Does Anyone Collect Australian Lunar Series?

I'm not familiar with Austrian lunar coins and I couldn't find any when I tried to look them up. Could you provide a link to what you're referring to?

The Perth Mint Lunar Series is probably the dominant lunar series in today's bullion market. I doubt you could go badly wrong with that series.

In answer to your questions... 1-The few that I have are the 1oz, which is the size that appears to be most popular and be bought out the quickest; 2-The "far
future" is always unknown; 3-It might be, but going back and paying those big premiums isn't likely a good investment--it's more a devoted collectors labor of
love; 4-Just a personal feeling, but if I was going to go with slabbed coins, the coins would be established numismatic coins like pre-1933 US gold coins--not
current silver bullion. I'm not sure about the proof sets. The cost vs. future value consideration is a complicated and potentially fickle situation; 5-The cost of
getting raw coins graded and slabbed is considerable. I suspect the odds of getting your money back on that level of commitment aren't good.

Overall---my personal preference is the 1oz, 1/2oz and maybe 2oz bullion versions. If you want to get fancy, go for proof or high relief proof. I'm not personally
enthusiastic about gilded or "colorized" (painted) versions and I find the prices of the slabbed ones to be a major put-off.

If you have an unlimited budget, you can buy everything. I'm on a limited budget, so I stick with a couple of the 1oz and 1/2oz and maybe one 2oz bullion versions.

These are just my feelings. I'm sure others will probably be by later with diametrically opposed viewpoints. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

I love the Lunar series but I believe you've missed the boat as far as getting returns on any investment you're likely to make, at least through the end of this decade. My crystal balls turns a tad crepuscular after that ;) In 2008, when I started this addicting hobby, the modern coin collecting world was far less populous than the place we inhabit today, or at least it seemed that way to me. But everything changed in 2011 when silver shot up to nearly $50 an ounce.

I think that big, and extremely sudden, increase in silver prices brought a brand new generation of people with disposable income into the hobby and more than a few of them stuck around even after silver dropped back down to earth from those rarefied heights we saw in 2011. I can tell you that this particular forum saw an incredible influx of new members in that time frame. Sadly, most of them didn't weather the storm as well as the survivors you see today.

But just to give you an example from the prices I paid starting in late 2008 through early 2010: 1999 Rabbit $29, 2000 Dragon $24, 2002 Horse $32, 2004 Monkey $24, 2005 Rooster $26, 2006 Dog $25, 2007 Pig $24, 2009 Ox (series 2) $18, 2010 Tiger $28. These weren't aberrations, either. Although I certainly shopped around for good deals, I seldom paid much lower than 25% below the mean. It's felicitous to bear in mind that spot silver was bouncing around between $9-$13 at the time I made the majority of these purchases.

Compare those prices to what you see today. Most tripled, if not quadrupled in value from late 2010 through 2012. But since then, prices have fallen back a bit and settled in the $50-80 range for most of the Series 1 Lunars. As Double F said, guessing what prices will be decades from now is a pretty difficult task. As a relatively new collector, I don't know what sort of historical comparisons you could possibly make. Maybe someone else who's been in the game far longer than I have might know the answer to that.

I just started picking up these. I started in 2012, and my current idea is that at the beginning of every year I am picking up the 1/4 oz gold coins. I got the 2012, 2013, and 2014 so far. My 2012 coin is an MS69 I got from silvertown for a good price at the time. Of course gold was at like 1700-1800 at the time...

Since then I decided that these kinds of coins graded are kind of silly, cause they are almost all gonna be MS69 or MS70's

But I like them! I think they are cool to collect. I got one of my last ones from MCM, and then from APMEX on ebay.

I saw that video on YouTube, and if you read all the comments, there was telling him not to do it.
that was a very dangerous gambling.

I bought the 2014 Year of the horse because I like that a lot , but to go back and pay those huge premiums , I don't think it's worth for me.
they are certainly very beautiful though

hi all, new here.

as I am new to coins and don't know what I'm doing - I told self to only buy new, and only what I like.

so, I have bought several new Lunar silver - such as year of the Dragon, Horse, snake. I like the Dragon the best, so I'm buying 1/2 oz, 1 oz, 2 oz, 5 oz. I keep watching on ebay and ampex for prices.

funny, on ebay 1/2 go from $20 ea to $49 ea, and 1 oz from $49 to $79 ea. I look for free shipping & seller w/ good feedback.

I still don't know what I'm doing, but, it's fun. and someday, maybe they'll be worth $ or the grandkids will get them in my will. :)


thanks, kat

Agree with traevin. Free shipping is very overrated. It doesn't matter if you spend the money on the product or shipping in the end its the same thing.

The other way to look at it too is that the shipping for first class on ebay at least is almost always less than you would spend on gas to go to a local store if they even had the item.