Purchasing Bullion as a Collection
Precious metals can offer more than investment potential, with bullion-priced gold and silver providing plenty of opportunities to build collections while stacking.
Just because your focus on owning precious metals is on the potential appreciation in the value of the metal content does not preclude you from also being a collector. There is a wide variety of gold, silver, platinum, and even palladium coins available at bullion prices, but they could be acquired to form a collection.
Perhaps the most popular such collection is assembling a year set of U.S. Silver Eagle Dollars. Now in its 41st year of production, the company where I work has a sizeable number of Silver Eagle collectors who purchase either a single example, or a single coin times the number of children in the family, or a 20-coin roll every year. Some acquire uncertified pieces, while others seek specimens certified by a third-party grading service.
Among our customers, there are many silver stackers who are always on the lookout for different designs of 1-ounce silver rounds or rectangles. There are thousands of options out there, so these people will never complete their collection.
For those purchasing gold, there are some who accumulate year sets of any size of the U.S. Gold American Eagles (depending on someone’s budget). But another popular variation is to collect different bullion-priced gold coins from as many different nations as possible. There are so many countries that have issued bullion-priced gold coins, with more appearing every year, that it may never be possible to consider any such collection as finished.
There are many classic gold and silver coins that were struck to use in everyday commerce which are still available today at bullion or bullion-related prices. Among U.S. coinage, many of the Pre-1934 Gold Coins of the $5.00, $10.00, and $20.00 denominations of Liberty and Indian designs can be acquired for less than a 10 percent premium above the intrinsic metal value, especially in circulation grades, but sometimes in Mint State condition. It is possible to acquire such specimens going back more than 150 years. A collector can search for years to amass a variety of dates and mintmarks of various series.
Today, even a wide range of dates and mintmarks of circulated U.S. Morgan and Peace Dollars can be found at bullion-related prices. Over most of the past half century, these traded at much higher premiums above their metal value, but collectors can find a surprising number of issues at prices under 20 percent above intrinsic value.
As for world silver coins, many dealers have a box of them where a customer can sort through them to find treasures they can purchase at or close to melt value.
Just because your top priority might be acquiring precious metals as an investment does not mean that you can’t also have fun as a collector.
Last column’s numismatic trivia question.
Last time I asked, “Which person depicted on U.S. currency was first elected to the U.S. Senate as a member of the Free Soil Party?” Salmon P. Chase, who appeared on $1.00 Legal Tender Notes during his tenure as U.S. Treasury Secretary, was a man of many political parties. He was elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 1840 as a member of the Whig Party. He switched to the Liberty Party, writing that party’s national platform in 1843. In 1848, he helped form the Free Soil Party, where the Ohio legislature elected him as a U.S. Senator in 1849. Chase helped form the Republican Party and was elected as Ohio’s governor in 1855 as that party’s candidate. When Chase did not receive the Republican nomination for president in 1860, the Ohio legislature once again elected him to the U.S. Senate. His second tenure as Senator only lasted three days as President Lincoln appointed him to be U.S. Treasury Secretary. In mid-1864, Lincoln then appointed Chase as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1868, Chase was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. A year before his death, Chase helped found the Liberal Republican Party in 1872, where he again failed to secure that party’s presidential nomination. Chase was also depicted on the Series 1918 $10,000 Federal Reserve Note and the Series 1928 and 1934 $10,000 Gold Certificates.
This week’s trivia question
Here is this week’s question. Where did George T. Morgan, designer of the Morgan Dollar and eventually the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver, receive his training to design coins? Come back next week for the answer.
Patrick A. Heller was honored as a 2019 FUN Numismatic Ambassador. He is also the recipient of the American Numismatic Association 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, the 2017 Exemplary Service Award, the 2012 Harry Forman National Dealer of the Year Award, and the 2008 Presidential Award. Over the years, he has also been honored by the Numismatic Literary Guild, Professional Numismatists Guild, National Coin & Bullion Association, and the Michigan State Numismatic Society. He is the communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan, and writes “Liberty’s Outlook,” a quarterly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. He now volunteers with the National Coin & Bullion Association as its Industry Issues Advisor. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentaries, "Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So,” and “Important News You Need To Know,” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio archives posted at www.1320wils.com).
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