For those into Coin Collecting the US Mint has already releases the 2011 proof sets for the year. This is the Silver Proofs that include the 5 different quarters that are being released this year from the America the Beautiful collection. There are also 4 Presidential $1 collection, 1 Native American $1 coin, 1 Kennedy Half Dollar, 1 Jefferson Nickel and One Lincoln Penny included in this set. The asking price form the US Mint is currently at $67.95.

The current price of gold closed in New York on March 24 2011 at $1438.80. This is up nearly $50 in the past 2 months. Those riding the gold boom are still on their way up. This will continue as long as the world’s economies continue to faultier.

Gold has always been the safe haven for investors when the markets are in turbulent times. This should last the remainder of the year. If you have invested in gold coins as an investment, it is time to consider cashing in on your investment before the price drops and the values of your investment diminishes. It might be too soon now, but you need to keep it in mind as the year progresses.

The 2010 American Buffalo one ounce Gold Proof coin is currently listed at the US Mint as selling for $1,710. The Chinese 1 ounce Gold Panda coin for 2011 is currently being sold for $1510.10 if purchased in a bulk set of 10. These are 0.999 pure gold coins.

These are some of the best coins to buy in 2011. It all depends on the reason you are purchasing the coins.

For additional resources on coins, please see Best Coins to Buy 2011. This site and all of its contributors strive to bring you the most accurate information available. If you have any comments to help us improve out site, please leave them. Thank you for visiting.

This coin is only 11 mm in diameter and has a face value of 25 cents Canadian. At the present time it is being sold for $74.95 Canadian dollars or $72.87 USD.

The design used for this coin has been around since 1937 and has been on the Canadian 25 cent piece ever since. But those coins in circulation are not made of gold.

When this coin was designed, it was said to reflect the Canadian national identity by the creator of the coin, sculptor Emanuel Hahn.

The purpose of this coin’s release was for Coin Collecting. It has only been recently released and it still available from the Royal Canadian Mint, but they are not expected to last very long. It is only sold as a highly reflective proof coin that is only being produced in the Ottawa mint.

By being the world’s smallest gold coin, it is selling fast as a keep sake. Once the supply from the mint is exhausted the value of the coin is expected to rise. But at the present time you can still order a pure Gold Canada Caribou Coin from the Royal Canadian Mint online or on your next visit to Canada.

For additional resources on coins please see Morgan Dollar Collecting Guide. This site and all of its contributors strive to bring you the most accurate information available. If you have any comments to help us improve out site please leave them. Thank You for visiting.

As most golden panda coin followers know, the depiction of the pandas on the coin change every year. This year is the 28^th design and there are two pandas playing and rolling around.

These coins are a legal tender in China and are worth more than the gold from which they are produced. With the price of an ounce of gold presently over $1,100 an ounce, these coins are expensive for coin collecting. That has not diminished their popularity, though.

The current specifications of the one ounce coins are 31.103 grams with a diameter of 32.05 mm and a thickness of 2.70 mm. The gold content is guaranteed by the Chinese government to be 1 troy ounce.

The planned minting amounts of the panda coins for the year 2010 are as follows:

200 of the 1 kilo, 1000 of the 5 ounce, 300,000 of the 1 ounce, 120,000 of the ½ ounce, 120,000 of the ¼ ounce, 120,000 of the 1/10^th ounce, and 120,000 of the 1/20^th ounce.

For those that love the 2010 Gold Panda Coins, look around before you make your purchase. There are sites selling them for $1995 while others as low as $1395.

Knowing what you are doing takes time and knowledge on the subject. Most Gold coins are not pure gold, except for the American Gold Buffalo which is purely 24K gold. The rest like the Gold Panda from China, the American Gold Eagle Coin, and the Krugerrand are all 22K gold. There is still a difference between these in which most 22K gold coins have a mixture of the metals silver and copper. The Krugerrand only has cooper in it. This gives the coin a distinctive color no other gold coin has. It is true that each of these 22K gold coins do contain 1 troy ounce of 22K gold. This makes each of these coins weigh more than a troy ounce because of the alloys added to it. If the coin you are looking at weighs exactly 1 troy ounce, it better be a Buffalo or it could be a fake.

The reason most gold coins have silver and copper is to help it be durable for coin collecting. Gold is a very soft metal and the edges and detail of the coin will be lost if handled too much.

When it comes to the grade of your coin, know the major players. This includes the ANACS, NCG, PCGS NCS, and ICG. If an alternative grading is given, be suspicious of it.

If the price of the gold coin is near the price of gold bullion, it probably is not that rare or is in poor condition. The value of these coins will fluctuate with the price of gold bullion. A rare gold coin will hold its value above the price of gold on the open market.

Coins with a grade MS-62 and higher are the best ones for investment. These will hold their value over time and is just one of the better gold coin investing tips I can give.

Another approach would be to look at the values of the current gold mine company stocks. The Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd with a stock price of $72.77 is at the highest on the current market. This company is a well established company with large proven reserves and potential. The second highest gold mining stock is from Newmont Mining Corp. with a price of $47.21 per share. Again this is a company with well established company with large reserves and potential. Barrick Gold Corp. with a stock at $40.65 is the largest gold mining company in the world. Even when this company made a bad investment like it did last year with an oil company, they still have a stock price in the top 5 of all gold mining companies.

