it's hard to go wrong with gold coins, but if you
don't know where to start or you're concerned about making an expensive mistake, well i have a
few tips that i picked up over the last 10 years and if you don't really need the
advice but you like to look at gold coins well i've picked up a few of those too if you're new to gold let me just start
by saying welcome - buying gold can seem a little bit mysterious, even a little bit
strange before you actually get into it because it isn't really something that's talked
about often, and my hope in making this video is just to demystify it a bit... make it seem a
little less strange and then hopefully save you some money while we're at it because if you
charge into this all Leroy Jenkins style you can waste a lot of money fast. I'll also just say
that I have made a video similar to this before but a lot has changed in the last few months,
and that affects both price and availability so my recommendations in that video on what to
buy and where to buy them need a few updates the first thing you're going to need to know is
just simply what to buy, and this varies depending on where you live and what your reasons for buying
gold are, but generally speaking you want the most well-known coins in your region, and you want
to find them at the best price possible as well but those two things don't always go together
unfortunately. Here in the United States the U.S. Mint produces the American Gold Eagle and the
American Buffalo, and if price wasn't an issue and you lived in the United States we'd be able to
say that either those two coins would be your top choice we'd be able to move on. For the last
few months though in the first quarter of 2021 Eagles and Buffaloes have carried a much
higher premium than normal much higher than most other government-backed bullion coins so you might want to consider a few alternatives before we get into those alternatives though let's
just take a look at these two these coins are similar in a lot of ways - they're both investment grade coins with little to no collector value so you're effectively paying for the gold content
plus a premium that covers the retail cost of producing and selling the coin both of these coins have one ounce of gold content so they'll cost whatever the spot price of gold is at the time today it's about $1,750 and then you'll pay a premium on top of that of about six percent currently with everything going on that premium is more like 11% and higher and that's why we're going to look at alternatives here in a minute the primary differences between these two
coins are the popularity and the gold purity the American Gold Eagle is the most popular
gold coin in the world right now and that claim is based on recent sales figures the South African
Krugerrand would beat it by total historical sales but if you live in the United States this is
the top gold coin - it's a 22 karat gold coin so in addition to the one ounce of fine gold, it has
8.33% of silver and copper alloy you don't pay more for that extra metal content - it's there simply to make the coin more durable since copper and silver are harder metals than gold American Gold Eagles come in fractional sizes as well you can find the one tenth ounce the one quarter ounce and the one half ounce versions of the same coin and they'll be priced like the full ounce versions divided by the gold content with their own premiums as well if you want to buy gold but don't want to pay for
a full ounce coin then these are great options just as a word of warning though, the smaller the
coin the higher the premium percentage so you'll pay more for a 1/10th ounce coin than you would for a one ounce coin if you were to buy 10 of them to get to the same gold content, so in normal
times when that one ounce coin has something like a 6% premium, you might find that a 1/2 oz will have an 8% premium a 1/4 might have an 11% and a 1/10 oz might be more like 15% but again currently with everything going on, all of those coins are even more expensive
than that it's very common to see premiums as high as 25% on a 1/10 ounce American Gold Eagle right now so you will save money if you buy the one ounce coin rather than two 1/2 ounce
four 1/4 or ten 1/10 oz coins... you get the idea one other thing to note, the American Gold Eagles
are undergoing a design change later this summer and that won't affect the price of these coins but
they will look a little different in a few months now the American Gold Buffalo is a 24 karat gold
coin that means it's 99.99 fine gold you can see the color difference pretty clearly - it's a deeper yellow like you'd expect from gold but it has the same outer dimension as the Eagle and also has the same $50 nominal face value it's very similar to the Eagle, and just a quick note on that face value - theoretically you can spend these at a store they're worth about $50 in legal tender but that is
nothing more than a distraction it shows that they're government-backed but you're not going to want to use these at the gas station the US Mint does not produce fractional
buffaloes they did release some in 2008 but they're not available today, you'd have to
buy them on the secondary market - they would be very expensive you will be able to find both a normal BU that means brilliant uncirculated version of this coin - that's the standard bullion
coin - as well as a proof you'll be able to find proof state in both Eagles and Buffaloes - proofs tend to be a lot more expensive particularly if you're buying them directly from the Mint. I would
say stick with the BU - this coin doesn't have as deep of a history as the American Gold
Eagle, but it is very popular here as well if you're looking to buy an American coin while
living in a country like Canada or a few others that tax 22 karat gold coins well this would be
the obvious choice you'll find strong preferences for that 24 karat gold in a lot of other
countries especially Asian countries as well so you have a few things to consider with these
coins but mostly it's just going to come down to which one you like - if you like the looks
