Switching From Gld/Slv To Physical

A couple of questions will help put you in the right direction:

1) Do you care about how much over spot price you'll have to pay per coin?

2) Which government bullion coins do you like the looks of the best?

1) Provided the premiums aren't unreasonable, I don't consider them to be an issue. Most of the stuff that interests me have tolerable premiums except for silver panda... those things are crazy expensive.

2) I like the look of several government coins (including AGE, SA, CM and pandas). But right now since I'm just starting off I think I should value liquidity over appearance. I don't anticipate having to sell these anytime soon but just in case. And as I understand it, the US coins and Kruggerand seem to be very easy to unload.

I have never been a big fan of precious metal stocks. I like to be able to see what I buy. I can see Apple Hqtrs in Cuppertino, I can see iPads and iPods everywhere. The promise that my gold or silver is actually set aside somewhere in an unseen vault, never " did it " for me.
The premiums you pay for physical gold pretty much equate to brokerage fees when you buy and sell your paper. I like krugs because they tend to have lower premiums, nobody seems to get caught up in the looks. AGE's also easy to move as well as Maple Leafs ( with the added benefit of .9999 purity )
If it is a pure investment in physical gold, go with the lowest premium you can find. Just remember, it is not for the short term. What you you buy today for spot plus
$79 per, you sell tomorrow for spot or spot -

Veritek, helllo there!

Well,,, I want to make a few brief comments/suggestions-

1- For liquidity sake, you should keep some SLV and GLD.

2- I would like to see you do a mix of high quality proof silver and gold and high quality bullion- this is what I suggest and again just what has worked for me-

1- Sheet of pandas
2- couple of proof silver eagles
3- proof American eagles, get a mix of fractionals
4- gold pandas, again a mix of fractionals

maybe even look for a roll of those wildlife series from canada, like their latest upcoming release, the wood bison I believe it is.

also, dont forget about palladium and platinum, add some of these to the mix as these are going to be the clear leaders of the PM group.

Why do I suggest proofs which are more costly? Why a sheet pandas that cost more money?

Because I think its wise to get some cushion from owning coins that offer a bit of a premium over just the metal price. I have done this for a while and it works.

and again, I do think you should go back and pick up some GLD and SLV, for liquidity's sake.

i hope that helps you out friend

Hello and welcome to the CCF forum.



Both forms of investing have their pluses and minuses. ETFs are good for their speed of buying and selling plus the conditional buy and sell orders you can use to protect and improve your profit potential. They do not require any secure storage or insurance. They are simply an investment in the price of the metal. A well diversified portfolio should include both, IMO. I would not choose either SLV or GLD, however. I have invested in a few other ETFs that looked better to me, such as SIVR, SGOL, and PPLT. I prefer these because their prospectus docs are much clearer and they are independently audited, so that when they say that they have a fixed quantity of metal per share, they really DO have it. Also, they are not associated with any of the big US banks that were huge players in the 2008 banking collapse. Physical coins are good too because you can see what you have and since they are in your possession, there is no counter-party risk associated with owning them. There is the risk of theft, however, so they must be secured in some way against that.

As to collecting metal, what is your goal? Do you just want bullion or do you want numismatic coins? Both are collectible and only depend upon the collector's preference as to which is most suitable. Some people collect both while others prefer one or the other.

For bullion, bars and rounds are the least expensive per oz. of metal and some of them are quite attractive. The Mexican 50 peso coins are an attractive design that also has a very low premium... under $20 per coin on some web sites. Krugs have been low premium coins in the past but seem to be rising now. Maples are sometimes lower in premium than Krugs these days. For silver coins, ASEs, Maples, Philharmonics, and the Mexican and Australian coins are all quite nice.

I am not a numismatic coin collector but if I was, I would look at buying some pre-1933 US gold coins in the highest grades I could afford and that have other desired features, such as low production for a specific date. These are sometimes referred to as "key dates".

Foreign coins can be attractive as well but you should do a lot of reading before buying them, as some are much more collectible than others. This can make them easier to sell when the time comes.

Buying on-line works well if you buy from one of the better dealers out there. Everyone seems to have a favorite or two. I prefer APMEX for high grade US 90% silver coins, SilverTowne for their 5-oz bars, Provident Metals for PMs in general, and GoldMart for their low prices. Other dealers are probably good too but I have not bought from them.

One of the best things about collecting is that it is extremely variable as to what you can collect. Buy what appeals to you; what makes you happy to own. There are many opinions out there as to what constitutes "collectible" but every collector needs to figure that out for themselves. It's part of the fun of collecting, actually. Best of luck!

Great info Ed. I think I'll lean more to the bullion side than the numismatic too. Don't think I have to time it would take to learn all about the historic values of coins. Besides there are plenty of different countries that produce bullion to keep me entertained for a while. I would consider having 1 oz pieces of all the major gold bullion coins a very respectable long term goal. And the silver and/or fractionals I pick up along the way would just make the ride a little more interesting.

I'll say something else about my original post. I'm making the move from the EFTs to physical on a portion of the funds I allocate towards PM. I found myself keeping these funds stagnant in these ETFs and using GLD options as a way to easily move money in and out when market opportunities arised. I've had pretty good success with that strategy so I figured I would keep that going but didn't really need my "permanent" funds in the ETFs.

I like your approach to it. Kind of a best of both worlds type thing and youre right there isn't really much of an advantage to having shares you never planned to sell in that over physical

Veri-

Good job on your purchases, hope they work out for u. I am glad to see also you didn't drop your line on your purchase.

To answer your question- I have bought in the past when I can through US dealers, bought fractional proofs from South African mint and RAM (gold ima taking here) and held and they have accrued in value including US Mint bought eagles, and these are all proof coins. Mind you, I was doing proofs because I was looking at things from a collectors viewpoint. for gold and silver purchases and other PMs I go into the futures markets and GLD/SLV and skip buying physical coins. Not to mention my taxes are much much lower going this way.

Remember, quality over quantity,,, and as spot prices tumble, you are going to want some sort of premium to give you cushion UNLESS you can search for deals as the public unloads their gold and silver as the prices start to gather steam to the downside.