HISTORICAL GOLD MEDALS: WHY THEY'RE MY HARD ASSET OF CHOICE

 

I sell gold medals, so take this with a grain of salt, since I'm talking my own book here.

But compared to almost any other Hard Asset, in my view, Historical Gold Medals are by far the best investment.

1) They're gold.  So they're chemically inert.  They don't tarnish, tear, corode, fade. The condition you receive them in, is the condition they will remain in unless you degrade them yourself.

2) They're gold.  So they're beautiful.  Humans have prized gold for it's amazing eye appeal since the dawn of human history.  

3) They're gold.  So they're portable.  You don't need a fortress to guard them or truck to transport them of a museum size spcace to display them.

4) They're gold so they will hold their value throughout the ages and appreciate over time against all paper currencies.  

5) They're of Historical Interest, and even, in some cases, importance.  They were almost always issued to celebrate some Historical occasion of Importance, or interest and issued to Historical Figures of Great Accomplishment.  Often Kings, Queens, Generals, Emperors, and Artist and Inventors of great talent.  In many cases they were once owned and prized by these most notable humans.

6) They're most often wornderful works of art, as the important humans who commissioned them tended to hire the great artsists of the era to engrave them.

7) They're extremely rare.  A rare coins might be issued in the thousands or tens of thousands.  A rare medal may be issued in the hundreds.  In many cases a rare medal might be unique in gold.  Or issued in gold to a small handful of the era's most important figures.  

And yet, because fo few are even aware of their existence, they're suprisingly affordable compared to many other hard assets - especially coins.  (But the number is rapidly growing.)

8) They are extemely undervalued, because it takes effort to research their historical and cultural importance, to loacate them, and to assess their value because they're so rare they seldom sell at auction.  Most coin types can be easily researched and valued.  But a rare gold medal can take hours or research to identify how many exist, who has owned them and what they ought to bring at fair value.

In the same way, memorabilia connected to figures with whom everyone of a certain era is familiar are easy to acquire and value.  But a sneaker that was once worn by Kobe Bryant may be of tremendous value now, or a Dress worn in a film by Julia Roberts, or a guitar played by Johnny Cash.  But in a hundred years will anyone value these things?  Who knows.  

Yet a gold medal awarded to Admiral Nelson may mean little to most people today, but in a hundred years it will still have tremendous historical - and monetary value, to the history buffs: military, economic and political .enthusiasts and scholars of tomorrow.  And there are more of them than you might think,

The same goes for modern art.  You might pay a million dollars for a Banksy drawing of a cute smiling monkey today and sell it for two million tomorrow.  But in a hundred years will anyone pay a dime for it?  Who knows.  

But that Gold Medal celebrating a major victory by Napoleon Bonaparte, engraved by one of History's great artists: Bertrand Andrieu,  will certainly have more value in a hundred years than it has today.

8) Another wonderful thing about gold medals is that they have been around for ever, so you can collect in any period of interest.  It is doubtful most most peope could afford a Gold Medallion of Constantine for a few million dollars.  But there are gold medals in every era, and many are supprisingly affordable.  Some of great artistic merit and hsitorical import sell for little more than melt.

So research an era, or a King or an Emperor or a Pope  or an Artist or a Scientist, a battle, a war,  or even an olympic athlete and chances are there are Gold Medals associated with them that you can track down with a little determination and application.  It will be worth you while.