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.

The first five coins of this set for coin collecting will have depictions of Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Yosemite National Park in California, the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and Mount Hood National Park in Oregon on the tail side. The face side will have a restored version of George Washington from the 1932 John Flanagan portrait.

The Proof Silver coin itself will be made of 0.999 fine silver. The diameter will be 3 inches and each will weigh about 5 ounces. There will be an America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set, America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set, 100-coin America the Beautiful Quarters Bag, and America the Beautiful Quarters Two-Roll Sets.

The first quarters to go on sale will be the Hot springs National Park that is scheduled for an April release. The Proof Set will become available in May. The Silver Proof Set will be available in May or June. The Yellow Stone Quarter will be released in June. Yosemite should be available in July or August. The Grand Canyon is scheduled for a September release, and Mount Hood is listed for a November release date.

To date, the US Mint still claim there is a shortage of silver bullion blanks so the mandated law of producing the Silver Eagle might be ignored for another year so the America the Beautiful silver bullion coins can be produced.

Unfortunately, the popularity of the Silver Eagle coins has overwhelmed the ability of the US Mint and the availability of silver bullion blanks. This was the reason there were no 2009 Silver Eagle coins produced of any version, proofs or uncirculated. The last Silver Eagle coins that were produced and available for purchase were part of the 2008 United States Mint Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin Set that is priced at $37.95. The official web page for this product claims orders for this set will no longer be accepted after August 7, 2008, but they are still listed as being available. This is the only way to purchase a Silver Eagle coin. Both the individual proofs and uncirculated coins are being listed as sold out.

Since the US Mint has already broken the law that mandates them to produce this coin in 2009, they might do the same for 2010. The US Mint claims they will start producing these coins as soon as sufficient silver bullion blanks are accumulated to meet the current demand for all three Silver Eagle coin products.

For those into coin collecting, this could mean there might not be any again this year. I wonder how the mint is judging what the demand is if they are not offering any 2010 Silver Eagles for sale. Once again, too much bureaucracy when it comes to dealing with the US Government.

The final coin design was approved on September 16, 2009 by the Secretary of the Treasurer Timothy F. Geithner. The depiction on the head of the coin is the upper torso of a Cub Scout in front followed by a Venturer and then a Boy Scout, all saluting. To the left side is the years it is commemorating 1910 to 2010. Encircling the figures on the edge is a message about Scouting, “Continuing the Journey” on top and “God We Trust and Liberty” on the bottom.

The tail side of the coin is of the Boy Scouts of America’s universally known emblem with the Eagle with a star below each wing. The top is inscribed with United States of America, with Boy Scouts of America just below it. The bottom is the numerical value of the coin which is One Dollar, with ”Be Prepared” to the left side and “E. Pluribus Unum” to the right side.

For coin collecting, this commemorative coin will be issued in mint proofs and uncirculated versions that will become available in 2010 for the US Mint. The coin itself will be 90% pure silver and 10% copper.  The total of all types and versions of this coin are limited to 350,000 minting.

All surcharges that the mint receives from the sales of this coin will be distributed to the different Boy Scout councils across America by the National Boy Scouts of America Foundation.

The announcement of the Boy Scouts of America Centennial Silver Dollar was posted on the US Mint web site on December 17, 2009. This coin will not be available for the anniversary date on February 8, 2010, but will become available in March of 2010 if the current schedule is kept.

The first series of buffalo nickels also had this problem but it was the word “five cents” that wore off. The source of this problem was that the value was placed on a raised area just below the bison on the tail side of the coin. This was seen and corrected within the first year of its minting by the chief engraver Charles E. Barber. But there was an oversight and the date was not corrected to prevent the same problematic wear.

 The dateless nickels were mostly made before 1926. The minting of the buffalo nickel began in 1913 and ended in 1938. Most of these coins were removed from circulation in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is said that 1 in 25,000 nickels in circulation today is still a buffalo nickel.

For coin collecting purposes, the dateless buffalo coin is not worth more than 5 to 20 cents, because of the condition of the coins. If you own a dateless nickel, an experiment can be done to verify if what you have is an authentic dateless buffalo coin. By placing a drop of ferric chloride or other weak acid on the dated area, the date may be revealed. In many coin collecting stores it goes by the trade name of “Nic-a-Date”. After this is used, most coin collectors consider the coin valueless because of the modification that was done to the coin.

But if you own dateless Buffalo Nickels, the choice is yours. The difference between 5 cents and no cents is not enough to worry about.

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.

With the price of gold at historic highs, collecting valuable coins can be expensive and risky.  If you collect gold or silver coins, part of the price of the coins will be the value of the precious metal itself.  The second and third factors are the supply and demand for the coin.  How rare is the coin?  How many coin buyers want to buy the coin?

But, because the price of gold is so high, this adds risk to buy coins.  If the price of gold drops, your gold coins will drop in value too.

While this list is not meant to be a complete guide to investing in coins, I think that these tips are essential to know before you start buying and selling coins.

1.  Everyone is overgrading coins these days.  There is a trend within the industry to grade coins very high.  There are more MS 69 and MS 70 slabbed coins than I can remember.  If coin graders become more picky, your MS 70 coins may drop in value quickly.

2.  The coin market right now is getting infiltrated with counterfeit coins.  Chinese coin producers are selling fake US coins into the US coin market.  You have to be careful that you don’t purchase fake US coins.

3. You have to be able to determine that coins you are thinking about buying are not dipped or artificially toned.  If a coin looks too good to be true, it probably is.

4.  When investing in coins, you will be buying and holding coins for some time as wait for them appreciate in value or wait to find a buyer.  Given this you need to make sure that you store your coins in a way to ensure that the quality of the coins does not deteriorate over time.

These are just a few tips for making money coin collecting.  I hope that they help you to make money buying and selling coins.

Listed below are all of the platinum eagle proof coins for sale right now on ebay.  If you are looking to collect all of the US platinum coins, this is a great way to find deals on these coins.  The platinum American eagle coins listed below are all up to date items for sale on ebay right now.

If you are looking to add to your collection with a rare coin because the U.S. Mint made a mistake, then the 2008-W Silver Eagle might be a good choice for you. During the minting process, the wrong stamp was used. The 2007 reverse side was in place when this coin was struck and a small number of them were distributed before the mistake was noticed. The price of this rare and unusual coin is $488.00, also available from Mount Vernon Coin.

From the U.S. Mint, there are several end of the year coins just now going into production. The American Buffalo Gold Proof 24 K coin became available on 10/29/09 and can now be purchased for the price of over $1000. With the price of gold still going up, the value of this coin will still increase on a daily basis.

Another coin that is hot off the presses is the 2009 American Eagle One ounce Platinum Proof coin that went on sale 12/03/09.

These are the hot coins to buy for Christmas 2009 for those that love this unique art form.

Because of this, I decided to create a tool to help people find the best 1 oz gold coins for sale on ebay.  Listed below are some of the best deals on 1 oz gold coins for sale on ebay right now.  This list is constantly updated with the most up to date listings.  If you click on one of the listings below, you will be taken to that particular ebay listing.  I hope you enjoy these 1 oz gold coins.