I’m Dirk Wasserthal, Managing Director of Wasserthal RareCoin.Store. I deal daily with modern numismatic gold coins, rare years, proof issues, and certified coins from NGC and PCGS. When we’re offered a rare gold coin, my first question is usually not: What is it worth? Several others come before that. For us, examining a rare gold coin therefore means far more than just looking up its weight, gold content, or mintage figure. What exactly do we have before us? Is the year of issue of interest? What is its condition? Are there any variations or special features? Is the coin graded, and if so, does the certificate match? How often does one actually find such a piece on the market? And most importantly: Does the coin even fit what we at Wasserthal RareCoin.Store are looking for?
Cooper is starting to pick up on a lot of things. As a junior numismatist, he’s obviously not allowed to set purchase prices yet. That would probably be bad for our treat budget. 🐾 But he’s learning pretty quickly that a rare gold coin can’t be explained with a single number.
So let’s take it with us today. Not through a theoretical, ideal process, but through the questions we actually ask ourselves when we are offered an interesting coin.
Does this coin even suit us?
This may sound trivial at first, but it is actually the first decision.
We don’t just buy gold coins simply because they’re made of gold. Our focus is on modern numismatic gold coins, special years, proof issues, rare or hard-to-find pieces, and high-quality certified coins from NGC and PCGS.
A coin can be valuable and still not fit into our product range.
This happens regularly.
And the opposite is also true. You receive photos of a coin that doesn’t initially look spectacular at all. Then you see the year, a special variant, or unusually good condition, and suddenly you take a closer look.
Therefore, at the beginning I am less interested in the question “How much gold is in it?”, but rather:
Why might this particular coin be of interest to a collector?
What actually lies ahead of us?
Then identification takes place.
Country, series, and year are usually straightforward. Things get more interesting with coins that have different minting qualities, mints, mint marks, privy marks, variants, or special editions.
Depending on the coin, we check, for example:
- Year and mint
- Nominal value, weight and fineness
- Proof, Brilliant Uncirculated or other minting quality
- Mint Marks and Privy Marks
- known variants
- Original packaging and certificate
- Special features of certain vintages or sets
- For graded coins, the information is on the holder.
I don’t simply rely on the seller’s description.
Not because every seller misdescribes something. But especially with rare coins, it happens surprisingly quickly that a term is adopted from somewhere else because it was already used in a previous listing. If five dealers subsequently use the same term, it doesn’t automatically make it correct.
Ultimately, what is being described must actually match the coin.
The condition is where things get interesting.
With modern collector coins, the condition can make a huge difference.
A rare proof coin with hairlines is simply not the same as a truly clean piece. A cleaned coin isn’t improved by the fact that the original mintage was low. And even minor damage can be crucial to the value of an otherwise high-quality coin.
When looking at an uncertified coin, we consider, among other things:
- Scratches and hairlines
- stains or discolorations
- Edge damage
- Fingerprints
- possible cleaning traces
- Abnormalities in the fields
- Quality and sharpness of the embossing
This can be particularly tricky with proof coins. Under certain lighting, the surface looks perfect. You change the angle and suddenly you see things that weren’t noticeable at all in the first photo.
Even with a slab, the test is not over for me.
We examine the grade, any additional designations, the condition of the holder, and the certificate number. For interesting or high-value coins, the certificate is verified with the respective grading company.
Anyone interested in learning more about the two major grading companies can find the answer in our collector’s question : NGC or PCGS: Which grading company is better for gold coins?
And if, for example, a holder displays “Details” instead of a normal numerical grade, it’s also worth taking a closer look: What does “Details Grade” mean on a gold coin, and how bad is it really?
A low print run is interesting. But that’s about it.
Of course I look at circulation figures.
But I would never buy a coin just because it has an impressively small number on it.
I’m just as interested in:
How often does the coin actually appear?
In what condition?
Are there only 1,000 pieces in existence, but still multiple offers available at all times? Or were 5,000 minted, and does one only see a good example in a specific condition every few years?
And most importantly: Are there collectors who are specifically looking for this coin?
In my opinion, this point is often underestimated.
A coin can be objectively rare and yet only interest a very small circle of collectors. Another issue might have a significantly higher mintage, but so much demand that good pieces hardly remain on the market.
Therefore, for me , print run, actual availability, preservation, and demand always go hand in hand .
Cooper has also come to understand that while a low mintage sounds exciting, it doesn’t tell the whole story. If a coin is rare on paper, but nobody is looking for it, he’s now just as skeptical as I am. 🐾
NGC, PCGS and Population Reports
For certified coins, we naturally also look at the population reports from NGC and PCGS.
I use them frequently. But you have to know what these numbers mean and what they don’t.
Population reports show certification data. They are not equivalent to the actual number of coins in existence .
Not every coin has been graded. NGC and PCGS maintain separate populations. Furthermore, datasets can change due to regrades, resubmissions, and subsequent cleanups.
Nevertheless, this data is particularly helpful for high-quality modern gold coins.
If only a few specimens of a coin are registered in PF70 and no higher-rated coin exists, this is of course relevant information.
But even then, a second question remains for me:
Does the market even want this coin?
A population of three looks fantastic on screen. But if nobody’s looking for it, having three on its own doesn’t do me much good.
We explain the term Top Pop in more detail in the Collector Questions with Cooper .
