I am looking to get more information regarding a 1986 Proof Switzerland 5 Unzen. This is listed as X#MB1a. This is NOT the silver issue. I am referring to the 5 ounce .999 Pure GOLD issue. The 5 ounce silver issue is a common piece, but I am looking for information on the gold issue, which has a mintage of only 10 pieces. The 1986 Proof Switzerland 5 Unzen gold piece contains 5 ounces of .999 pure gold. The obverse displays Helvetia seated left with sword and shield. The reverse depicts an image with relating to the Rutli "Eternal Pact". In all references I have seen, this piece is listed as a "Medallic Coinage" issue. In the "Standard Catalog of World Gold Coins" from 2009, the coin is listed with a value of $11,500. In the 6th edition of "Unusual World Coins" from 2011, the coin is listed with a value of $12,500. The NGC world coin price guide shows a value of $12,500. I am interested in knowing more about this piece. I would like to know the following: 1. What was the purpose of minting this piece in the first place? 2. Why was the mintage only limited to 10? 3. Where might the surviving examples be located? 4. What might the value be today? 5. Would this be an item to have graded? 6. Who might have an interest in this piece? 7. What would be the best platform to sell a piece like this? 8. Has anyone heard of this piece? I know many people that know of the bullion unze/unzen series in gold and silver, but none that have any personal experience with this 5 ounce gold issue. Any help with the above questions or any comments on the piece in general, or even the series of Switzerland issues would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
I do not have access to the gold coin at this time, but here is a picture of the silver issue. Please note that the coin I am looking for more information on is the GOLD issue of this.
Just another bullion round. Not a coin. http://coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins?main_coin=21387 substitute the word gold for silver and you pretty well have it summed up. Just because something is rare does not make it valuable. You need market demand for premium value over metal value and I can't see a lot of people with $8000 to speng going crazy over modern bullion.
The only way to get proper information is if you interview the mint director at the Swiss mint. I would highly doubt anyone here would have such information. One can only speculate. Remember during this time gold was cheap compared to today. This might have been an attempt to see if there was a market to mark up premium on such large size bullion. Value of this highly depends on who wants to buy it. At least it's worth bullion value. Premium wise? It's up to the buyers.
Even that may not help, as Swissmint does not issue such pieces. Not sure about the monogram below the 999, but if that is "HF", then the medal could have been made by Huguenin, today Faude & Huguenin. Just a guess ... Christian
Just a bullion round as other have said. The only thing that would make it valuable over the price of the gold is if someone really wanted the design for something. It not an actual coin. Also no reason it couldn't be reproduced. So if the originating company still had the dies, they could easily make more at any time. Now that being said some bullion does go up in sheer collectible value. Coke-Cola silver bullion, some bars sell 5 to 10 times their actual silver value. So to answer your questions: 1. What was the purpose of minting this piece in the first place? To sell gold bullion. Same reason any of the rounds were produced. You can go buy 5 oz gold rounds today. 2. Why was the mintage only limited to 10? Probably not a lot of people interested in buying it or spending that much. Not a lot of normal people buy bullion that size. Perhaps also they went to some of their top customers of gold bullion and made them exclusive offers. Could honestly be one customer that told them he wanted 10 of those in gold. You have enough money you can get your bullion customized into what ever you want. Some of the bullion manufacturers now for a small fee will engrave and personalize bullion for you. Honestly if you had enough cash, unless the original mint did some kind of exclusive deal, you could probably pay them to make you a few. 3. Where might the surviving examples be located? Saudi Arabia, honestly. The are known for buying bullion of this size. They could still be located in Switzerland, secure bank vaults. Another option would be Dubai or Hong Kong. Anywhere someone has several thousand, they just wanted to put into bullion. 4. What might the value be today? Again unless someone wanted that specific design for some reason. 6606.50 USD at the current time I write this. 5. Would this be an item to have graded? No, it is bullion, typically you don't grade bullion. Some people do, but it is not really needed. It's not going to be carried around in your pocket or transported. They are going to be sitting somewhere very safe never to be moved. Bullion now days usually comes in some kind of air tight. 6. Who might have an interest in this piece? Saudi Arabia, again they buy weird things like this. 7. What would be the best platform to sell a piece like this? If it is something truly over twice the bullion price. Only 10 made, for people to just sit on something with. It is going to be at private auction invite only. It might come up at a high end coin auction. Possible, but it is not going to be on eBay. 8. Has anyone heard of this piece? Not until now. Edited to add, looking into this and googling a bit more. As far as why they did this and limited to 10 pieces. I think they were kind of testing the waters really just to see what would sell. They did a lot of odd denominations of that design in gold during the mid to late 80's I also seen some on auctions in Europe, old closed auction but didn't sell anywhere near the price you listed. More the price of gold bullion at the time of selling plus a small premium for the actual design. So unless you run into a collector, collecting the Swiss gold bullion designs, which I am sure there is one out there, they won't go for that price.
Thank you all for the information in your replies. Does anyone have a thought on why the values given in the 3 sources I listed above are between $11,500 and $12,500? Also, what are your thoughts on what exactly "Medallic Coinage" means?
Different sources different estimations of price. Also the different prices may have come at different times of the year. Gold price fluctuates wildly so When I first wrote that reply above price the bullion was $6606.50, I just looked again and right now it is worth $6599.00 So the value went down $7.50 from the time I posted once to right now. Imagine what the price fluctuations would be over a year. Especially a volital year. Medallic Coinage, another name for Medal or another name for Round Bullion. The US Mint has a whole bunch of Medals you can buy, http://catalog.usmint.gov/shop/medals/ Just bullion Metal put into a round shape with a fancy design. Basically on Bullion you have 2 prices. First you have the price for the metal, bullion value. Then you have the price of the design on it. The numismatic value. Bullion value is set by global market. numismatic value is well the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That's the harder part to nail down. How much are you willing to pay for that design. The gold is still gold.
