Hello everyone. A young friend of mine came up to me today and asked me an interesting question. He has $200 and wants to invest it in a coin or coins. So far he has done rather well with his previous $200 purchases, a 3-piece silver AE anniv set and a Goodacre presentation dollar. Since I have been away from the collecting loop for some time I just didn't know what to tell him. From what I could tell, he likes the modern issuesand the success they have had recently. I sure could use some advice on what he should buy with his $200. Any recent issues, rolls, sets, etc. that would be a good investment or should he look into purchasing an older coin? Thank you very much for any advice.
Since his goal seems to be to make money and not complete a set, I would suggest buying as many American Silver Eagles that he can get for $200. They are easy to buy, easy to sell, large and very beautiful -- and hard to make a mistake with even if you don't know what you are doing. Silver is a relative bargain right now and the coins can be obtained reasonably close to their silver content. If he wants to, he can try to get 11 or 12 different dates that might be a start toward collecting the entire series.
If he were my friend and came to me looking for investment advice, coins is about the last thing I would recommend to him. That said, I would point my friend to silver or gold bullion -- something he finds attractive and can be bought for close to spot. Coins are not an investment, unless losing money is your goal...Mike
2007-W 1/4 oz Gold Eagle What's the mintage right now, something like 15k? And one can be had for about $200.
I'd do what Cloudsweeper suggests and go for the silver American Eagles. Buying only one 1/4 gold Eagle is like like buying one share of stock when you could have 10-12 shares instead, and have all of those rise in price as opposed to just one. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the bid/ask spread a little smaller on silver compared to gold?
I'd also suggest the Silver Eagles. You can buy several of them for $200 dollars or purchase one of the scarcer dates like a 2006-W and still have some left over for some of the more common ones.
Thanks for the quick replies everyone. I will pass on your suggestions and he can take it from there.:thumb:
coins are genneraly a bad idea for investment purposes, especially since it seems he would be looking for a quick turn-around for profits. Im far from wealthy, so i wouldnt be able to point you inthe direction of huge quick profits, but coins are for collecting and possible long terms gains, gennerally not Quick ones.
