just starting out on your gold investments, this basic gold coin investing strategy will simplify things greatly for you. This article will discuss the most popular and recognized gold coins you can invest in.
Basic Gold Investing-Gold Bullion Coins
If you are just starting out with gold investments, I recommend investing in gold bullion first. Gold bullion has the least premium over the spot price (or melt value) of gold at the time of your purchase. So it is the least expensive way to start acquiring gold. Gold bullion comes in coin or bar form with coins being more popular with U.S. investors.
American Gold Eagle
My top recommendation for investing in gold bullion coins is the American Gold Eagle. First issued in 1986 by the U.S. Mint, American Gold Eagles are said to be the most popular gold bullion coins in the world. Each coin is minted in 22-karat solid gold and has an image of Lady Liberty on the obverse (front) and A Family of Eagles on the reverse.
American Gold Eagles are backed by the U. S. government for weight, content and purity which is why they are widely accepted (and quite easy to convert back to cash). American Eagle gold bullion coins can be purchased in four different denominations:
one-ounce with a $50 face value; half-ounce with a $25 face value; quarter-ounce with a face value of $10; and tenth-ounce with a $5 face value. You will pay more of a premium over spot gold for the half, quarter and tenth-ounce coins than the one ounce coin.
Canadian Gold Maple Leaf
My second recommendation for investing in gold bullion are coins from our friends to the north – the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf. Produced by the Royal Canadian Mint starting in 1979, these beautiful 24 karat gold coins are 99.99% pure gold (in 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint began producing 99.999% pure gold, one-ounce Maple Leaf coins). The Gold Maple Leaf has an image of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse side. The coin’s reverse image is that of a maple leaf – Canada’s natio