of one coin over the other go with that coin you'll not have trouble selling either one of
these coins if the need arises, but you will want to consider that since the Buffalo is 24
karat gold, it is softer and it should be kept in a capsule that will prevent it from getting
scratched or dented - I'll have some links to those capsules in the descriptions as well
so you don't have to go searching for those either of these coins they're going to be a great
option now the main reason a person who lives in the U.S. would consider anything other than these
two coins really comes down to a logical reason of price or an emotional reason like you just like
something else because there are fun alternatives the reason i say that the price is really the only
logical reason though is that you typically won't get back the premium in a sale so if you buy a
gold buffalo at 11% premium you'll pay about $1,944 today again that's based on a $1,750 spot price
give or take but if you sell that you might not get much more than spot price back depending on
the buyer maybe you'll get a percent maybe two percent over so you could see a loss of 10%
if you turned around and sold that coin back to a local shop in a quick sale that's just something
to consider now spot price does increase over time but you should always be aware that if you bought
a gold coin and turned around and sold it the next day you'd probably lose some money now i just
think everyone should have an idea of what a sale would look like before they buy and if you aren't
comfortable selling to a private buyer in person or online through a site like eBay or Facebook
then a local coin shop is probably going to be the most likely buyer that's not a terrible thing
by the way it's a little like trading in a car at a dealership rather than selling it yourself
you won't get as much in the sale but it's less hassle so when i say that you might only get back
a percent or two over the spot price of the coin that would be your worst case scenario and even
that sounds a little harsh but the lowest price is probably going to come from a local coin
shop again that sale will be very easy though okay so with all of that in mind i'm going
to show you a few other options that could potentially minimize any potential losses in a
quick sale or maximize the gains over a longer time frame in other words I'm going to show
you some cheaper options and then I'll tell you which ones I recommend all things considered so
let's start with the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf because they're a close neighbor that's going to
make them more popular here in the United States it's also just one of my favorites now this
is another 24 karat 1 ounce pure gold coin the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf was the first pure gold
bullion coin available it was introduced by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1979 and they've only
made minor changes to the design over the years just like the Buffalo and the Eagle that I've
already shown, the year the coin was minted it really doesn't mean much to its value but there
are a few aesthetic improvements and safety features that have been added to the newer coins
in 2013 the Royal Canadian Mint added these micro engraved marks and then in 2015 the Mint added
radial lines as well now that makes them harder to counterfeit but it's it also gives the coin this
cartwheel effect when the light hits it just right it's a gorgeous coin and they are popular
worldwide here in the United States you'll pay a little less premium than you will for the
eagle or the buffalo and you'd get back slightly less than a sale to a local coin shop there's
also a very specific tax law if you sell more than 25 ounces of these Canadian Maple Leafs
here in the United States in one transaction but if you're new to gold i'll just assume that
that doesn't apply to you you're not going to have to worry about 25 ounces of these and if you
do want to know more about that tax law the 1099-b form I do have a video on capital gains taxes
and I feel like this is getting really long so this is probably a good time to tell you that
I've posted all kinds of videos talking about gold that includes the video that I mentioned
being similar to this one and if you want to continue down the rabbit hole be sure to hit my
channel page - again there are a lot of videos there right other options the United Kingdom's Royal
Mint has put out a fantastic coin for a low price they actually put out a few but i'm going to focus
on their primary coin the Britannia this has always been a great looking coin but in 2021 the Royal Mint added new security features that make it incredibly difficult to counterfeit if you live
in the uk this coin and anything else from the Royal Mint actually should be at the top of your
list since they're exempt from capital gains taxes there now everywhere else you should just see
this as a great looking 24 karat gold coin that's relatively well recognized and very difficult
to counterfeit so it is not as popular as the U.S. Mint coins it's not as popular as the Canadian
Maple Leafs the South African Krugerrands or the Austrian Philharmonics even, but any local coin shop
would happily buy them from you and with the new security features they are gaining in popularity - on top of the aesthetics and new security features the one ounce version of this coin can
typically be found at a 5% premium so that means it is going to beat the price of just
about any other modern gold bullion coin available another modern coin that would rival the Britannia
on price is going to be the Australian Kangaroo I don't actually have one to show you so I
grabbed a Swan - this is another gold coin produced by the Perth Mint and Australia actually
has two large mints but the Perth Mint is the more popular of the two the Kangaroo can typically be
found for about that 5% premium as well it doesn't have the security features that
Britannia has and it's again not as popular as the other coins that I just mentioned here in the
United States at least but the Perth Mint is well-known for producing very high quality gold coins
