Are American Gold Eagle Coins A Good Investment?
Thursday, January 23rd 2025
An essential aspect of making wise investment decisions involves understanding the asset at hand. Few commodities capture investor attention like gold. One popular form of investing in it through coins with high symbolic and historic value – American Gold Eagle coins take precedence among these. But is investing in these golden eagles really worthwhile? We shall examine here every angle to assess their viability as an investment option.
History and Overview of The American Gold Eagle Coin
Since 1986, the U.S. Mint has issued the American Gold Eagle coins as official bullion coins of the United States. Constructed entirely of gold mined within America and reflecting American ideals and symbols such as liberty and equality for all, these coins represent more than just investment tools. Available in four denominations (1/10 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/2 oz and 1 oz with respective face values of $5, $10, $25 and $50 each; their market price usually greatly surpasses their face value reflecting current gold spot price fluctuations, coin’s numismatic value and scarcity factors.
The Appeal of Gold as an Investment
Before turning our focus towards the American Gold Eagle specifically, it’s crucial that we gain an appreciation of why gold makes for an appealing investment vehicle.
- Intrinsic value: Gold has inherent worth due to its use across industries like electronics, dentistry, and jewelry – this intrinsic value exists independent of any financial system; meaning gold will still retain worth even as paper currencies lose worth over time.
- Store of value: Gold has long served as an effective store of value, safeguarding purchasing power through economic recessions, periods of inflation, and geopolitical crises.
- Hedge against inflation: When economies suffer from high inflation, paper currency tends to lose value while gold often maintains or even increases in value over time – acting as an insurance against future inflationary events. Gold can therefore serve as a valuable hedge against it.
Pros of Investing in American Gold Eagle Coins
American Gold Eagle coins offer several attractive investment benefits that make them appealing investments.
- Liquidity: With American Gold Eagles being one of the world’s most-recognizable gold coins, their high liquidity makes them a flexible investment that’s ideal for quick asset conversion into cash.
- Purity and quality: Purity and quality are guaranteed by the U.S. government with these coins containing 91.67% gold (with additional alloy components such as silver and copper added for durability) providing confidence to investors about the quality of their investment.
- Portfolio diversification: These coins make an excellent way of diversifying an investor’s portfolio against market and paper investment risks, offering added protection from fluctuation. Owning gold may offer peace of mind against volatility posed by stock exchanges or paper investments such as bonds.
The Cons of Investing in American Gold Eagle Coins
Even with all its advantages, investing in coins carries some drawbacks.
- Premiums: American Gold Eagles often carry high premiums compared to their spot price of gold, in order to cover minting, distribution costs and any minor supply-demand imbalances that might exist between minting, distribution and supply and demand imbalances. Investors need to account for these additional expenses when considering investing.
- Storage and insurance: As physical assets, coins require secure storage to avoid additional expenses. Furthermore, insuring such assets may increase investment costs further.
- Lack of passive income: Gold coins don’t offer passive income such as stocks or real estate do; therefore their return depends solely on price appreciation as opposed to dividends or rent payments.
Comparing American Gold Eagles to Other Gold Investment Options
Gold investments don’t end with coins; alternative forms include other gold bullion coins (like Canada Maple Leaf (1) or South African Krugerrand coins (2)), bars, ETFs, mutual funds, and mining stocks.
Comparative to other coins, the American Gold Eagle may not offer 99.99% purity like others such as Canada Maple Leaf; however, its lower purity enhances durability which could prove important to certain investors.
Gold bars may offer lower premiums than coins yet lack their historical and numismatic value. Gold ETFs and mutual funds offer easy ways of investing without dealing with storage and insurance concerns yet lack tangible ownership benefits found with physical coins or bars.
Gold mining stocks offer investors exposure to gold prices yet can expose them to operational risks associated with mining companies. By contrast, investing in American Gold Eagles means making direct investments without intermediary risks.
Market Trends and Future of American Gold Eagles
American Gold Eagle prices, like any gold investment tend to follow global market trends which can be determined by such factors as financial stability, interest rates and inflation. If there is a crisis in the economy it is possible for gold to serve as a security asset; thus its price increases.
Gold Eagles have historically seen increased demand during times of financial crises such as 2008’s global financial crisis or 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, drawing investors looking for safe haven assets like American Gold Eagles as we navigate our way post-pandemic with increasing inflationary pressure and continued uncertainty; gold may continue to provide such refuge.
Conclusion
Answering this question largely depends on one’s investment goals and risk tolerance. American Gold Eagles provide several advantages over their alternatives such as high liquidity, guaranteed purity, and portfolio diversification; yet they come with their own set of drawbacks such as higher premiums and storage fees.
Therefore, these coins make an attractive investment choice for investors who place value on tangible ownership, diversify their portfolio, and are willing to hold onto them long enough for initial premiums to offset themselves over time. They might not suit investors seeking regular income streams or those uncommitted to managing the physical security of their investment portfolio.
As with any investment decision, conducting proper research, considering your goals and tolerance levels as well as consulting a financial adviser before investing in American Gold Eagle coins is highly advised. While their beauty may speak volumes for their nationalism, only you know if these coins fit your portfolio strategy properly or not.
Are you ready to add gold and silver in your retirement plan?
Everyone wants peace of mind regardless of retirement goals. If you’re interested in adding gold and silver to your retirement plan you can do it through a self-directed IRA. These types of accounts permit you to create a retirement portfolio that appreciates in value on. As with all investment instruments ensure that you conduct thorough research. For more information, take a look at our gold IRA operators reviews for the “top companies throughout the United States below.
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2 Comments
I bet the purity difference between the Canadian Maple and the American Eagle is not that relevant unless you have millions invested in them!
Hi Joshua,
This is an interesting comment you just made. I need to look into it to make sure but it does seem like such a small difference might not be impactful. If any expert reads this, we’d love to hear from you!
Happy investing!