Larissa Wasserthal also deals professionally with grading outside of our own blog. In her article for PCGS about abbreviations and designations on coin holders, she explains, among other things, MS, PR, SP, Cameo, Deep Cameo and other designations.
Where does the coin come from?
Provenance sometimes sounds more important with modern gold coins than the topic actually needs to be.
Not every coin needs a complete history spanning several decades.
But for special pieces, I do want to know where they come from.
These could be:
- previous invoices
- Auction records
- Certificates
- Original packaging
- Serial numbers
- well-known special editions or sets
- older sales offers or photos
My main concern here is plausibility.
Does the certificate match the coin?
Was this packaging even available this year?
Does the coin actually belong to the set from which it supposedly came?
Do the serial number, label, and description match?
I enjoy good stories about coins. They often make a piece truly interesting. But a good story is no substitute for an examination.
We have summarized more information on this topic in our numismatics buying guide: Checking provenance with Cooper .
And at some point we’ll have to talk about the price.
Now, at the latest, it becomes an economic issue.
And this is where things often get more difficult than you might think, especially with rare coins.
An old auction price is not enough for me.
If I find a comparison, I want to know:
Was it really the same year?
The same version?
Proof or not.
Same degree?
NGC or PCGS.
When was the piece sold?
Was the buyer’s premium already included?
Was the result perhaps an outlier?
Are there any comparable coins on the market today?
Even a current asking price is far from being the market price.
If a coin has been offered for 20,000 euros for two years, I initially only know one thing: Apparently, no one has paid 20,000 euros for it yet.
Especially with rare gold coins, there are often very few genuine comparative transactions. In such cases, one has to piece together various pieces of information and eventually accept that there is no mathematically perfect answer.
This is also one of the reasons why I always view individual record auctions with caution.
We have a separate article on this topic: Understanding coin prices: 5 important reasons why auctions are often misleading .
The value of gold is simple. Collector’s value is not.
The metallic base of a gold coin can be determined relatively easily:
Fine gold weight in troy ounces × gold price per troy ounce = approximate pure gold value
But that’s when the interesting calculation begins for a numismatic gold coin.
For example, how much additional amount is justified for:
- a sought-after vintage
- low market availability
- exceptional preservation
- Proof quality
- a high degree
- Provenance
- a special variant
- actual collector demand
That is precisely why two gold coins with the same weight of fine gold can have completely different prices.
And that’s precisely why not every high surcharge is automatically justified.
Cooper explains this distinction in more detail in his Coin Academy: From spot price to collector value .
And yes: We don’t buy very often
This is perhaps one of the points that is less noticeable from the outside.
We do not automatically buy a coin after an examination.
Sometimes the price expectation is simply too high.
Sometimes I don’t like the situation.
Sometimes a coin is rare, but the market for it is so small that we could hardly resell it reasonably later.
Sometimes it just doesn’t fit into our product range.
And sometimes, after the exam, a question mark remains that is too big for me.
Then we won’t buy it.
This is nothing special, it’s part of everyday life.
Rareness alone is not enough.
Conversely, there are of course other cases as well. You receive photos, see a specific year or unusually good condition, and know pretty quickly:
We should take a closer look at that.
I still enjoy offers like these the most.
And Cooper can now tell pretty accurately when I suddenly look at the screen longer than usual. 🐾
Trust can be verified, at least in part.
Especially when coins cost several thousand euros or significantly more, I as a buyer would not rely solely on a pretty website.
Therefore, I believe external evidence is useful.
Wasserthal RareCoin.Store or TriaPrima GmbH is listed in the professional association of German coin dealers .
External dealer profiles and customer reviews for Wasserthal RareCoin.Store can also be found at GOLD.DE and Gold-Preisvergleich.de .
Of course, a dealer valuation says nothing about whether a specific coin deserves PF69 or PF70, or whether a particular year is worth its premium.
But it helps to verify who you are actually dealing with.
And I consider that quite important for high-priced collector coins.
What Cooper has learned so far
If Cooper takes one thing away from his first months as a junior numismatist, it will hopefully be this:
With a rare gold coin, there is almost never one number that answers everything.
A low production run can be interesting. A PF70 can be interesting. An unusual provenance can be interesting. A high auction price can also be interesting.
But none of these should be considered in isolation.
I have seen coins where the mintage and grade looked fantastic, but hardly anyone wanted them.
And I have seen other pieces that initially seemed unspectacular on paper, but practically never appeared on the market in good condition.
That’s precisely what makes numismatics interesting to me to this day.
You have to look closely, compare, sometimes start all over again, and occasionally accept that the answer isn’t immediately on a holder, in a population report, or in an old auction archive.
So Cooper can continue learning and sniffing around.
Please don’t touch the proof coins directly. 🐾
About the author: Dirk Wasserthal
Dirk Wasserthal is the managing director of Wasserthal RareCoin.Store. In his daily business, he deals with modern numismatic gold coins, rare years, proof issues, and certified coins from NGC and PCGS.
Wasserthal RareCoin.Store specializes in selected modern collector gold coins and the international collector market.
And Cooper?
Cooper is the Labrador of Wasserthal RareCoin.Store and now our junior numismatist.
Through the collector questions with Cooper and in Cooper’s Coin Academy, he learns step by step why numismatics is usually more complicated than it first appears.
And occasionally he reminds us that despite population reports, market analyses, and price comparisons, it’s perfectly acceptable to simply find a coin beautiful. 🐾