we're going to come back to some of those other options in a minute and both the Kangaroos and the Britannias are also available in fractional sizes other options that you'd have would be coins
like the Krugerrand or Philharmonic that I just mentioned they are among the most popular in the
world - you can typically find either of those coins at a low premium and both are very well known so
if you were to sell them it would be very easy there are a lot of other options like the Mexican
Libertads or the Chinese Pandas for instance and people would complain if I didn't mention
them but those coins fall lower on my list of recommendations for a few reasons - if you can find
either of them at a good price and have a specific reason that you like them - whether that's for the
culture behind them or the local availability - I would never rule them out so before we come
back to final recommendations I wanted to get a few points out on how and where to buy the gold
coins now I always recommend starting at a local coin shop if you have one normally you're going
to save premium since the online dealer's price and shipping and credit card fees if you go that
route but local dealers have been struggling with inventory lately and I think this is going to be
a short-term thing so if you do have a local coin shop definitely call them and ask what they
have for inventory and then also ask their price on something say like a Canadian Gold Maple Leaf that'll give you an idea of what their premium is if they don't have inventory or they're asking
far too much for those coins or you're just more comfortable buying online, you have a lot of
options there as well and in my last video I mentioned APMEX, SDBullion and JMBullion -
all three of those are great options and I will add links to those in the description but what
I've been finding is that with availability where it is right now, I'm having to look at multiple
dealer sites to find what I want I've had good luck lately with SilverGoldBull and Bullion Exchanges, and I'm not going to go into any of them specifically except to say that APMEX tends
to be the one with the most inventory, the quickest shipping, and the highest prices, so if inventory,
shipping speed, and price are the three criteria that you're working from, you'll find that you only
get to pick two at each site - some have inventory and low prices but they're slow, some will have low
prices and quick shipping but they only have a few options you might have to shop around a little bit as you get online what you're going to find is that there are hundreds of different options for gold coins and bars a lot of them are obscure enough though
that I wouldn't recommend them if you're new you will hear people say that gold is gold but
I don't personally believe that based on past experiences selling gold coins - I was very
familiar both with the local shops and with eBay but my experience selling Sovereigns and 20
Francs Roosters was still a lot more work than my experience selling American Gold
Eagles - just something to consider if that doesn't concern you in any way, you
will be able to find old European coins like Sovereigns and 20 Francs Roosters for a
lower premium than modern gold bullion coins bars are another lower premium option that
I don't personally recommend initially at least not here in the United States - buyers
are simply more skeptical about bars and while you might hypothetically want to verify any
gold purchase whether that's a coin or not I've never been concerned when buying a well-known
government-backed coin from a well-respected dealer newer coins are just harder to copy and
there are serious penalties for counterfeiting government coins - so to close this out with the
recommendation on which gold coins I think you should start with, I'll say that there are ideal
choices and there are practical choices there are even some fun choices but in general you want to start with the most popular coins in your region here in the United States that is the American
Gold Eagle followed by the American Gold Buffalo and if you're buying in the first quarter
of 2021 though you're going to find that the premiums on Eagles and Buffalos are higher than
10% and if that's the case when you're looking I would recommend considering one of the other
government-backed coins you can find those at more like 5% premium, so if Eagles and Buffalos are too expensive I personally look at Canadian Maple Leafs, if Canadian Maple
Leafs are too expensive, I look at Britannias you can make a case for any of the coins that
I've mentioned here today and some people will but if you simply don't know where to start I
would just say start with those four options what I personally try not to do is just buy
randomly - 90% of my gold coins are American Gold Eagles or Buffaloes, if I lived in Canada 90% of my
coins would be Canadian Maple Leafs if I lived in South Africa it'd be Krugerrands and if I lived in Australia it'd be Kangaroos - again you get the idea I just find that variety makes selling more
difficult so any of these less well-known coins really need to jump out at me before I'll buy
them - I'm not saying that you shouldn't buy them for yourself, just know that they will cost
more and potentially sell for less and if that doesn't concern you well again you have a lot of
fun options all right so this was a longer video than most so i'm going to call it good right there and like I mentioned previously I'm going to have details and links in the description if you want to know more about gold coins be sure to check out the videos on my channel page and also be sure to subscribe I'm going to be watching the comments so feel free to leave any questions you have or just let us know what your preferences are I know there are going to be differences
of opinion - if you found any of this at all interesting I would really appreciate it if you hit the like button that helps get the word out on this topic either way, thank you
for watching - I appreciate your time - take care you
Why is there an ugly woman on all of the UK, Australia and Canadian coins?