I am looking to start a Gold Eagle collection and figured I'd start small with the 1/10th ounce - and work my way from there. I was quoted 25% over spot for 1/10th coins at a local coin shop. (or $55 per coin) Is that a reasonable premium? US gold seems to charge a relatively high premium as opposed to foreign gold. I would like to start collecting Gold, but not the AGEs, at that price. Can anyone recommend other gold coin collections, where the premium is not as high. (Preferably, a date set collection with great eye appeal and design)
i really don't think that 25% is such a bad markup on a 0.10 oz coin. It's at least in the ball park, and a point where you can start talking and making offers. What is the markup on a full one ounce coin? I'm betting it is less than the small coin. It's all gold, so buy the one that gives you the best margen.
I think that is reasonable if you are collecting by date. If you don't care about the year or condition, you might get it $5 cheaper but it isn't going to permit you to collect what you want. The larger the coin, the less the premium. And I'm sure someone here will suggest foreign gold, which is about the best deal right now for reasons I don't understand but maybe they can explain.
As Cloudsweeper noted...you will pay a larger premium on the smaller denominations. Don't discount the AGEs ...they are beautiful and American...but as for eye appeal and design(and NA history) you might look to the Mexican peso- just my opinion. Enjoy WN
All, Thanks for the feedback so far. I agree the larger the denomination, the lower the premium. My dealer will go as low as $22 flat fee above spot for 1oz AGEs. Currently however, that is out of my price range especially for a date set. Please keep the foreign gold suggestions coming! GD where are you?
Well jimmy, I've got two reasons to steer you away from modern Japanese gold: It's either low mintage 19th century material, or recent commemoratives, and both categories are much pricier than generic (but often beautiful) bullion coins like the English Britannias, Chinese Pandas, Australian Kookaburras, etc., and The fewer folk hunting pigs, the better my chances of finding affordable bacon.
Basically you have two choices - you can go with the modern bullion gold coins that many nations currently offer. Or you can go with older gold coinage if you wish to collect a date set. The modern bullion coins of any nation are going to be priced much like the US AGE - there will be a percentage premium over the spot price for new issues and older issues will be priced based on mintages and availability. With older coins though the numismatic value comes into play. Prices for some dates will be barely over melt while others may be priced at multiples of melt value. And quite often some dates will be rather difficult to even find. So as you can see, there is no easy or cheap way. With both choices you are going to pay premiums. And with both choices, if the time to sell ever comes along, you are going to find that you will likely receive less than you paid unless a considerable time period has elapsed since the purchase date. That's just the way the coin market works. Now - all that being said - there are many choices when it comes to eye appeal and design. But since each individual has a different idea of what is beautiful and what isn't - each individual has to make his or her own choice in that regard. And the best way to do that is to just look at coins. Once you find a series that appeals to you then the work begins.
Thanks again everyone, all the suggestions have lead to another question (ok more than one). While looking into some of the suggestions posted, I stumbled accross the "Australian Lunar Series", which I really like. Everywhere I read the lunar series is made of .9999 pure gold. What technically is "pure gold? Is it 22K, 24K, etc? I am curious because I also read that the Canadian Maples were the "purest" gold coins available at .9999 pure gold. What's the difference in composition between the Australian and Canadian bullion coins? To further confuse matters, other bullion coins are toted as made form "fine" gold and labled .999 fine gold. What is fine gold? HELP!!
24 karat is pure gold - .999 is pure gold - .9999 is pure gold - it's all the same. Now the US gold eagles are minted in .9167 gold or 22 karat. But each coin, depending on denomination contains either 1/10 - 1/4 - 1/2 or 1 oz of pure gold. It doesn't matter which country it comes from when it comes to modern bullion coins. If it's a 1 oz coin - it contains 1 oz of pure gold.
