Advice For A New Collector

Coins as an investment is high risk with uncertain return and requires substantial knowledge. So if you are not already collecting coins and just look for investment opportunities, my advice is to look elsewhere. The stock market has in the long term historically been a good place to put your money (even if in the short term, like now with the corona virus shaking all markets, there can be large fluctuations).

But if you still want to invest in coins, there are basically two options.

First option is to invest in bullion coins, that is, gold and silver investment coins like British Gold Sovereigns (these may be the ones you have looked at) and American Silver Eagles. These are minted regularly, look nice, and their value will follow the gold and silver prices. With this option, you are really investing in precious metals, just in the form of coins which undoubtedly are nicer to look at than gold or silver bars. But metal prices go up and down and there is no guarantee that your investment will grow even over several years.

Second option is to invest in rare coins. High quality rare coins - they could be ancient coins or modern error coins - have increased in value and may continue to do so due to more investors (not least from Asia) opening their eyes to coins as an investment. (This is of course still speculative and high risk!) If you go for this option, it requires a certain knowledge in the field of rare coins you chose. You must be able to ascertain the rarity and quality of the coin. A shortcut to this is to only buy coins that have been graded and slabbed by a reputable grading company like NGC or PCGS - in fact, buying slabbed and graded coins is the best way to secure the value of a rare coin in any event. The price range we look at is £1000 and upwards per coin, so you may be able to purchase 2-3 coins, as a start.

But if you are not particularly interested in coins as such and just look for a good and reasonably certain return on your investment, go for something else than coins.