gold coins investing
Carol King


Coin Price Guides are useful among collectors. In brief, coins are tiny disk shaped metal pieces of currency. Coins come in various categories that are valued as per their face value, currency coins come with an amount printed on them and the printed amount is the price of the coin.

Rare and Historical coins are those that were made centuries before us, these rare coins are very significant in finding out historical information about our ancestors. Historical coins can fetch a very high price in the market; the pricing of the coin is also based on the significance, quality, condition, uniqueness and beauty of the coin.

Gold coins or Silver Coins are mostly bought as an investment; the price of these coins usually depends on the market price. Due to fluctuations in the economy there are no set price guides therefore the price of Gold and silver coins also fluctuates.

Coin Pricing is based on certain criteria’s- * The coin must be made of a valuable metal; and the pricing of this coin will be close to the market price of the metal.

* Coin should be of standardized weight and purity.

* The marking on the coin has to be genuine and marked only by an authorized authority.

* Pricing of the coin also depends on the date printed on the coin, as well as its historical significance.

From time to time coin collectors come across coins that are very difficult to analyze a price, for instance a coin collector may own a very unique coin that cannot be priced due to its unclear marking or worsened condition, on such occasions the pricing of the coin is based on the demand of the coin or how many coin collectors are interested in the piece.

Sometimes a very unique coin will not be as well priced, as a coin that is relatively plentiful in nature and this is simply because the more common coin is in higher demand by the coin collectors. For example there are only 30,000 dimes of the 17th century, where as there are nearly 4,000,000 20th century dimes, yet the 20th century dimes are sold at a higher price than the 17th century dimes, and this is only because the 20th century dimes are more popular among coin collectors.

Generally coin prices keep varying, the general rule in the coin price guide is the rarer the coin the higher the coin value, still there are some exceptions as in this case; a 1913 marked Liberty head Nickel was sold for $1,000,000 as there are only 5 pieces of such coins, where as 1000 year old Chinese coins were sold for not more than $100-$200 as there were a number of these coins available.

Coin grade also influences the coin price guide, coin grade depends on the condition, the better the condition the higher the grade will be and the higher price the coin will fetch. However you should bear in mind that the monetary valuation of a coin is not everything, even if one coin does not have a high market value it does not loose its significance as it can still be very much a part of your collection.

If you are interested in pricing, you can get Coin Price Guides that come in print (soft cover and hardcover) and they are also available online in digital format.



gold coins investing
Tiraton Athiwat


e oldest forms of money is gold coins, and they have enjoyed the status of being the primary form of money for a very long period of time.

At around 560 BC, King Croesus of Lydia is said to have coined the first gold coins in the history of mankind, and in 700 BC, King Pheidon of Argos minted the first silver coins. During the sixth or fifth century BC, the Chinese started minting the Ying Yuan, their gold coin. The twentieth century, however, saw the decline of gold coins as a form of money, and their disuse finally became apparent and ascertained in the 1930s when the world felt the terrible economic crisis of the Great Depression.

While countries the world over have stopped making and using gold coins, gold-colored coins have successfully made a comeback and have enjoyed patronage in several currencies. Furthermore, there are some countries that continue to make legal tender gold coins not for circulation, but for collecting and investment purposes. When Double Eagle coins were struck by the US Mint in 1933, they were surrendered and melted down, leaving only a few of them to survive. Then, in 2002, Sotheby’s sold a very rare $20 1933 Double Eagle gold coin for $7,590,020, which is record-breaking and makes the said coin the most valuable coin ever sold. Collectors are known to covet the Solidus, Aereus, and Spur Rval.

There are several factors that determine the value of a gold coin, including its age, condition, rarity, and the number originally minted. For most of history, however, the correct amount of the precious metal it should contain was the basis for the value of a gold coin. The right weight and purity, which is also called as fineness, were given more importance than on the factuality of where a gold coin was said to be made and under which party it was ordered to be made. To avoid time-consuming tests in transactions that take place every day, the genuine appearance of a gold coin was referred to.

A gold coin is denser than a silver coin and all other coins made by other metals. This characteristic makes gold coins incredibly hard to fake, since the tests of volume and weight prove enough to determine a gold coin’s genuineness. Platinum is denser than gold and costs more, so it would be futile to use them to fake gold coins. Other metals are either too light or cannot be made into the right coin size. In theory, fake coins could only be made by uranium, thus making the dilemma a most unpractical one. Indeed, it is mission impossible to fake even just one gold coin.

However, there are counterfeit gold coins in circulation and they appear to be well-made. The Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle omega counterfeit, for example, is notorious for its complexity and has managed to fool and mislead several numismatics experts. There are also poor counterfeits. Some double eagles contain gold and copper alloys have not been thoroughly mixed and have a mottled appearance; others do not use the correct amount of gold and weigh less; and still others are larger or smaller in size.