How do I buy thee?

Now that Gold may have begun a short/intermediate term correction (we'll see) there is an entire class of bullion gold coins that will not move 1 cent during the entire correction, no matter how deep, quick, or frightening the correction may be. It is a category I would term "Bullion Plus," since the coins do have a substantial bullion value, but they trade at a premium because of collector interest.

The most sought after, at the moment are Chinese gold coins issued by the Chinese Government mint. The coin offered above is a 1997 Chinese mint, standard issue bullion one ounce coin being offered on ebay (quite reasonably) at $2500, or aproximately $1000 over the spot price of bullion. If the spot price drops the offering price on this coin will not. Demand might temporarily cool, but supply is limited and the seller will wait patiently. And with good reason. Or a billion plus good reasons, as that's the population of China which is being encouraged by its Government to collect its own gold.

However, there are also many US collectors who are collecting these coins. The catch? To understand this market you have to carefully study the marketing info supplied in the text above. This includes The grade, the grading service, and the mintage for the year, and the tiny mint variations within the year. Collectors of this issue must be familiar with all these factors for each and every year. If not, you will get scalped in this market. However, if you make the effort, the premium on these coins over bullion is likely to expand faster than the general market as well as resist declines in the general market.

Other popular issues of collectible low mintage bullion coins include:

The South African Natura Series, with images of African Wildlife trade at a very small premium to regular bullion gold despite the tiny mintages and the quality images.

French 100 Franc Gold Angel coins (of close to one ounce) of the late 19th C. in high grade tend to trade around $2200 for MS 63, and $2800 for MS 64.

Peruvian Seated Liberty coins from the 1950-60's: These large coins (approx 1.33 ounces of pure gold) have very low mintages for certain years, yet trade at only about 200-300 dollars an ounce over bullion.

Russian Bears and Dancers have low mintages and trade at approx 2x bullion. Most of the appreciation occurred over two years ago, and since then they've retained a steady premium.

Brazilian gold of the 19th Century used to trade at very close to bullion and now have become genuine collector coins in high grade with the rise of the Brazilian economy.

South American 8 escudo pieces of the 19th century in lower grades trade very close to the bullion price.

Turkish Ataturk 500 kurush coins from the early 20th Century of over one ounce trade around $2000 despite very low mintages and the fact that Turkey is likely, over time to become a major power in the Middle East.

Now, I fully realize there is a large number of investors for whom the idea of collecting anything at all is anathema. This, in spite of the fact that they too probably have some collection (artwork, porcelains, cookie jars, first edition books, golf clubs, musical instruments, baseball cards, etc. ect.) And their own collection makes sense to them, while all others seem foolish.

But as long as the gold bull persists, and it will persist for a very long time yet. bullion will be an increasing object of collection. It's fun. It's interesting - (I know, if you're a nerd, right?) and it's profitable.