Hello (plz be gentle i'm new to this)

[Guest broket]

Hello everyone,

If I had an Australian 1oz Lunar Gold coin could I just walk in somewhere and realize it's current value.

I have been searching the net for this answer and have become stumped.

Is it "worth it's weight in gold" ???

Is there anywhere I can just walk in and sell it for a small comission?

Is there any way of "adding" it to my e-gold account?

Any answers highly appreciated and gratefully received.

[Emperor Oli]

By weight there is about £225 of gold in that coin, at melt value. I don't know what numismatic value it has, but there will be a premium on top of that. You could sell it to a dealer, who would pay between 60% and 70% market value for it.

[Chris Perkins]

You could sell it to a dealer, who would pay between 60% and 70% market value for it.

Probably not strictly true with gold coins. I'd probably pay bullion for it and hope to sell it for say 10 - 20% more, assuming it's in perfect condition and comes with paper work and a box (if it did originally).

I'd happily pay £226.26 for it, if you can get it to me. Where are you broket?

[kuhli]

Is it "worth it's weight in gold" ???

It is 99.99% pure gold, and thus, worth it's weight in gold!!

As Chris said, you could easily sell it for it's true value, which is 1 ounce of pure gold. (today's gold market set the value of 1 ounce of gold at just over £226.)

[Guest broket]

...well

Thank you all for such swift answers.

When it arrives I will probably keep it, as I believe (and also believe that I am not alone in believing) that "the only way is up" for bullion.

I live near Bath in the UK Chris and while waiting yesterday between finding you all, posting and waiting for the reply I had a look around here and realised that I am amongst kindred spirits. I collected coins as a teenager and was thinking of expanding my collection (and paltry knowhow) before I was offered this particular coin.

I did find the original website this was purchased from and saw the 99.99 claim but wondered whether it was high or low in carats - I presumed lower as it can be used as currency, but hoped for higher of course!

I will probably photograph some of my coins and post here later (we have a one year old son and a daughter due at the beginning of August so....) if I get the time lol.

Again, thanks all.

[Sylvester]

..."the only way is up" for bullion.

You'd be very much mistaken if you believed that.

Gold has dropped significantly in price compared to the early 80's where it was something ridiculous like $800 an oz.

Now it's about half that figure.

[mint_mark]

I did find the original website this was purchased from and saw the 99.99 claim but wondered whether it was high or low in carats - I presumed lower as it can be used as currency, but hoped for higher of course!

The 99.99% is a measure of the purity of the gold. In carat terms, 100% is 24 carats and your coin is virtually all pure gold. British sovereigns are 22 carats (so (22/24) * 100 = 91.67%). Mints never used to be able to make coins from pure gold (too soft), but now they can.

As for currency, these coins are primarily made as a convenient way to buy and sell gold bullion. The decorative designs make them attractive and appealing and I am sure there are (rich) people who collect them. Any face value that they bear is purely nominal... in practice they trade at a price that varies closely with the current gold price.

[mint_mark]

Gold has dropped significantly in price compared to the early 80's where it was something ridiculous like $800 an oz.

Now it's about half that figure.

But who can say?

It has also risen over 60% in the last five years, so any statistics really depend on where you start the comparison. The famous $800 fogure was very much a spike and nowhere near a steady market value.

Like anything, the value of gold depends on supply and demand... but some of that demand is from people seeking an alternative to other assets. Many people still view gold as a store of wealth and when people lose confidence in other things... currencies, shares, property, antiques... they turn to bullion. So, think about general confidence in existing investments then think about future confidence in those investments and then think about demand for gold.

[Sylvester]

Of course gold can go up and yes i do realise that it's a very good alternative to paper assets, particularly in these times.

But i just wanted to make extra clear that the case of gold/platinum/palladium and silver is never clear cut. There is no gaurantee that it will just keep going up, it's likely it will. But it is the same with everything, what goes up, must eventually come down.

[mint_mark]

Interesting... I suppose it comes down to whether there is actually anything special about gold. The prices of things go up and down due to factors that influence the supply or demand, but when the price of gold goes up and down some gold advocates are convinced that it is because the unit of measurement (dollars usually, but any currency) is varying in value... they would say that the value of the gold, in terms of real wealth it can buy, is very stable.

I wonder if that is true... this needs some more pondering <_<

[Sylvester]

Interesting... I suppose it comes down to whether there is actually anything special about gold. The prices of things go up and down due to factors that influence the supply or demand, but when the price of gold goes up and down some gold advocates are convinced that it is because the unit of measurement (dollars usually, but any currency) is varying in value... they would say that the value of the gold, in terms of real wealth it can buy, is very stable.

I wonder if that is true... this needs some more pondering

Don't forget that the mining companies probably release the gold/silver at an appropriate time (i.e more profits), i doubt they'd just dump their stockpiles on the market...

Wasn't there some issue over a silver price fix some time back?

I also heard (not sure if it's true) that governments also 'borrow' gold out of the reserves and put it on the market, make a profit on it whilst it's high, they then flood the market with more until the price drops and then buy it back cheaper.

Suggests to me the price of the metal actually goes up, think of it in terms of buying gold with silver, how many silver bars is it gonna cost today compared to two years ago?