The Basics Of Buying Coins

As a young boy, I collected all the loose change after mom dumped all the coins out everyones pockets before she through the cloths in the washing machine. It added up and I quickly filled a small coffee can with 90% junk silver coins. I sure wish that it was this easy to find coins today.

I never believe any investment is risk free. There is no such thing – and that includes bank notes, Treasury Bills, cash deposits, ‘guaranteed’ capital bonds, and gold – in any form. But I do think the risks on BullionVault are exceptionally small and transparent – and I think offshore stored gold is, right now, very much safer than the benchmark of safety – the Treasury Bill – primarily because of inflation risks.

In most collections there will be an assortment of tokens and medals. Unless they are very old and rare they typically sell for a few dollars each. Since there isn’t a standard reference that covers all tokens and medals, I would recommend taking a look on eBay to see you have anything of great value. Some medals will be made of gold or silver. If this fact isn’t on the face of the medal, check on the edge. Many old medal will list the purity of the silver on the edge as either 999 or Sterling (925) silver.

“>coin dealer Pfafftown to purchase silver varies with the spot price of silver; today it paid eight times face value, or in other words 8 X .15 = $1.20.

Which brings up the most important point – education. Before starting to collect coins beyond the “pocket change” phase, it is important to do your homework. This will do two things. First, it will save you a lot of money. Knowing which coins are rare and having a good idea of what the values are of any coin you’re interested in collecting will spare you buyer’s remorse when you learn you paid way too much money for a comon coin.

Here is quick chart to show you how the demographics of silver have changed from 2001 – 2010. As you can see that demand in some areas have increase dramatically over the decade while other have declined greatly.

And while you’re waiting, there are many affordable examples of other types of big silver waiting for you at your local coin shop or online at auction sites and coin selling sites. You can purchase all kinds up of big silver world coins and medals from 2 ounces in size up to a kilo in size, and sometimes, for just a small premium over the melt value of the silver. Some of these are truly beautiful like those put out by mints in Mexico, Canada and Australia.