GOLD COLLECTOR COINS RULE #1

 

You may just want to buy bullion.  You may want to buy limited edition bullion for slightly more money.  There is nothing wrong with that.  In fact it's the smartest thing you can do unless you have some expertise.  The bullion price is very likely to double from here as long as the debt trajectory remains as it is.  And both presidential candidates are guaranteeing an orgy of debt.

However, if you do want to wade into collector coins.  Let me offer up one preeminent rule of thumb.

Buy something you really love,

Don't try to game the market and figure out the things most likely to rise from here.  

Don't jump in and momentum bid.  That works sometimes with stocks.  But with collector coins, because of the hammer fees you probably won't do that well.

Now, many people advise against collector coins altogether.  However if you go to Numisbids you'll see dozens and dozens of auctions full of collector coins going off every day, every week, every month.  So a lot of people are into it.  And some of them are pretty smart.

I can't tell you what to buy.  There's Ancients - Greek, Roman, Byzantine.  There's Medieval.  There's world by countries.  By Empires.  By issue types.  Coronation issues.  War commemoratives.  Historic Cities.  Historic Rulers.  It goes on and on.

But start with something you just think is amazing and would love to own.

It sounds simple but so many people try to outhink or game the market.

The thing is, if you find some coin or medal to be really beautiful, or historically important, you're probably not alone.  If you think something is amazing you'll probably find a community that also appreciates the same thing.  

Above is pictured the world's first gold coin.  When I first learned you could buy one of these 2500 year old objects on the open market, I was truely amazed.  I couldn't believe it.  And at the time they really weren't very expensive.  You could pick up a really nice one for maybe $4000.  Now it costs a lot more.  But really, compared to a painting by Basquiat that's all of 40 years old it's still incredibly cheap.

I also fell in love with this:

I bought a nice one on ebay for $2000.   I had to think long and hard.  I didn't really know what is was.  But what crasftmanship!  The portrait is amazing.  And it dates back to 1821.  There's some good history there.  Now a nice one is ten times as much.  Still, compared to a lot of things, not that much.

So buy what you love.

It's always best.