Do you want help? Do it! Part Three.

A series of blogs about our own, authentic experience of dealing with rising inflation and depreciating money. Once a month I'll write about my good and bad experiences, successes and mistakes.

Part Three - Is investing in coins worth it?

It's been two months since I started investing in gold and silver coins as an amateur to limit the impact of inflation on my meager income and savings.
First, let's take a look at how my first two "investments" fared - the 1/25 oz numbered Tolar coin, which I bought for €133, and the one-ounce silver investment coin Czech Lev 2022 - Anniversary.

How the appreciation of investment gold and silver coins continues

Last month I wrote that my first coin at €133 had risen in value at auction to between €164 and about €179. Of course, if you're interested in the full story of the purchase and my (in)decisiveness, be sure to read part one. So the appreciation in one month ranged from 23.3% to a whopping 35%. I don't expect this growth to continue, rather I think there may be a slight decline, but anything above €133 is appreciation, right?

So what does the aukro.cz portal say about the price of my first investment today? The price seems to have stabilized and the growth has stopped. To be more precise, just a month ago this Tolar could be bought from 4.100 Kč to 4.499 Kč. Today, the lower limit has been erased and the offer is from 4.399 Kč to 4.499 Kč. So, if we again take a rough conversion of 25 Kč for 1 €, today's price ranges from about 176 € to about 180 €. 

If anything is pleasing, it is the fact that the appreciation has stabilized and today it is definitely above 30% and it looks like it will be that incredible 35%. You'd think - why didn't I buy more of them, right? Well, let's be honest, you couldn't buy that many of them, it's a limited series and the Czech Mint only minted 500 of these rare coins. But above all, an ordinary earner has limited resources - first there is food, heat, water, housing, children, family.... only from what is left can something be "poured" into gold and silver savings. 

So my very first investment seems to be doing well and its appreciation has stabilized. This is good news in turbulent markets.

Let's take a look at my second investment, the considerably cheaper silver one-ounce investment coin Czech Lev 2022 - Anniversary, which was not released until 2023. I wrote a month ago that I didn't succumb to the mammon so much as the beauty of this coin, and my admiration for this work of art from the Czech Mint has not let me go until now. 

It is currently being offered at auction for 2,250 CZK, but the auction is not yet over and several bidders are still bidding, so it is clear that its price will continue to rise and even after this blog is published it will be higher than it is now as I write it.

Last month, as I describe in the second part of the blog, I bought this beauty in the Czech Mint shop in Bratislava at Suchý mýte for 62€, today it is selling at auction for 90€ and as I mentioned, the price is rising and will certainly not stop at 90€. But, even if I consider 90€ as the final price, jumping from 62€ to 90€ in a single month is a great appreciation, in percentage terms it's a whopping 45% and something. Well then don't sweat it .  I can't wait to see what I write next month, where the price finally stopped, that is if any of these coins are still in the auction.

New investment, new gold coin

So far, so good. I can confess to a third investment. And when I write confess, I mean it literally. In blog #2, I mentioned that I was deciding between a coin - the beautiful silver lion ruthenium, which is finally appreciating nicely, and another investment gold coin - the 1/25 oz 2018 Czech Lion, which is supposedly no longer available, but the Czech Mint still had one piece that got to them and I don't even know why, maybe someone didn't pick it up from reserve. 

I finally decided on the silver lion ruthenium. But somehow it got worn out at home and I figured that since the little gold lion was already so rare, I shouldn't miss the opportunity. I called the shop and made a reservation. The next day I went to get the coin. And I did the right thing, thanks to the reservation I fixed the price. The very next day it was worth more, but not to me... So I also bought a 1/25 oz gold investment coin, 2018 vintage. This time not numbered, but a normal stand. Like I wrote a month ago, it cost 119€. Now it's time to see if it was a good move.

However, it's not that easy. I couldn't even find it on well established portals like aukro.cz. Only its sister - a numbered gold coin, and that is sold,... hold on... for 1.000€! Of course, because it's numbered. I bought the standard, unnumbered coin and it is being offered on other auction sites for between 148€ and 170€. So in this case it is also a decent appreciation, although not as huge as the previous two coins, as it is "only" from about 24% to 42%. To tell you the truth, the latter figure got me more excited, but I am a realist and believe that the lower price and therefore the lower appreciation is more realistic. It seems to me that I somehow got suckered by those high appreciation numbers and should be more modest and calm. That is, after all, what is recommended. Wiser investors than me say that gold is just another money that has one advantage - that it doesn't depreciate as dramatically over time as paper money. In today's bad times, they have the extra potential to appreciate, although, hand on heart - it's only because of those bad times - inflation and war and the uncertainty of what's to come.
Let the only cheer be that at least well-invested money in gold and silver coins has not lost its value, but has increased significantly in value compared to paper ones.

We shall see what happens next month. I'll check back and let you know.

Dušan Budzak
amateur investor and novice collector