(Update! I Got One!) Cheap (?!) Gold Coin Advice, Please!

I appreciate all the good advice! I'll take a look at Harlan Berk. I took a shot at one on ebay last night with a seller I trust but came up $6.00 short! It was one of those things where I tried to snipe it in the last seconds but the person who was the high bider at the time was already higher than my snipe attempt. For my efforts, I did cost the other guy (or MADE the seller) an extra 20 bucks!

I am absolutely determined that the gold coin I eventually acquire will NOT be in a slab. As scary as this may sound to some of you...I want to touch it! I want to be able to hold it in the palm of my hand...not hold the piece of plastic that contains it. Who knows? On some special or momentous occasion I may wish to ask, "heads or tails?" as I flip it off my thumb into the air. I want a coin that, once upon a time, served it's function AS A COIN...not a museum piece.

Check this one out:

http://www.collectorscorner.com/Pro...x?id=4053112

Mintage of under 109,000.

I hear you about wanting to handle the coins. Here is the gold indian I sold for $575 recently. It's seen a lot of circulation obviously. I actually used it as a pocket piece/converstaional piece for a while. :-) Is this kind of what you had in min

For $700 you can get a tougher date but if want a raw, circulated piece there is no reason to go over $600.

I'm probably in the minority but I prefer $10 Libs to $10 Indians. Common date, raw, VF $10 Libs can be easily had for $550 and sometimes you can still get them around $500.

I always verify the weight and dimensions of the raw gold I buy. The density of gold makes it tough to counterfeit and maintain the size/weight ratio. VF coins are highly unlikely to be counterfeit but it always pays to verify.

Good Luck!

Woo-hoo! I got one!

I would have preferred something from the 1800's but I ended up with a 1901-S Half Eagle. I should have it by the end of the week and after I bite it (to make sure it's genuine!) I'll post photos. Maybe after a while I'll be a little more selective and try for another. I'd really like one from the 1800's from the Carson City mint. Thanks again for all the help and advice! Steve

Congratulations weerdsteev! Are you serious about biting it? A half eagle is smaller than a quarter, however, it is also significantly heavier than one

Be very careful about buying raw gold! Gold is very often counterfeited.

The bite test does not work, you need to look for things such as weakness of detail, spikes from the denticals, repeating depressions and tool marks, as well as fatty letters. All common dates were counterfeited too, but if you buy a coin below EF odds are it is geniune, as a good rule of thumb.