• Print
• E-Mail

MCCOACH: There are a lot of different organizations out there selling bars, coins, or collector coins, numismatic. I am very much opposed to the numismatic because I think that market is a ripoff. There are many people who have purchased numismatic items in the past four to five years, and gold has more than doubled, and they re still not in the money. In other words, they still haven t overcome the commissions and transaction costs whereas someone who bought bullion four years ago has had a tremendous profit at this point because their commissions and transaction costs were very minimal. So, I don t recommend numismatic items.

The bullion items I like are the bullion coins like Eagles from the U.S. Treasury, Canadian Maple Leafs, South African Krugerrands. I like Swiss 20 Francs or British Sovereigns, bars 1 oz., 10 oz. gold bars. On the silver side, I like Johnson Matthey or Englehart 100 oz. bars, Silver Rands or Silver Eagles. Those are good.

Now there are certain regulations that U.S. citizens need to understand, and most people I talk to have never heard of this. Certain precious metals are exempt from a 1099 when you sell them. I tell my clients you want to own the cheapest silver, gold, palladium, platinum that you can get your hands on that does not require a 1099 when you sell it. That means it s a private transaction, and the government will have no record of it having ever occurred, and you are on the honor system, basically, to declare your capital gains. There are some strange things that our politicians did back in 1989 1990 when this all happened there was no rhyme or reason to it. It just said certain items were exempted and certain items were not.For U.S. citizens, Canadian Maple Leafs, South African Krugerrands, Mexican gold pesos, Chinese gold coins those are 1099 able. Bars are 1099 able if you sell in excess of 33 ozs. in a calendar year. If you sell less than 33 ozs. in a calendar year, they re not 1099 able. There are some games people could play with that. You could sell some bar ounces to one dealer and then sell 33 ozs. or less to another dealer, right. Each dealer would think that you only sold 33 ozs., so they wouldn t issue a 1099.

What can you buy and sell without a 1099? American Eagles, Swiss 20 Francs, and Austrian Philharmonics in any quantity.

The cheapest items you can get on the gold side are the bars, the 1 oz. or 10 oz. Swiss bars, brand new in a nice plastic case with a certificate of authenticity and purity. They re manufactured in Switzerland. I have a portion of my portfolio in those bars. Obviously, I will be very careful when I sell those so I won t exceed the regulations and get a 1099.

The next cheapest item to the bars is the Swiss 20 Francs. I like them they're old used coins that were used as currency years and years ago, in Europe and around the world. They were taken out of circulation a long time ago, and they have been mostly in central bank vaults. We buy them for the melt value of the gold. But, again, the nice thing about them is when you sell them, you can sell them in any quantity with no 1099. So, I like keeping a good portion of my portfolio in Swiss 20 Francs.

After that you have the 1 oz. Eagles, and Austrian Philharmonics gold coins that are exempt from the 1099. I like those but you have to understand that they re about $25 more per ounce than a bar or a Swiss 20 Franc, right? Now, I own some I like them, but here s what happened. I bought most of my Eagles years and years ago when the premium, the charge made by the U.S. Treasury, was much lower. Because they re the most popular gold coins in the world, the U.S. Treasury has a good thing going for them so they just keep raising the minting charge and they re making a lot of money doing it.

The bar fabricator in Switzerland, PAM, doesn't charge anywhere near as much as the U.S. Treasury is charging to own a 1 oz. Eagle. Now, it s both an ounce of gold a 1 oz. eagle or a 1 oz. Swiss bar, it s 1 oz. of gold. You have to decide for yourself whether you want the Eagle coins. I like the Eagle they re pretty coins, they re beautiful, but do you want to pay $25 more an ounce for your gold? These are the decisions that I think people need to make, as you get educated and you understand what is going on.

At AmeriGold, we always try to help educate the buyers there s no sales pressure with us. People figure this out for themselves, what s in their best interest, and we try to give them the lowest transaction cost possible.

TGR: What does it cost to ship gold?