Coin World Magazine: The "Investment" Column

Fortunately, coins are retailed when liquidating in today's world, not wholesaled. Anyone who chooses to liquidate by selling to a dealer should follow your advice closely, because they've only got half the concept of "investing" down.

Every single person here who tries to pay the best price for a coin is using investment value as a high priority. Why, else, would you care what you pay?

And if your average coin purchase is closer to $1000 than $100, you'd be a fool not to consider investment value. I wonder what audience he's writing for? Heritage has managed to sell over 100,000 Double Eagles without me and a plurality of numismatists ever getting involved; there's gotta be some money out there somewhere and those folks didn't get that money by ignoring where they spent it.

For every argument against, there is an equal argument for. The possibilities are as broad as are our individual interests as collectors. The only sin is generalizing.

Now, expecting some predetermined rate of return is kinda silly too. If it were money just to park - if you chose a definition of "investing" which did not require guaranteed return, only a solid hedge against depreciation - you could do far worse than intelligent rare coin buying. If you're gonna sell stuff, sell the stuff that the recession-proof folks want. Many of them want rare coins, as proven by those 100,000 Double Eagles.

Coin collecting or numismatics (= the research and study of coins) should be for fun, for hobby, for personal interest or for the expansion of coin knowledge.
There are better investments to be had than investing in coins at any level.

Having said all of that, profits can be made in the buying and selling of coins WELL, over the long term (decades).

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Buying well and selling well is the secret to profits to be made in coin collecting.
One of the most effective multipliers to buying well and selling well is to open your mind to the whole of numismatics, so that bargains at the time of purchase are much easier to find.

Don't just collect a particular series, or coins of a particular country or theme.
It takes time and experience but learn all you can about the whole of numismatics, ancient to modern, but it is well worth the effort. The collateral is that you will learn about cultures and history of all parts of the World from ancient to modern times.

You will be more easily able to find the bargains at the time of purchase, and to sell them decades later to the right buyers.

The investment performance of numismatic items in the long term may not be as strong as the investment performance in shocks and scares (stocks and shares), real estate or bonds, but it can be far more satisfying.

If you purchased a $1000 coin and put $1000 into a retirement savings, which would have a higher cash value after 30 years. I would put the money in the retirement savings and let compound interest do its thing.

It's a small, simple step to disabuse yourself of some inevitable connection between "investment" and "profit." Apparently a pretty tough one, too.

It might significantly appreciate, but if it doesn't do so at a greater rate than inflation then it is in real terms a net loss. And most average collections don't. Even some of the major collections that make big headlines over the huge sums they sold for, when tracked as a return on investment over time aren't all that spectacular.

Nothing really wrong with assuming coins are an investment. Some people use old cars as an investment. Some save stamps, guns, knives, old coins, old furniture, etc. Many collectables as an investment never works well. Many do fantastic. You just never know. Look at a 57 Chevy auto. A few thousand when new is now worth logs and lots. Look at Beanie Babies. Once when new in the hundreds each and now most are selling for a dollar. With any collectable items it's just a chance. So if someone has a column about using coins as an investment, it's his column that is an investment.

There's nothing wrong investing in coins. While it can inflate prices for collectors which for us may sting, the biggest problem like always is counterfeits.

I had to listen to a seller from the US who probably shelled out a good chunk of his life savings of more than 50,000 USD on Chinese coins. Yup - you can only imagine where it is heading. Don't get me wrong - this seller was quite experienced with US coins. He had sales of more than thousand dollars. At one stage, Chinese coin prices were going through the roof. There were many coins that easily went ten times the price in a matter of few years. I can speak this from experience as I do own some coins as of such. Unfortunately, the seller that I bought coins from was rather inexperienced when it comes to Chinese coins.

I think the best advice is, is that be the expert especially if you are going to invest in such amount money.