Gold…good or bad investment?

[Dave2001]

And many of us did. And bought stocks too.

First silver i ever bought was at $7 an oz

 

[Bacpacker]

I paid 10 bucks an ounce for my first purchases

 

[Dave2001]

In college i saved my lunch money to buy silver at $7 an oz, wish i had bought tome gold too when it was $35 an oz

 

[SoulSeeker]

I don't like buying coinage as it is alloyed. Gold and silver are too soft by themselves so they add copper and silver to gold and copper to silver. If I could get silver coins at a good price I would just to melt them down. They will always hold value but like everything else on the market it goes up or down. I had my step dad buy gold at $1200 an oz and like a dummy without asking sold it at a loss because it went down a little. You buy gold and silver to hang on to it.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I don't like buying coinage as it is alloyed. Gold and silver are too soft by themselves so they add copper and silver to gold and copper to silver. If I could get silver coins at a good price I would just to melt them down. They will always hold value but like everything else on the market it goes up or down. I had my step dad buy gold at $1200 an oz and like a dummy without asking sold it at a loss because it went down a little. You buy gold and silver to hang on to it.

I agree with you that buying PM's is for the long term, same with stocks. Gold and silver bullion is generally .999 fine. Pre 64 silver coins are 90% silver. Of course buyers take that in to account when you sell. Many people do melt their silver coins and pour in to bars, but generally if a silver bar doesn't have a recognized hallmark it'll be difficult to sell without first being assayed.
I've only been collecting PM'S for over 50 years now.

 

[Tacitus]

Yeah, for gold, there is basically:

• Pure gold (.999 fine or 24 karat or 99.9% pure)-- modern bullion coins...very commonly available now (usually kept in plastic to protect them because they are pure and therefore soft) -- if you want pure, non-alloy coins, buy these. (There is no such thing as a 100% pure gold coin, btw; .999 fine is considered pure.)
  • Canadian Gold Maple Leaf
  • US Gold Buffalo
  • Austrian Gold Philharmonic
  • British Gold Britannia
  • Australian Gold Kangaroo
  • China Gold Panda
• Crown Gold (22 karat or 91.667% pure) -- modern US & Krugerrand gold coins (you can handle these with fear of harming them) and older British coins for circulation and daily use -- this was the standard in the United Kingdom for a few hundred years [Wikipedia link for Crown Gold]
  • American Gold Eagle
  • South African Krugerrand
  • Old British Britannia
  • British Sovereigns (just shy of a quarter ounce)
• .900 fine gold (90% pure)-- old gold coins used in circulation
  • US pre-1935 gold coins
  • French 20 Francs
  • Swiss 20 Francs
  • Many other Latin Monetary Union nations (the 20 Francs size, just shy of a fifth ounce, was called other things in other countries; it was the "Euro" before the Euro because the coins were the same regardless of name [barring a few exceptions])

For silver, I think most if not all modern silver coins are .999 fine or 99.9% pure. Granted, older coins meant for circulation were often 90% silver to make them stronger so people could use them on a day to day basis. Silver is not as soft as gold, though, so .999 fine silver coins are more common than .999 fine gold coins, and I don't bother putting each coin in a separate protective plastic capsule.

If a buyer has no intent to melt coins down, then I don't think there is too much of a discount for an alloyed coin. When I buy, I buy American Gold Eagles ("AGE's") and Krugerrands and British Sovereigns because of their global recognition and acceptance. (And, I don't like keeping my coins in individual plastic protective cases.) All of those are Crown Gold. They are a bit cheaper than some 99.9% coins when you sell them, but they are also a bit cheaper when you buy them, so it is a wash in the end, IMO.

 

[Dave2001]

I make sure ALL mine are 999% certified!!