There are other ways of investing in gold. Many investors hold gold bullion or gold coins. The best gold coin to invest in is the Gold American Eagle, closely followed by the Krugerrand of South Africa.

These are several was to do gold investing, the best gold stocks 2009 are just one way.

There was only one gold unicorn coin minted in the year 1997, which is unlike other years were up to 5 of different sizes were minted. This year had a 1/10 oz gold coin minted with a face value of 10 yen and 5000 were minted. The gold in the coin is of 0.999 fine gold. Each of these coins have a diameter of 18mm.

This is an extremely rare coin. They were minted over 12 years ago and since only 5000 were produced, coin collectors have held on tightly to them.

This same year the Chinese minted up silver unicorns in 2 different weights and platinum, all of which can be found on the market and purchased.  There are also plentiful supplies of gold panda coins which have been produced from the tens of thousands to over one hundred thousand per year.

China is the world leading in gold production and gold purchasing and it has been this way for years now.  Gold investing with Chinese coins has become more of coin collecting with coins like the 1997 Gold Unicorn Coins become they are so valued that they are not available for sale at any know price.

Many people around the world have fallen in love with the adorable panda bears. This is one of the reasons the panda coins have become so popular. Because of their popularity there has been developed a way for coin collectors to know if the coin they own or are looking at has more value than another. It is called the Panda Paucity Index or PPI. The higher this number is the rarer the coin is.

The index is set by auction prices of a particular coin. The 1995 Gold Panda Coins have a PPI of 93. The only year that has a higher PPI is the 1998, with a rating of 94.

As for values at auction the 1995 panda coin has an average resale value of $1,231 with the high at $1,375 and low at $1,036.

The unique thing about the panda coins from China is unlike the American Eagle and the South African Krugerrand that have the same depiction each year of minting, the panda coin changes each year.

Each Gold panda is 1 troy ounce of 0.999 fine gold. The diameter of the coin is 32mm.

The 1995 Gold Panda Coins is not only a good gold investing prospect but also as for coin collectors.

All of these gold coins are minted at the Pretoria, South Africa and contain 1 troy ounce of pure gold which is guaranteed by the South African Government. The coin has other metals including silver and copper to give the relatively soft gold enough firmness to withstand common damage.

At present there are over 46 million South African Krugerrand coins in circulation. This is the currency that is still on the gold standard. When Buying South African Krugerrand coins, be sure to get its real value. The value is set by the spot gold price of the day. In mid September of the year 2009, with the price of gold over $1000, so is just one of these coins.

Paul Kruger’s portrait is on the head of the coin. He was the first president of South Africa. The tail side of this gold coin has a depiction of a South African Springbok Gazelle running. This gold coin can be purchased for gold investing, but as the spot price of gold varies, so will the value of this coin.

This coin can be purchased individually or as part of a group and in different increments of value. The most famous and widely known is the 1 ounce Krugerrand, but there are also the ½ ounce, the ¼ ounce and the 1/10 ounce for sale. All made out of the same 22 k gold as the larger 1 ounce.

Buying South African Krugerrand can be done from any merchant that handles gold coins or a gold merchant.

The Royal Canadian Mint started producing the modern Canadian dollar coin in 1987. This was to replace the paper dollar and that of the previous voyageur design silver dollar coin. This new dollar coin collecting is referred to as collecting loonies. This is in large part due to an image of a common loon on the back side of the coin. This coin is made from aureate bronze that is plated with nickel

Unlike America, Canada also has a 2 dollar coin. This bimetallic coin has the image of a polar bear on it. It was introduced in 1996 and to go with the loonie; the 2 dollar coin is commonly referred to as a toonie. When first minted the center could be forced to pop out if struck hard enough or if the coin became too cold. This has since been corrected, which makes the early ones a collector’s piece.

There is another difference in American minting and Canadian minting. American dollar coins can be from one of several different mints. So coin collecting would include a sample from each mint. In Canada, there is only one mint in Winnipeg.

The Canadian dollar coin collecting was made simple but the Canadian government elimination of the paper $1 and $2 bills. This not only made these coins more available but also got people to use them, unlike their American counterparts where the dollar coin was only collected and not regularly used.

Dollar coin collecting, to be complete should include both American and Canadian samples.

There is a wide variety for the collector to choose from but my personal favorite is an 1888 Morgan Silver Dollar that was given to me by my great grandmother. Every time I hold it I remember her and a warm feeling is felt. This is the magic of coin collecting. Not only are they an investment and pieces of art but also memories. I did receive a good deal of other old American coins from her but that particular one was minted the same year she was born, so there is sentimental value added to its worth.

There are other was to enjoy collecting world silver bullion coins like during one’s travels. It can be amazing what one can find if you just look and get lucky. While I was in Peru some years back, I took a tour of some of the temples from the Gods the Inca’s worshiped. During this tour the bus stopped at an open market in one of the local villages. There was the usual tourist souvenir available which most of us glanced over and made some purchases. I happened across this one elderly lady that had a good assortment of trinkets for sale. In a box off to the side was a pile of old Peruvian coins. I started to go through them and noticed that most of them were made of silver. She explained they were worthless because no one in their country would accept them as legal tender anymore. I purchased a few for only $0.50 apiece. One in particular is a 1930 one sol piece. The silver alone is worth more than what it cost me.

If you are collecting world silver bullion coins, look into the little markets for out of date coins that the owners do not know the value of. You may come across a treasure.