Fractional Purchasing - how would you split up an ounce?

R

RhythmDoctor

Active Member
Hey folks,

Just wondering - if you had the budget of around an ounce (call it 1600 max) - how would you split it with fractional coins?

I was thinking of buying 8 half sovereigns, or 2 full sovs and 4 halves.

I've just noticed a 1/10 gold philly which just sold for $175 - I LOVE phillies but couldn't shell out that money to get an ounce of them.

So, as a guide: You have $1600 max budget, and you need to acquire an ounce of gold in fractionals.

How would you do it? Give me some food for thought...

RD
 
4 x 1/4oz for me, I've tried 1/10oz and 1/20oz the size is just too small for my liking and premiums much too high.

1/4oz hits the sweet spot with decent premiums and decent size.

Would buy sovs too but I'm not familiar with them so can't comment :D
 
Wander around the coin shops until you find 10x 1/10oz at $160 ea.

I bought 5 last week for $155. Just need to hit the pavement.

Alternatively, Austrian 1915 Ducats are one of the lowest premium forms of fractional gold going - and are exactly 1/9th oz each. 9x $178 = $1600 if you can track them down for that price.
 
If you don't mind not having an exact fraction of an ounce, you could go with the $200 coins. They are 10g of 22 carat gold, which means they have a smidgen more gold in them than a 1/4 oz. I agree with fishball, the 1/10 and 1/20 oz are tiny. Maybe I would go for a 1/2 oz coins and two 1/4 oz coins. Now RD, show me where those three are currently available for $1600 delivered.
 
RhythmDoctor said:
Hey folks,

Just wondering - if you had the budget of around an ounce (call it 1600 max) - how would you split it with fractional coins?

I was thinking of buying 8 half sovereigns, or 2 full sovs and 4 halves.

I've just noticed a 1/10 gold philly which just sold for $175 - I LOVE phillies but couldn't shell out that money to get an ounce of them.

So, as a guide: You have $1600 max budget, and you need to acquire an ounce of gold in fractionals.

How would you do it? Give me some food for thought...

RD
Click to expand...

you may PM me, may be we can work something out, I have few 1/10 that want to change to silver bars... prefer 10 oz bullion club bars. or PM 10 oz bar new swan logo.
 
Nice work GP - I quite like the idea of 1/10 hunting. Were they an unspecified 1/10 coin or were they a specific item like a Panda or Nugget? At 155 that looks great!

Again, I don't mind a fractional premium as I can sell small bits as I want to, just figured this is a much nicer and interesting way to grab an ounce, specially as I do have a penchant for world coins at the moment..
 
Maples and AGEs :D I can't even source Perth Mint stuff wholesale that cheap.

Mind you I bought the store out, and there's been none since.
 
yeah gonna say, if you want an oz fractional you're looking at 1600-2000 minimum.

for 1600 you're looking at 2 x 1/2 oz pretty much.
 
So they are strictly fine grade, I know Steve at Aurora has sovereigns and othere 22ct coins. Would you guys consider a buy on 22ct coins or strictly fine grade?

I'm saying this as I was thinking about the going rate for half sovs, around the 180 mark. If I bought 8 of those to make my ounce, I'd get them for 1440, which is around spot. Am I missing something here, aside from buying non-fine coins?

I was considering this while having a cuppa at lunch, might not be so easy to simply score those, but hey, its under my 1600 limit. :D
 
Ah, and there was me thinking a half sov was bob-on an eighth...

So what would you recommend with a 1600 budget GP? Would you touch anything outside of fine grade?
 
Look around to minimise the premium where you can. Not that i'v elooked much lately but fishball's comment re 4 x 1/4 oz sounds like the go to me.
 
Well are you happy buying odds or evens?

If you'll settle for "odd" fractionals, but want to stay within the realms of wide recognition, stick to sovs, half sovs, $200 gold, ducats, and perhaps roosters - plenty of other European gold available, but none of it is 24k and technically it would attract GST. It will also be low premium - lower than bars sometimes. So if you're banking on a multi-fold increase in the price of gold, it will maximise your gains.

