Saturday, I took my wife to my favorite coin shop ( ok, the only coin shop I’ve ever been to ) to take a look at a bit of gold.  Naturally we had to hit the ATM first, since coin shops only accept cash.  The margins are apparently pretty thin, so credit cards will destroy any chance they have at making a profit.

I decided to pick up two 1/4 ounce American Gold Eagles, rather than a single half ounce.  The quarter oz gold eagle is slightly smaller than a US quarter, though it’s noticeably heavier.  It also makes a very distinctive ringing sound when flipped into the air.  The picture isn’t clear at all ( remember, I’m bad with the camera ), but I got one 1999 and a 2002  issue coin.  The years don’t matter a bit to me; I’m just buying for the metal content.  Spot price was 917 when I bought, so that would be $458.50 for the half ounce.  The fee was 10% over spot ( a bit high, but then again I didn’t have to pay shipping ).  All in all a good buy, and one I was happy with.

Growing collection of precious metals

The last time I displayed my precious metal collection, it was quite a bit smaller.  Back then it consisted of just 8 ounces of silver and 1/10 oz of gold.  Here’s my collection today:

A bit different picture, isn’t it?  In that pile are 88 silver eagles ( I have 90, two didn’t make it in the picture.  I guess they were shy? ), 13.744 oz of “junk” US 90% silver, 1 1/10 oz gold eagle, and my two latest 1/4 oz gold eagles.  So that’s a total of 104.514 oz of pure silver, and 6/10 oz of pure gold.  Compared to many bullion collectors, it’s not very much at all.  But this time last year I didn’t own and silver or gold bullion – so I think it’s a great start.  Plus I’ve got my wife’s support too – more in that in a later post.