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Buying gold coins online can be a bit nerve wracking. Choosing the dealer for your business is one of the most important investment decisions you have to make.
JM Bullion has been serving customers since 2011. In that time, we have completed more than six million orders and sold more than $10 billion worth of precious metals products.
JM Bullion has also received more than 385,000 customer reviews in its years of service. The average customer rated their experience with JM Bullion as 4.8 stars out of 5, and more than 97% of customers rated their transaction with 4 stars or more.
So, the benefits of buying gold coins from JM Bullion aren’t just a function of our experience and volume. We also offer one of the easiest customer experiences, so let’s discuss the different types of gold coins you may consider for investing.
Although it’s a simple question, it doesn’t have a simple answer. The gold coins to buy depend heavily on your goals for your own portfolio.
Now, the goal of seeing the value of your investment increase is universal, and there is no “wrong” gold in terms of value. However, the deeper goals you have can make for some very different decisions along the way.
Key factors to consider when planning your portfolio include:
To be clear, a gold coin is the product of a government mint in a sovereign nation, not in a private mint. There are coin-like discs available for purchase called rounds, but these pieces are not recognized as legal tender and are valuable only for their gold content and – only marginally – their creative designs. So, we are only discussing coins that are official country products.
Some of the more popular gold coins include the American Eagle, the American Gold Buffalo, the Canadian Maple Leaf, and the British/American Gold Britannia. However, there are at least a dozen sovereign mints that produce gold bullion coins for sale. Furthermore, many nations use or have used gold coins as regular currency, so a portfolio doesn’t necessarily have to be populated with coins that were never meant to be circulated.
The US Mint is one of the premier minting organizations in the world. At present, it produces two gold bullion coins for collectors and investors to purchase, albeit through third-party retailers.
Of the two American gold bullion coins, the more popular of the two – by far – is the American Gold Eagle. Gold Eagle coins are struck in 22-karat gold, or 91.67% purity. Interestingly, one of the other two metals in the Gold Eagle is silver (the other is copper).
The Gold Eagle is available in 1/10 oz, ¼ oz, ½ oz, and 1 oz varieties. Of the four, the 1 oz variety is the most popular and is usually the default size for investors. The Mint usually releases the 1 oz versions in June, but production schedules can always vary.
As with most precious metal purchases, buying in bulk—or opting for the largest available item—is typically more cost-effective. In terms of the premium you’ll pay, the 1 oz Gold Eagles come with the lowest of the bunch, percentage-wise. Where you might only pay 5% over spot for an ounce, you might end up paying 40% over spot for a 1/10th of an ounce.
Things to consider: Gold Eagles are extremely popular, available everywhere, and quite liquid. However, expect to pay a slight premium for them in terms of their gold purity, as they are usually equally-priced to Gold Buffalos, which have a higher gold content.
The other bullion coin produced by the US Mint is the American Gold Buffalo. This coin is the purest gold coin struck by the United States. It is certified to be .9999 fine – meaning that other metals represent no more than 0.01% of the coin’s mass.
One major difference between the Buffalo and the Eagle is that the Buffalo is available almost entirely in one form – the 1 oz. coin. The Mint has released 1 oz. Gold Buffalos since 2006, but only offered fractional-sized Buffalos during a single year – 2008. As a result, the fractional Buffalos are available only for huge premiums above the spot price, as they are more collectors’ items than gold coin investments.
Thus, buying Gold Buffalos is a far more stable affair from year to year. Unlike the variations we see with the Eagles, most Gold Buffalos are priced within a hundred dollars of each other.
Things to consider: Gold Buffalos offer the purest gold product available from the US Mint, and the most efficient way to accrue gold weight in coin form. However, they are not as popular or well-known as the Gold Eagles, and may be both more difficult to find and more difficult to sell.
As mentioned, the US is not the only country to produce gold coins. In fact, some of these countries’ coins rival the American Gold Eagles in terms of their popularity.
The Canadian counterpart to the Gold Eagle is the Maple Leaf. Unlike the Gold Eagles, however, the Maple Leafs have always been minted at a .9999 purity level. They are available in the same denominations as the Eagle: 1 oz, ½ oz, ¼ oz, and 1/10 oz.
Another premier gold coin is actually a joint venture between the US and the British government. The Britannia comes in the same denominations as the Eagles and the Maple Leafs, but you have to be careful in terms of the mintage year. In their early days, Britannias were minted as 22-karat pieces, like Eagles. Since 2013, however, they have been minted as 24-karat coins.
One thing to bear in mind with foreign gold coins, however, is that the design of a coin might be deceptive to the untrained eye in terms of the provenance of a gold coin. For instance, one of Australia’s most prominent gold cold series is its Gold Lunar series, which is a running homage to the Chinese Zodiac and could easily be mistaken for a product from the People’s Republic.
Another world mint produces the Somalian Elephant coin, which is one of a series to acknowledge African wildlife. That mint is the Bavarian State Mint, one of four mint locations in Germany. So, if the country of origin of a coin is an important consideration to you, be sure to read carefully when it comes to the mintage of a particular gold coin.
While buying single gold bullion coins is certainly a valid approach, there are also collectors who prefer to accrue entire sets or collections of gold coins. We already mentioned a few of them above – the Australian Lunars and the Bavarian Mint’s African wildlife series.
Other popular collections for investors include China’s Gold Pandas and Austria’s Gold Philharmonics. In some cases, a series might have members with substantial differences in their appearances. In others, a complete set is the possession of a single member of each mintage year for the coin.
These kinds of collections certainly appeal to investors who want display pieces or tidy collections. Many sets can be purchased whole cloth from the mints themselves, and an entire group can be quite impressive to behold.
However, another group of investors might prefer to buy collections because of their pricing. Oddly enough, most complete collections are sold for a lower premium than each of their individual pieces, so buying a set might be an easy way to reduce the item cost of buying gold.
No matter what gold coins you choose to buy, though, it’s important to keep an eye on the spot price of gold. It is the foundation of gold coins’ value and premiums, and you need to be aware of dramatic shifts in the market before you buy.
Yes. As long as you buy gold coins from a reputable dealer like JM Bullion, it is safe to buy them online. Both we and our top competitors offer a safe experience for you to make a deal.
However, we have to assert that our six million orders, $10 billion of precious metals sales, and 4.8 star rating from nearly 400,000 satisfied customers puts us above the fray. We can help you buy almost any gold coin you want. Speak to our team if you want to start the conversation. We are open around the clock.
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