Owning Precious Metal - Part 4
This is the fourth post of several “Introduction” blog posts about Owning Silver & Gold that covers common questions of what bullion is, how it's measured, what purities there are, what kind of products you can buy, why to buy to historical blunders, counterfeit concerns, market prices vs. the economy, etc. In this post, we review the Collector Style Buyer and what types of gold and silver you can buy like this - What is YOUR STYLE? Investor? Survivalist? Collector? Gifter? – Collector: Defined
First – let us get caught up, if you have not read the first blog in this series – read Introduction to Owning Silver & Gold - Post 1 if you have not read the second blog in this series – read and if you have not read the third blog in this series – read Introduction to Owning Silver & Gold – Post 3 .
The Collector Style Defined:
If you enjoy assembling bullion or coins based on dates, designs or other themes, or you just like to own certain pieces because of the history behind them, then you may be a collector. There are many options in both precious metal bullion and numismatic coins to form a collection around.
Generally speaking these bullion pieces or coins will call for higher premiums simply due to a collector value, design intricacy or even historical significance or rareness. This would include but not be limited to Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars, Mint & Proof Sets, certified and non-certified bullion or coins, Government Minted bullion and more.
The value assigned to any of these pieces depends on many factors such as rarity when it comes to limited mintages, numismatic coins and mint error coins; other factors such as current market demand, market supply, certified condition and/or grade, etc all go into the consideration of a coin or bullion value. On the United States Coin and Bullion Issue collecting side a great reference book on current values of these pieces is the “Red Book” which is an annually updated price guide published by Whitman. In this book you will find the values, histories and mintages of pretty much any United States coin dating back to as far as the money of the Early Americans. Proof and Mint Sets are also include in the book listing their current market values and mintages as well as US Government issued silver bullion, gold bullion and platinum bullion.
Certified coins and bullion are another major factor in the ‘collector’ world. There are several Third Party Grading Companies that assess and determine the value and authenticity of certain coins and bullion through their certification processes. These services provide, for a fee, an impartial, independent opinion of a coin’s grade and its authenticity; the grader is neither buyer or seller and has no biased interest in the coin’s market value. Coins are judged by consensus with the graders having no knowledge of who submitted them so that there is no influence on the outcome. NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America) and PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) are among the leading third party grading companies and they take into consideration everything about a coin or bullion piece and place value on the piece by assigning grades and/or conditions to coins which helps to determine the collector value of a coin or bullion piece. Upon successful certification, the certificate/label with the assigned grade and/or condition is sealed in plastic holders, guaranteeing the coin/bullion piece and its grade certificate cannot be separated. Once sealed the plastic holders or “slabs” cannot be tampered with otherwise the certification is void. Collecting certified coins not only helps to guarantee the quality/condition of a coin but it can also assists in the authenticity of a coin therefore barring counterfeits.
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Coming up in our next post - "What is YOUR Style? Gifter: Defined"
