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If you were to start from scratch today a non-US gold collection...

JDelageJDelage Posts: 724 ✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum
What area would you focus on if you were to start a gold collection today? Where in your mind are the best opportunities to develop an interesting collection, with limited financial risk (i.e., you're least likely to overpay today, except for the risk in gold price of course).

I've asked the same question on the US forum and got interesting responses.

I'm considering allocating $2,000 to $5,000 per year to such a collection for the moment.

Cheers & thanks,

Joss
"The greatest productive force is human selfishness."
Robert A. Heinlein

Comments

  • secondrepublicsecondrepublic Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭
    I will probably get some flack from others on this board for saying this, but if you want to buy a country's gold coins as an investment, you should primarily look at how well you expect that country to be doing in the future. Try to find beautiful, rare, true numismatic coins in top condition.

    I would actually say don't worry so much if the country's coin designs are not innately the most beautiful out there. The country's own collectors will likely want to buy them anyway (patriotism - that's just the way it works.) In other words, while you may personally prefer the designs on many coins from Switzerland, France, etc., that's not where I'd park my money as an investment. I don't see a huge upside there.

    If you want to take a risk, try to find a country which you think will be doing economically better - a lot better - in the future. It should also be a country with a tradition of coin collecting, but most of whose collectors don't have a lot of money. There are some developing countries that fit this bill. A few come to mind: Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Cuba... you're taking a gamble, but it could work out if the political/economic situations there really improve. Maybe China, too.

    Or, pick a country which has been down in the dumps economically, but which could rebound nicely at some point - say, Japan. Germany might fit the bill, too.

    Just my $.02.
    "Men who had never shown any ability to make or increase fortunes for themselves abounded in brilliant plans for creating and increasing wealth for the country at large." Fiat Money Inflation in France, Andrew Dickson White (1912)
  • ajaanajaan Posts: 17,454 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My wife is working on a gold coin collection from European countries. Each coin is in the 1/5 to 1/4 oz range and dated before 1930.

    DPOTD-3
    'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'

    CU #3245 B.N.A. #428


    Don
  • CIVITASCIVITAS Posts: 2,256 ✭✭✭
    It depends on how many coins you want to add per year I guess.

    A nice Roman aureus would probably eat up most of that budget, but I think that would be a nice addition.

    Byzantine solidii are readily available in high grade for very modest prices these days ($350-$750). Same goes for gold staters of Koson.

    Decent hammered gold seems tough to get a hold of nowadays (particularly English, but French and Dutch seems fairly reasonable still though that's changing).
    image
    https://www.civitasgalleries.com

    New coins listed monthly!

    Josh Moran

    CIVITAS Galleries, Ltd.
  • CruziCruzi Posts: 460
    Been collecting gold coins for a while, bullion and collector.

    Really enjoy every coin.
  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 23,424 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I am not sure that now is the time to start if monitary loss is of a major concern. Consider looking for undervalued rare collector coins... Edward VII Florins, Half Crowns and Shillings... 1906 and 1907 are probably the most common followed by 1902.

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • trozautrozau Posts: 3,455 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Been collecting gold coins for a while, bullion and collector.

    Really enjoy every coin. >>


    Excellent site and a wonderfully varied collection! image
    In case you did not hear, "gold is a barbarous relic!" image
    trozau (troy ounce gold)
  • docday2003docday2003 Posts: 1,100
    we sure seem to have alot of GoldCoinLovers image
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,658 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I will probably get some flack from others on this board for saying this, but if you want to buy a country's gold coins as an investment, you should primarily look at how well you expect that country to be doing in the future. Try to find beautiful, rare, true numismatic coins in top condition.

    I would actually say don't worry so much if the country's coin designs are not innately the most beautiful out there. The country's own collectors will likely want to buy them anyway (patriotism - that's just the way it works.) In other words, while you may personally prefer the designs on many coins from Switzerland, France, etc., that's not where I'd park my money as an investment. I don't see a huge upside there.

    If you want to take a risk, try to find a country which you think will be doing economically better - a lot better - in the future. It should also be a country with a tradition of coin collecting, but most of whose collectors don't have a lot of money. There are some developing countries that fit this bill. A few come to mind: Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Cuba... you're taking a gamble, but it could work out if the political/economic situations there really improve. Maybe China, too.

    Or, pick a country which has been down in the dumps economically, but which could rebound nicely at some point - say, Japan. Germany might fit the bill, too.

    Just my $.02. >>




    Well said! image

    A strategy I wouldn't have thought of, but it sounds good.

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
  • secondrepublicsecondrepublic Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭
    lordmarcovan: I'm just kind of extrapolating from watching the Polish and Russian coin markets. My guess is that other coin markets operate the same way. In the last few years, both Polish and Russian coin prices have really gone up - for the nicer pieces, sometimes doubling or tripling in just a few years. Some of it is probably speculative, but a lot of it is new money in the market from Poles who are doing better (now that Poland is in the EU) and Russians spending oil money and other revenue (legal or otherwise) image
    "Men who had never shown any ability to make or increase fortunes for themselves abounded in brilliant plans for creating and increasing wealth for the country at large." Fiat Money Inflation in France, Andrew Dickson White (1912)
  • gxseriesgxseries Posts: 423


    << <i>lordmarcovan: I'm just kind of extrapolating from watching the Polish and Russian coin markets. My guess is that other coin markets operate the same way. In the last few years, both Polish and Russian coin prices have really gone up - for the nicer pieces, sometimes doubling or tripling in just a few years. Some of it is probably speculative, but a lot of it is new money in the market from Poles who are doing better (now that Poland is in the EU) and Russians spending oil money and other revenue (legal or otherwise) image >>



    Most definately agree - Russian and Polish coins are going insane these few years. Some of the rarer gold coins went to insane records in the previous goldburg auctions. Even high grade silver are striking records...
    List of my partial coin list: My Coin List
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,658 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If you were to start from scratch today a non-US gold collection... >>



    << <i>we sure seem to have alot of GoldCoinLovers image >>




    imageimage

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
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