Investing in gold coins has a couple different options, both in the types of coins that are available, as well as a few ways that you can invest in them.

The first obvious way that you may invest in gold coins is to buy them and store them in a safe place, such as a safe at your residence.

There are then a few different types of coins, such as bullion coins, proofs and collectible coins, each which has their differences.

Another means of investing in gold coins is through an IRA account. There are only certain types of gold coins that are allowed into this type of retirement account, and this is what works best for some people, for the convenience of not having to store the coins while still receiving the benefits of gold as an investment.

Investing in gold coins is a good way to plan for an uncertain economic future. Gold itself, in any form, has always been a precious metal but its inherent value has suddenly seemed to skyrocket.

This is due in part to the increasing number of practical functions which gold has in modern society. It is also due to the finite nature of the world’s gold reserves, which stand in stark contrast to the apparently limitless amounts of increasingly worthless fiat money.

Why Is Gold Such a Good Investment?

The very earliest human cultures valued gold. It was not just something shiny that they could enjoy looking at. Gold is a very malleable metal. You can beat it into a variety of shapes without heating it. This, obviously, was very important for ancient people before forges were invented to heat iron for shaping into tools or weapons.

However, gold is not valued simply for its default early discovery. It eventually became the first currency when people transitioned from barter and trade economies into something more advanced. Along with silver and, to some extent, copper, this metal became the world’s first money.

In fact, up until just a few decades ago, gold remained the only real money in the world because all the paper bank notes floating around the global economy were, in one way or another, tied to the value of gold.

As the 20th century developed, gold acquired another valuable quality. It is a very ductile metal. Additionally, it is virtually immune to corrosion. This makes it a perfect material to use in important electronic devices. Many people are not aware that the technological devices in their home carry gold elements inside them.

It is estimated that each cell phone has perhaps 50 cents worth of gold inside it. Thus, just due to its usefulness, gold is an excellent investment. Its usefulness is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

In the last few years, however, gold has more than quintupled its value on the stock market. This cannot be tied only to the increasing usage of gold in technological applications. It has come about for purely political reasons which say much more about the inherent value of modern currency than they do about the value of gold.

The US government, more than any other, has done an excellent job of hiding the inflation that has damaged many households and turned previously middle class families into food stamp recipients. Cleverly designed estimates of inflation state that inflation is essentially chugging along at a normal pace.

However, these inflation statements completely disregard food and fuel prices. Anyone who owns a car has surely noticed that fuel now costs three times as much as it did a decade ago. Food prices have also gone up, especially those which depend on harvesting with vehicles that use internal combustion engines.

A well-known American politician, Ron Paul, once told an excellent story which adequately represented what was really going on with the value of money and the value of gold. He scoffed at naysayers who claimed that inflation was not real. These same people were often very eager to claim that the rising value of gold represented a gold bubble that was no different than the dot com bubble or the housing bubble.

In defense of gold, Mr. Paul pointed out that the price of gasoline had gone up and it was not going to go back down. The reason was that gas was essentially just as valuable as it was before prices got out of control. Prices appeared higher because the money with which you bought it was worth less.

Indeed, Mr. Paul pointed out, if you tried to buy a gallon of gasoline with gold today you would not pay any more than you would have ten years ago. Mr. Paul said this some time ago. If you tried to buy gasoline with gold now, you would actually pay less than you would have at the turn of the century because the price of gold has risen faster than the price of gasoline.

The reason for this is simple. Governments have been printing paper money for years now, increasing the number of dollars and euros on the market. This simultaneously decreases the value of each unit of currency. You cannot do that with gold. It is a finite material whose value is also substantiated by its usefulness. Paper currencies are revealing themselves to be infinite in mass quantity and inversely valueless as individual units.

Why Should I Start Investing in Gold Coins?

Investing in gold coins makes sense for most consumers. Larger quantities of gold, found in kilogram bars, cost too much. At present rates, such a bar would cost more than $50,000. Another investment alternative exists in gold stocks.

However, these investments take a great deal of energy to monitor and manage, which is hard to do when you are working for a living. Nothing is easier than taking the money that you were going to put into savings and buying quantities of gold.

If you put your hard-earned money in a savings account of any kind, you will spend the next few years just watching its value shrink. The interest rates, at this point negligible, are not going to keep up with inflation. Gold coins, on the other hand, can sit in your safety deposit box and gather value without any input from you.

Some Various Gold Coins:

Hover over each to find out what type of coin it is, and click on it to read about each type of coin.