The Portability of Gold Eagles
Do you understand what a “portable” investment is? It is an investment that can be easily traded “on the spot” for the current market value, but without being split up or diluted during the transaction. For instance, if you wanted to profit from recent increases in the price of gold, you would be wise to use things like one ounce gold coins rather than selling off a full gold bar or brick. One of the best examples of a portable investment of this kind are the coins known as gold Eagles.
These are one-ounce coins made of pure bullion and carrying a $20 face value. The benefits of the gold Eagles in terms of marketability are very obvious – you enjoy the ease of owning an asset that weighs the precise amount that the market uses for pricing guidelines, and you are holding one of the “hottest” precious metals.
You also get the benefit of having a coin with two different values, and this is a feature that no other investment vehicles can offer. What does that mean? Well, with the gold Eagles you have the “intrinsic” value of the gold itself. This is the value that you get based purely on the current market value of the metal that the coin contains. So, if you were to sell several gold Eagles in early 2011, it was possible that the intrinsic value of the coins was close to $1,500 each!
There is also the “extrinsic” value of the asset. This is the value assigned by the Treasury, which is also known as the face value of the coin. The Eagles have a twenty-dollar face value that they will ALWAYS have, regardless of the value of gold.
Does this mean that there is some risk that gold values will decline and that the twenty-dollar face value will actually mean something? No, that is not likely in the least, but the fact that the coins come with a form of built in insurance and that they have more than just their market value is something that no other forms of investment can offer.
Gold coins also have history on their side. This is because gold has long been an asset viewed as a store of value. This is why so many investors use it as a safe haven during times of economic turmoil. So gold coins like the Eagles have a lot of value and will only continue to increase over time!