Daily Rare Coin Update
July 21, 2009 – Rare coins have slowly but surely become a popular precious metal diversification that many American investors are using for long-term wealth preservation, and today I would like to take some time to explain high relief coins. Unlike standard rare coins, high relief coins were minted with an extremely high relief, meaning that the minting presses had to strike the coins several extra times in order to obtain the deep and engraved look. The finest high relief coins ever minted by the United States Mint are the 1907 $20 Saint Gaudens. They only minted 11,250 of them and then production was halted forever in order to begin production of lower relief coins that were easier for banks to stack and count.
As far as investing is concerned, high relief coins carry a massive rarity premium since so little of them were minted, thus it is not highly recommended that investors purchase these coinages as part of a well structured diversification strategy. Typically, it is only recommended that investors purchase widely traded, common dated coins in order to prevent paying a large premium for a rarer coin that has the exact same amount of gold as a more common coin. This being said, unless you are a collector of rare coins, it’s best that you leave the high relief coins for numismatic collectors who cherish these coins for their extreme rarity. If you would like to learn more about investing with rare coins, feel free to use the information available on this website to help you maximize your investment potential.
Shawn Penny
Senior Staff Writer - Rare-Coin.org
