Investing in Silver & Gold Coins a good or bad idea ?

jasonsony735 · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:37

I've been collecting Silver & Gold coins for about 6 months now - I've been buying the new ones from the royal mint in the nice boxes and plan to keep them until I am old and then sale them for my retirement fund

Am I wasting my money doing it like this ?

I like the idea of having a chest of gold and silver in my room

this is mainly why I collect them as I can see my investment everyday.

Burnsy2023 · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:41

Commodity values of silver and gold vary wildly. They could potentially earn or lose you a lot of money. Nobody is going to be able to give you a more concrete answer than that, at least in the short term.

There was a peak in value in 2012 and there has been a downward trend in value since.

Mr Jones · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:42

Better off buying Lego and vaulting it before selling it up when prices goes up.

Raymond Lin · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:42

Safer investing in brick and mortar.

Firestar_3x · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:42

jasonsony735 said:
I like the idea of having a chest of gold and silver in my room this is mainly why I collect them as I can see my investment everyday.

Hope you have insurance.........

Bunka · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:43

Firestar_3x said:
Hope you have insurance.........

For when your chest of gold & silver goes through your bedroom floor...

thep02 · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:45

Physical gold or silver would be a good investment for a very small percentage of your total wealth as a valid hedge against runaway inflation or other rainy days scenarios, I wouldn't buy paper gold especially now.

anything I don't mind · 16 Sep 2015 at 13:47

I think they are a good investment against inflation, with the uncertainty that fiat currencies brings. Price of gold varies over time but when taken in to account inflation, the price of gold is actually quite stable.

http://www.hardassetsinvestor.com/f...over-the-last-2500-years-fact-or-fiction.html

It is best to have a varied portfolio though. Some income generating assets to increase cash flow and some gold and silver to hedge against currency problems. If you just have savings it may be better to buy gold than let it lose value but you could probably do more with it but then add some risk to it.

gold is a low risk investment with not much return, just retains value.

Burnsy2023 · 16 Sep 2015 at 14:07

anything I don't mind said:
I think they are a good investment against inflation, with the uncertainty that fiat currencies brings. Price of gold varies over time but when taken in to account inflation, the price of gold is actually quite stable.

http://www.hardassetsinvestor.com/f...over-the-last-2500-years-fact-or-fiction.html

It is best to have a varied portfolio though. Some income generating assets to increase cash flow and some gold and silver to hedge against currency problems. If you just have savings it may be better to buy gold than let it lose value but you could probably do more with it but then add some risk to it.

gold is a low risk investment with not much return, just retains value.

Well yes, when you measure it over 2.5 millennia then it is quite stable but that helpful to absolutely nobody as that will never be an investment timeframe. When you look it on the 5-10 years then it's much more variable. If you buy gold now, it's likely to lose value to settle to pre-2008 prices which means gold bought now will lose 2/3 of it's value in the next few years, unless there is another financial meltdown.

http://goldprice.org/

Aldav · 16 Sep 2015 at 15:08

As with anything else, buying before prices go up and selling before they drop is a great idea. Buying high, and selling low, not so much.

If you get your prediction of future prices right, you can make a very good return. Get it wrong and not only will you make no return but may lose a good chunk of the original investment. Like all investments, it's a balance of risk versus return. This is probably less predictable than many.

jsmoke · 16 Sep 2015 at 15:12

Where are you storing them out of interest, would look into a safety deposit at least.

DJMK4 · 16 Sep 2015 at 15:27

To be honest I wouldn't buy them

Although if your handed them then it can make money yes.

I got handed a load of pre-1947 coins back sometime in 2010 which I made some money on

lunar · 16 Sep 2015 at 23:47

Beware of keeping vast amount of gold in the house. I know a family that lost over £50k of gold. The jewellery was hidden very well, but the burglars used a metal detector.

The only issue with buying gold is it does not make you money. So you have to rely on the gold price to increase by a few percent per year.

dowie · 16 Sep 2015 at 23:55

if you're just doing it purely for investment purposes then you might be better off with a gold ETF

the royal mint coins in the display boxes are nice to have no doubt but they're sold at a bit of a markup which poses additional risk. I guess they might be a worthwhile investment if they maintain their premium above the gold spot price and are still collectible in years to come. Though if you're going down that route then it might be safer to simply get the coins without the box etc.. think you can get them around spot price +2% (which is still eating into your investment a fair chunk IMO). Advantage of UK coins is that they're free from capital gains tax... so I guess if you did have a strong bullish long term view on gold then they could be useful... though as has been mentioned security is an issue if you have a substantial investment in these things.

DJMK4 · 17 Sep 2015 at 00:01

I have a load of coins and notes which I need to sort though.

A lot of them are in display boxes etc. Are these actually worth anything? Last time I checked they were not worth a lot.but there is so many different coins, some of which I had a few of.

Just not had the time to sort and research

aardvark · 17 Sep 2015 at 00:07

the mint are a rip off and having them in boxes means nothing - they are worth their metal content nothing more.
buy bullion coins from a dealer instead.