Protea gold coins

[Timeless Value 10]

Are these worth holding on to? I refer to the launch sets from 2005 (Luthuli to Gandhi). What has been your experiences? Do you have them in your collections?

[BumbleBee 10]

Gold is always worth holding onto.

[PBGold 10]

2005 - 2008 Launches?

 

Includes the Mandela/de Klerk Launch of 2007. Yes, worth holding on to.

[Kit W 10]

With both hands!!

[jwither 11]

Are these worth holding on to? I refer to the launch sets from 2005 (Luthuli to Gandhi). What has been your experiences? Do you have them in your collections?

 

It depends upon how many were minted and what the value is today, including the premium to spot gold price.

 

My answer is almost certainly "no" as an "investment" unless the premium is really low. I would rather own bullion with no premium at all.

 

Even with a mintage of just a few thousand or maybe even less, that would make them too common given the likely collector base. There is virtually no collector demand for most RSA coins outside of selective issues.

[Timeless Value 10]

Protea gold coins

 

It depends upon how many were minted and what the value is today, including the premium to spot gold price.

 

My answer is almost certainly "no" as an "investment" unless the premium is really low. I would rather own bullion with no premium at all.

 

Even with a mintage of just a few thousand or maybe even less, that would make them too common given the likely collector base. There is virtually no collector demand for most RSA coins outside of selective issues.

 

Hi Jwither

 

Thanks for commenting on this thread. Which selective issues do you refer to? Protea launch sets in my opinion are selective issues and are not available to the general public. You have to be a valued client of the SA Mint to be offered one. These sets are normally limited to between 400-600. Protea launch sets have done remarkebly well since they have been issued.

[jwither 11]

Hi Jwither

 

Thanks for commenting on this thread. Which selective issues do you refer to? Protea launch sets in my opinion are selective issues and are not available to the general public. You have to be a valued client of the SA Mint to be offered one. These sets are normally limited to between 400-600. Protea launch sets have done remarkebly well since they have been issued.

 

I do not collect RSA coins because they do not interest me at all and I will admit, I am not familiar with the current prices.

 

What I will say though is that the mintage of 400-600 is not really that low, though you or others may think it is. The primary factors in favor of these coins are as follows. The first is that it is a gold coin. And the second is that it is recently minted which makes it more likely that non-collectors, casual collectors and "investors" will be aware of it. And because many of them will incorreclty compare the mintage to circulating coins or other (primarily) RSA proof coins with higher or much higher mintages, they will consider the coin "rare".

 

I do not know what the collector base is for these coins or similar issues. I do know that the collector base willing to pay any premium of significance for RSA coins generally is essentially non-existant which is why I used the term "selective issues" There are only a few RSA coins which have any numismatic premium worth mentioning at all. (Examples include the Mandela coins.) This statement I make is supported by the low prices for 99% of the RSA issues.

 

I suspect that most owners of this coin are "investors" and most of the rest the casual collector like those in the United States who buys a lot of mint product, no matter what it is.

 

The final comment I will make is the following. If you or someone else bought the coin at issuance or at a lower or much lower price, great. Congratulations to you on your purchase. But this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the FUTURE financial potential of the coin. That is dependent upon what the coin sells for RIGHT NOW.

 

To make a more accurate evaluation of the financial prospects, I would need to know what the current price is versus the current spot price. If the premium is nominal or low (say, up to two times or slightly more versus spot), then I would say the outlook is slightly positive. If it is a lot more (say, five times), then I would not. The reason for this is that there are plenty of ACTUALLY SCARCE coins that sell for the same amount or maybe for the same premium or less which have a lot more going for them. Or coins with much greater numismatic attributes even if they are not that scarce.

 

In my limited time on this forum, I have seen many comments and questions on coin values, scarcity and the like. What I intend to do is write an analysis to describe how I assess the numismatic appeal and economic potential of any coin. These will (of course) be my views and not everyone will agree with them because preferences are subjective and no one (including me) can possibly have full knowledge of every coin or series at any given time. But it will provide a REASONABLE basis for comparing the RELATIVE merits of one coin versus another.