Hello everyone, I am both new to this forum and to coin/bullion collecting in general. The reason I wanted to get into it is to build a coin collection that represents the various places I have traveled to throughout my life. Ideally, I would like a coin from every country I have visited. From my initial research, I've found that gold/silver bullion collector coins for many countries are .925 silver or .900 gold, with only places like Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia etc. Having the more pure .999 or .9999 coins. Ideally I would like higher purity coins, but should I just accept that most of the coins in my collection will need to be less pure?
Speaking of gold ... Well it depends on what countries you have visited .... but for the most part you will need to accept the lower purities.
The ultra-high purity coins are bullion. They are intended for investors and collectors. They are not circulating coins. Tha alloyed coins, such as .900 fine or .925 fine, were precious metals mixed with harder metals to improve wearing characterisitcs so they would last longer in circulation. Typically, silver and gold were mixed with copper.
Right now my collection is only a few silver coins, but I know the Royal Canadian Mint has both the standard Maple Leaf coins at .9999 as well as special edition and collector coins at .9999 as well. I think the same holds true for most other bullion producing mints, where they have both bullion and collector coins at .9990 purity. So far I've only been able to track down .925 silver coins for most of the countries in Europe I've visited (Sweden, Finland, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland). I guess all in all it doesnt matter a whole lot since they are for a collection and not purely an investment.
