Investing In Coins Questions

Random investment is just like random gambling in Vegas. With the same results: I arrived in a $50,000 car and left on a $250,000 bus.

IMNSHO if the dollar ever crashes silver & gold will be useless - there is no intrinsic value except minor usage in electronics - I'm investing my EOTWAWKI fund in Cans of Beans.

On a similar note, bags of "junk" silver used to trade(pre 2008 crisis) around melt value and now they have a decent premium, so they have also outperformed silver bullion.

Then you got the point! Like fine art: paintings that cost a few thousand dollars are always going to be considerably more risky and speculative( as opposed to investment) than a multimillion dollar painting. You can still loose out on the multimillion dollar painting but the the risk of such a loss is a lot less. IMHO investment grade coins are the same. Once you spend US$100,000 on coin you are investing and are much more likely to get a good investment return. Buying 100 $1000.00 coins looking for a profit is speculation.

I started my coin collecting thinking I was investing I soon realized I wasn't. For investment one is looking to ensure the value of your investment beats the rate of inflation. The main stream investments are bonds and stocks( Some might add in bank deposits) outside this central area of investment on the periphery are coins, stamps, antiques and so fourth. However the rules for these peripheral investments are very different to the more main stream. For nearly all the peripheral investments ( like coins) the general rules are:

1. Buy what appeals aesthetically to you ( even if later you have found the item has dropped in value you will have had the pleasure of owning it). I can not imagine anything worse than buying something you hate and then capping it off with a financial loss. If you hate it most other people will likely hate it no matter how rare it is. put some what off-color: Fossilized dinosaur droppings may be rare but who wants them sitting on their mantle piece?

2. Research what your buying. This may mean "buying the book" it can also extend to conducting your own in depth research visiting archives and mints.

2a. You should be "buying" the story behind the object more than the object its self. An attractive object with no story backing it is less likely to appreciate in value than one with a story.

3. Buy the highest quality you can reasonably afford. I have put this in third place for the simple reason that the second point sometimes trumps this one. If you know an item is rare and that it has a backing story with wide appeal it is better to buy it even in marginal condition. I really regret some of the purchases I didn't make because a coin was not up to standard......why because I have never seen another example come up for sale.


4. ( this may be contentious for some). A coin is only worth something at two points in time. Between those two points it has no value....the two points the point of purchase and the point of sale.




Now there are lots of stories floating around about collections. built up over many years, selling for Millions. this leads to too many people thinking coin collecting( antiques, stamps etc) is an easy path to riches. What they forget is:

• often those collections are sold after the collector has died.


• NO one actually looks to see if those wonder collections actually beat the no risk rate of return


• more than likely those collections are the 1% the remaining 99% are sold for a loss