$20 St Gaudens -- Investment Potential

From what I've seen the common date Gaudens coins are pretty closely priced to modern bullion. If I had the money I would much prefer a historic coin like the Saint over a modern. Probably want to buy certified though to ensure its authentic and to help ensure resale value. I'll be curious to see what some experienced members have to say. BTW welcome!

Investing and coin collecting do not really go hand in hand. From my personal experience most gold coins can be had at a small premium over spot. If gold falls you will have a little buffer on the loss, but you could still easily lose money.

If it was my money and I was looking to "invest", I would purchase graded key date coins from any series. As an example I passed on a 1916D Mercury dime last year at a coin show for $550. This coin has been selling recently on ebay in the $950 range. Precious metals will always swing with the market price, but key dates are always a key date.

If your heart is set on gold, shoot for pieces that are uncommon. You can get a Gaudens at the click of the mouse, but can you find this one?

High end key date 19th century and earlier type coins, along with classic (pre-1850s) gold and Charlotte/Dahlonega gold, are the way to go for investment. I personally think $3 coins & $4 Stella coins are "good as gold" when it comes to long-term performance, pardon the pun, especially in AU/MS TPG slabs w/CAC approval.

Saints are beautiful -- everyone should own at least one. But if you had invested, say, $50,000 in Saints 10 years ago, your same $50,000 would have most likely outperformed if you had instead bought MS Barber halves, pre-1935 MS FSB Mercury dimes (in 66 and up), MS pre-1921 Walking Liberty halves, 1877 Indian Head cents, Matte Proof Lincolns, FH SLQ's in MS65+...so on, so forth.

If I had the kind of money to play with that I wish I had, I'd be buying every Charlotte & Dahlonega slabbed gold (non-details) coin I could get my hands on, along with pretty much any pre-1850s gold issues, etc. Early Dollars are hot again too as the upcoming Pogue sale of the 1804 Sultan coin reignites interest in the type.

Hi all

I am finding the suggestions quite intriguing. Thank you all!! So here is the thing. I came to this looking purely as something where I could stash away say a 1oz gold coin every few months and just do that as a diversification play. I thought to get going I would put in say $6k. Now I am thinking maybe I would be better off to mix it up a bit and not just buy for bullion value. To be honest I have always been put off by the coin sellers who I have always felt have tried to steer me to merchandise they can make a bigger premium on. This is a real out off and is why I thought keep it simple with krugerrands. But if I were to put together a little portfolio of coins say for $5 or $6k what do people think would be an idea put away for 15-20 year type investment.

When you say "Put Away" I hope you mean 20-30 years. Even scarce TPG coins before 1850 will not appreciate much in five years because when you sell them you will pay some kind of commission to someone. I do believe that if you have $1,000,000 socked away for retirement then having $50,000 in precious metals is not a bad idea. One thing I do believe in with precious metals is to sell at the top and buy using dollar cost averaging just like you buy stocks I hope. The true bull markets come so infrequently that when people are crowing about the gold or silver market doubling that is the time to sell. I agree with that frogman about buying scarce coins. However, I think some 20th century coins are worth a look such as 1916 LSQ, 1916-D Mercury dime and 1908-S Saints. The Frog says the debate is endless and it is. Also your age has something to do with it. If you are 25 years old you can buy coins that Coinfrog is talking about and hold them for 40 years. I would bet you will make a profit on them in that case.

I have been managing my own assets for since I was 20 (30 years ago). I have a well diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and commodity funds including Gold and Silver ETF funds. I want to put a small amount into physical with a timeline of likely 15-20 years. If I expire before that someone else gets to rummage through and find a stock of coins or whatever. My plan is in essence to do the dollar cost averaging with likely 4 - 6 purchases a year. I like the combo of bullion with rarity as that way there is alway an underlying value. I also like the idea of a portfolio of coins and likely I will also add some stamps at some point. As I said my initial purchase will likely be $5k-$6k so in essence I will be in up to $20k a year. I want to build up the type of bomb proof collection that overides any vagaries in the market.

Thanks for all the suggestions

Arb

That said, I really wish I could invest part of my IRA In investment grade coins. The IRS should revisit the rules on that - not fair when you max out your 401k for years but can't buy the investments you really want.

One thing to think of is that if you buy scarce coins in MS condition you will be plunking down 10K plus at auctions like Heritage. Investors and high class collectors want high class coins. Just look at what some of these jokers spend on collectable cars at Mecum Auctions. I have heard it said that scarce or even rare coins are commodities and have little in common with "coins".