.

 

Junk is basically just another word for melt value so yes there are melt value gold coins or junk gold coins out there. A lot of the world coins are under appreciated and can be found cheaper than they should be by sellers that just consider them bullion. If you look around though many of them will have premiums for the higher graded ones

 

Hmm maybe that means buying “junk gold” foreign coins is a better move than even bars.

That 100 Corona coin above has a lower premium than any bars available despite the rule usually being that coins always fetch a premium.

It’s always interesting when rules are occasionally flipped upside down.

 

I hate bars, they’re the easiest to fake by far. Coins have the potential to gain numismatic premium or to find a grade premium with a high grade one. I’d buy foreign coins all day long before bars

 

I believe the same it’s just that normally that moderate premium that any gold coinage gets makes it tough to choose them over bars.

Like if you want to buy a $20 Double Eagle or 50 Mexican Peso or £5 Quintuple Sovereign all of them come with a premium over the bars of similar sizes.

Unless there is something wrong with them like damage or really low grade.

If those premiums didn’t exist I would never ever buy any kind of bar or round lol.

 

That premium difference disappears real quick if you end up buying a fake bar.

Mexican gold is pretty popular. Look for smaller countries like a Finland where the high grade stuff gets a premium but there’s so few people that care most dealers will just mark it at melt

 

Yeah that’s true. I’ll be honest I buy most of my bullion from JMB (not trying to advertise) so even though I might not get the very best deal in town I feel my chances of getting a counterfeit are pretty low.

Especially since I stick to the new sealed stuff like Perth Mint and I believe JMB buys from Perth Mint directly.

BUT if you want to know of an awesome gold coin with great potential at a fair price I recommend the gold solidus .



Now I’ll admit the premium on these isn’t even close to the competition when it comes to foreign gold but when you factor in the numismatic factor and history that you get with these it’s a great deal!

They are nearly pure gold too!

The ones with some minor issues can be an absolute bargain! I’ve seen them sell for $500 in AU because of an “edge bend”.

 

Numismatic and bullion are different discussions. There's plenty of numismatic gold I would pick 1000 times out of a 1000 before any ancient unless it was something you could flip. I dont really like ancients and I really dont like that NGC doesnt even guarantee that they're authentic.

As far as where you buy, the issue isnt necessarily where you get it from but if you're paying higher prices it kind of defeats the purpose of the argument for bars anyways. It's true they wouldnt knowingly sell a fake but doesnt mean they dont slip by if its not a brand new mint product.

The real issue though would be when you try and sell. It's just like anything else just because a major dealer or major name can easily sell something doesnt me random person could. Fake bars fool people from stackers to dealers all the time. I would rather not have anything invested in bars

 

I diversify on my GOLD purchases, trying never buy the same coin twice though I
got 11 Krugers only because I have been trying to find specific years which believe
it or not has become a monumental challenge ! nothing in my live happened in yje
common years only thing was 1979 when I graduated middle school allot of those
but have found the others by chance APMEX is where I buy my GOLD, just allot better selection overall and prices aren't bad either.

 

Its true NGC doesn’t guarantee authenticity per se..

But that’s mostly for legal reasons. All it takes is one fake to get through and they can be down millions of dollars. The same is true with more modern coins but they are much easier to identify due to very specific manufacturing specifications.

Its very hard to find any source where an NGC Ancients graded coin was later determined to be a fake.

That lack of evidence tells me that they are doing a really really really good job even if they can’t “guarantee” it. I’d bet at least 99.5% of the counterfeits sent in are identified and refused a holder.

Sure it’s not a 100% guarantee but I trust based on the track record. They can definitely do a better job identifying real from fake than I can myself xD

 

I get that they try their best and do have experts, but if they wont even guarantee its authentic not really something I want to participate in.

This would be a whole different conversation but their lawyers did a good job on that one. Realistically you'd have to crack it out to find it being fake and do a ton of research and once its cracked the slab wouldnt matter anyways.

The idea of slabbing ancients is good and will be successful for sure but the lack of any guarantee is a turn off for me

 

How did he price them ?