Buying American Gold Eagle Coins

By James Stevenson

If you're familiar with American Gold Eagle coins, well, you probably already know that they can be a great investment. Not only for people who love to collect coins, but for anyone who wants a part of history. Coming out in the'80's they are the official gold bullion coin of America.

Gold that is used in the the American Gold Eagle coin must come from United States soil, and also added into the mixture are copper and silver that will help the coin more durable and wear-resistant. 22 karat gold is used to make these beautiful coins.

Authorized by the US Congress back in'85, these coins are normally minted in West Point, New York. One side shows the Lady Liberty as designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens'. Showing a beautiful picture of her hair flowing and holding a torch and olive branch in each hand. The other side was designed by Miley Busiek, showing a male Gold Eagle flying holding an olive branch, heading toward a nest with a female and her hatchlings.

Values of these American Gold Eagle coins will be based on the value that cold is currently at, and depending on the content of gold in each coin. Back in April 2009 the values ranged from $130 for the $5 coin, all the way up to $1,000 for the $50 face value coin.

These coins will normally be produced in the West Point Mint located in West Point, New York. The coins are made of 91. 67% American gold at 22 karats, 3% silver, and 5. 33% copper. Price depends on content of gold not face value.

For size information the one tenth troy ounce coin measures 16. 50 mm in diameter, and is 1.' mm thick, weighing 3. 393 grams. Those one quarter troy ounce coins are a diameter of 22 mm, thickness of 1. 83 mm, and weigh 8. 483 grams. For the half troy ounce coins you have a 27 mm diameter, 2. 24 mm thickness, and a weight of 16. 965 grams. Finally the 1 troy ounce coin measures 32. 70 mm in diameter, 2. 87 mm thick, and weighs 33. 93 grams.

During the years of'86 to'91 Roman numerals were used to date the coins. Starting after that it was switched to Arabic numbers for the dates. The American Gold Eagle is an item that is not only a great investment, but beautiful to behold. Any item that is a great investment, as well as something that you can enjoy looking at is worth obtaining. Today you can get a piece of history and enhance the value of your gold bullion portfolio,as American Gold Eagles are well worth the cost to invest in. - 23309

About the Author:

James writes articles on investing in american gold coins, and buying proof gold eagle coins

Commodity ETFs

By Ahmad Hassam

Many people are not aware that commodities as an asset class has a lot of potential especially in the 21st century. It is being predicted that the 21st century belongs to the commodities. If you are interested in investing in commodities than you can invest in a commodity mutual fund!

This is the simplest way for you to get involved in investing in commodities as the mutual fund portfolio management will be done by a professional manager and you have to do nothing. Just buy the shares of the commodity mutual fund and let its NAV appreciate before you can sell for a capital gain.

There is another investment vehicle that is really hot right now with the public. ETFs started off some three decades back but became highly popular as investment vehicles in such a short time. Now, you must have heard about the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are really hot investments these days. There are a number of ETFs that invest in commodities.

Now the good thing about investing in ETFs is that they give you the diversification benefits of a mutual fund with very low fees something like 0.7% as compared to 2-4% of the mutual fund. Driven by the growing demand of commodities by the investors many financial institutions are now offering Commodity ETFs.

So unlike a mutual fund whose net asset value is calculated at the end of the day and the shares of mutual fund cannot be traded during the day, you can go both long or short on ETFs all the time. Something you cannot do with a mutual fund! ETFs have the added benefit of being able to trade like stocks giving you the powerful combination of diversification and liquidity.

This diversification plus liquidity benefit makes an ETF a better investment tool as compared to the mutual fund and the stocks. Now, you can find thousands of ETFs in the market on different market sectors, stock indexes, currencies, commodities and so on.

The Deutsche Bank Commodity Index Tracking Fund is listed on AMEX and tracks the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index. This index is based on a basket of six commodities: light sweet crude oil, heating oil, gold, aluminum, corn and wheat. The first Commodity ETF in US was launched by Deutsche Bank in the start of 2006.

As always what you need is an ETF that tracks an individual commodity. Now, every month a new ETF gets launched. There are a number of Commodity ETFs that track individual commodities like crude oil, gold and silver. Do your research on Commodity ETFs, you may find a good investment. Now the ETF of our example invests directly in the commodity futures contract. If you have trade futures than you must know that futures are highly volatile. Now one of the downsides of investing in this Commodity ETFs is that it can be fairly volatile as it is based on commodity futures contracts that get rolled monthly. Another downside to this Commodity ETF is that it is based on a basket of six commodities only. - 23309

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading !