Now is the time to buy “old gold”…

Before yesterday, I was never too interested in old gold coins, known as numismatics.

My assumption was they were overpriced and you didn’t get much for your money.

But this is no longer the case.

The recent spike in gold prices has flooded the market with pre-1933 American gold coins. So premiums have dropped to rock-bottom levels.

I listened to a podcast yesterday with Van Simmons, one of the founders of PCGS, the leading coin grading company.

It was absolutely fascinating. Here’s an excerpt:

A $20 Liberty used to be 10 or 20 times the melt value. Now you can buy a brilliant uncirculated $20 Liberty for like 10 percent [over spot price], not 10 or 20 times. I was just looking at them today, just totally shocked and thinking this is stupid. But there’s so many on the market right now because so many people have sold and there’s also a couple of hoards that have come out. But that’ll change.

Van thinks this is a great time to buy pre-1933 coins. And after checking out the market, I fully agree.

Let’s dig in.

Pre-1933 Coins

As many of you know, the U.S. government made owning gold coins illegal for Americans in 1933.

Millions of gold coins in America were turned in or confiscated, then melted down. Citizens were paid $20.67 per ounce of gold. And then in 1934, gold was revalued to $35/oz. It was a huge overnight devaluation of the dollar.

Penalties for owning illegal gold ranged from a $10,000 fine to 10 years in prison, or both.

Owning gold was illegal for Americans all the way up until 1975.

Buy a Piece of History (at an incredible price)

The beautiful coin below is a $20 Liberty Head gold double eagle.

These coins were minted from 1850 to 1907. Each contains .9675 oz of pure gold.

You can currently buy a brilliant uncirculated (BU) $20 Liberty Head double eagle (random year) for just $4,619 on Apmex.com, a reputable dealer (we have no relationship and receive no compensation from Apmex).

That’s just $39 above the spot price of gold! A steal.

You can also buy smaller denomination American coins like the $2.50 Liberty Quarter Eagles starting at around $615.

These coins are a rich piece of American history. They symbolize the importance of sovereign money.

Of course, highly-graded coins will cost more. But these are in excellent condition considering they’re well over 100 years old.

The European Hoards

So, if most gold coins were confiscated and melted down by Roosevelt’s government, where did all these coins currently hitting the market come from?

Mostly from hoards in European bank vaults. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. gold coins were commonly used to settle trade.

Hyperinflations are common in European history, so for a long time they didn’t trust paper/fiat money.

International business owners often kept a large portion of their capital in the form of gold coins. And many of those stayed in wealthy families for generations. They sat in European (and even Asian) bank vaults for many years.

Now that the price of gold is rising, many of the people who inherited those coins are selling.

So there’s a temporary flood of beautiful old coins in great condition hitting the market.

This is a rare opportunity to buy 100+ year old coins in brilliant condition for essentially the same price as a brand new American Eagle. That’s a special opportunity.

I suspect these low prices on old coins won’t last more than a year or two.

Eventually these beautiful old coins will find their way to new owners. And my guess is that most of them will be passed down for a generation or two.

So if you’re in the market for gold bullion, why not buy a piece of history while you’re at it? The premiums are unlikely to ever get better than they are today.

Here’s the link to that podcast with Van Simmons. He’s one of the most knowledgeable people in the world when it comes to rare coins. I highly recommend checking it out. You can watch or listen on Youtube.