If you prefer to stick to "even" fractionals, then you're looking at 1/10oz, 1/4oz etc - beauty of these is apart from AGEs and Krugerrands, most are 9999, and if your exit strategy includes potentially selling to new entrants, these sizes are probably going to do better - I mean, if you had NO idea about gold other than you needed to buy some before last month's pay inflated away to nothingness, would you rather buy a neat 0.25 of an ounce which is simply dividing the spot price by a quarter in your head, or would you be happy to figure out that a sovereign is 0.2354oz, and $200 is 0.2945oz, etc.

I'm moving to 1/10oz and 1/4oz, but I also stack sovereigns and $200. Covering bases :) Actually I've probably got enough 1/10, but I snaffle them when I see a bargain.
 
You are unnecessarily putting up restrictions on yourself regards some of the above questions.

Gold does NOT have to be 999 - NOTHING wrong with 0.917 purity as in Sovereigns or 0.900 purity
as with most other circulated world gold coinage.

Nothing wrong with 0.1177 oz agw ( as with a Half Sov ) as opposed to 0.1000 oz agw or 0.2500 oz agw.

As long as its a gold coin at a good price than buy it.

And yeah, id go with the Half Sovereigns..

ps. il bring 2 over to the meet tonite ;) hehe
 
RhythmDoctor said:
Thucy, I wondered when you'd pop up on here... I'm dreading you coming tonight, you have far too many lovely coins! :D
Click to expand...

Put ze Cash away and you wont have anything to fear :)
 
RhythmDoctor said:
Ah, and there was me thinking a half sov was bob-on an eighth...

So what would you recommend with a 1600 budget GP? Would you touch anything outside of fine grade?
Click to expand...

Fineness in gold is not so much of an issue as it is with silver IMO. As Aurora et luna said, nuggets and lunars, bit boring! Aurora et luna has some quality gold coins (someone or two swooped and picked the eyes out of his inventory) but he's still got good coins left, have a look http://www.auroraetluna.com/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=6 Those roubles would've been good - wonder who snaffled them? Me has my suspicions. ;)

In your position I'd go for 1/10th pandas which are about the same price range as 1/2 sovs. Preferably 2010 or earlier. Apmex has years of their choice (hopefully not too many 2011's) for $USD185 ea. But then you have to deal with FedEx. This guy has four at a very good price $USD188 and they're older, http://www.coinvault.com/panda1gold.htm and it would mean the importation would be under a $1000 so customs issues wouldn't be a problem and probably about $30 postage. These will increase in % premium over spot as time goes by compared to many other fractional coins.

This guy is an honest and reputable dealer on ebay I'm told but I think it's too expensive http://cgi.ebay.com/sheet-10-pcs-Ch...900?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5645033e3c, works out at about $AUS225 ea delivered and they're 2011's. Give em a miss.

And of course give yennus or dear old maggie a hoy.

In order of preference, I recommend:
1. Get the 4 x 1/10 pandas from the states before someone else here sees them.
2. Then buy from steve at A et L with the $800 left over. The chevronet is an interesting coin at a fair price, have seen the 1980 sell for over $400 a couple of months ago, don't know anything about mintages though, thucy will probably chip in there :)

Good luck pikey!
 
I would, split it this way:

buy an ounce of gold, send it my way. that way I am happy with my share and you have done a good deed.
 
THUCYDIDES79 said:
You are unnecessarily putting up restrictions on yourself regards some of the above questions.

Gold does NOT have to be 999 - NOTHING wrong with 0.917 purity as in Sovereigns or 0.900 purity
as with most other circulated world gold coinage.
Click to expand...

My only concern with some world gold coins is liquidity - particularly some of the coins with non-Roman alphabet writing. Much easier to shift a sovereign than say an Iranian palavi. Also buyers will gravitate to what they know - plenty of non-bullion people know what a sovereign is, but not everyone would know what even something like a ducat is, let alone anything more exotic.

Comes back to your exit strategy - planning to flog them to another Silver Stacker, or sell them on the steps of the stock exchange?
 
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