Gold Coins- A Short History
Gold coins have been minted from very early times starting with the coins created by king Croesus of Lydia. Around the same period, meaning the 6th and the 5th century BC, the Chinese had their own gold coin, the Ying Yung. All important kings in history managed to mint gold coins in order to show their power. Such an example is Alexander the Great.
First of all, make a list with the best well known coins: The Australian Gold Nugget "Kangaroo" Gold Coin, the Australian Lunar Gold Bullion, the Krugerrand coin, the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf Coin, The American Buffalo Gold Coin, the Gold Sovereign and the Vienna Philharmonic Gold Coin are among the most frequently used ones.
The next thing you should get informed on is the purity of the gold contained by the coin. Usually, coins are alloyed with silver or copper in order to add some "strength" to support gold, but these "alleys" are not supposed to exceed 10 percent. The coins usually vary in weight as well, but there are about 4 standard sizes for these coins and the gold contained by a coin can be measured by ounce or by grams.
Purity and weight
At the beginning, the coins were pure gold. Nowadays, the gold "bullion" coins preserved their content in a proportion of at least 90%. The rest of 10% of other metals such as silver or copper is necessary in order to make the coin more durable. In what concerns the weight, there is a standard weight for each size of coin. But this is correct for the present gold coins. In the past, their weight varied according to the wish of the king or queen who had to show their bust on the head of the coin.
Moreover, one of the significant powers in the world, the USA, has its own bullion gold coin with the figure of a Native American on the head and a bison on the tail. The Canadians are proud of their own 24 karat Canadian Gold Maple Leaf Coin, obviously with the maple leaf on one side and the bust of Queen Elisabeth the second on the other. The British would boast with their Gold Sovereign, while the Austrians have their own Vienna Philharmonic Gold Coin.
Other characteristics related to the gold coins are purity and weight which vary la o certain extent. For instance, in case of purity, there is a margin of about 10 percent. Usually 90% is pure gold and about 10 percent is either silver or copper. In the case of weight, there are about 4 sizes and usually those who mint the coins have standard molds to preserve the weight.
In a nutshell, it does not matter what type of coin you own as long as it is part of a collection. In such a situation, any coin is as precious as you dream about.
Article Source: FxTradingStock.com
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Learn from professionals how to buy gold bullion in times of recession.
by: Jack Wogan
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Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010
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