Gold Coins’ Grade and Population

Gold Grade
The couple other factors figure immensely in the success of a numismatic investment: grade and population. Grade refers to the quality of the coin. The grading system for investment-grade in numismatic items – the ones disassociated with the bullion value – starts with mint state 64 and proof 64 coins and goes to mint state 70. very few coins, if any at all, are available in the mint state 70 designation. Do not by any means buy coins below mint state 64 unless the item is a recognized rare date and mint mark. It is better to have one rare or scarce mint state 65, 66, or 67 coin in a series than a dozen mint state 63 coins in the same series.

Most of the big marketing organizations in the field push low-grade coins of mint state 63 or less, as numismatic investments. But the professionals in the field consider these items to be very common, not worthy of the appellation “investment.” As a result, when the investment houses are out of the market, something which happens very often, these items are discounted severely. The investor hears the brunt of the devaluation. On the other hand, rare and scarce coins enjoy the benefit of a great commonsense market. In this market, the greater the rarity, the better the value will be in the long run. Any comparative review of the price histories in any section of the coin market bears out this observation.

Advice: none of this foregoing analysis applies to twenty dollar gold pieces, which constitute a separate market completely and must be treated in a different form. When buying rare coins, be sure that they have been graded by either the Numismatic Guarantee Corporation (NG) or the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and are housed in hard plastic containers. This increases their liquidity and narrows the spread between the buy and sell.