I want to invest in gold and/or silver coins.?

Which is better to invest in? And what are the names of the coins in should ivest in? Someone told me to go with silver becouse the price of gold was to inflated. Thank for the help.

Public Comments

1. If I had to choose between the two i would invest in silver. However, i would not invest in coins at all.. Gold and silver are both terrible long-term investments historically. Gold was $850 an ounce in 1980 and silver was $55 an ounce, if they had only kept up with inflation they would be at $2200 gold and $150 silver. Dont invest.
2. It’s a bad idea to invest in gold. Everyone’s talking about it right now because gold is really high. In the book, Stocks for the Long Run, Jeremy Segall has a graph that shows what would have happened to a single dollar invested in gold, bonds and stocks since 1801. One dollar invested in bonds in 1801 would yield $13,975 today. One dollar invested in stocks in 1801 would be worth $8.8 million today. One dollar invested in gold in 1801 would be worth $14 today.
3. one doesn't really "invest" in gold; rather, you allocate some of your funds to precious metals, typically no more than 10%, as a hedge against the corruption of a paper currency. with gold already high at $920, there's every reason it can continue to go higher as long as the Fed and Bush/Congress continue to inflate the Dollar by lowering interest rates and "stimulating the economy", with extra tax refund checks. the reason many suggest silver over gold is the factor of the gold/silver ratio, which is now about 54, rather than the historical range of 15-20, meaning that silver is supposed to be undervalued vs. gold. so if you conclude that the ratio should be going down, you would have more upside potential in buying silver now. while the 1801 stat that Golda mentioned might indeed be true, the question is, who has lived 200+ years to have been able to take advantage of that? and who can say for sure that the Dollar won't totally collapse this time around? while i also see it as highly unlikely, if all my other paper investments were to vanish, i do expect my 10+% in precious metals to carry me through. and as for an example of the bullion coins i buy, Krugerrands for gold, and Canadian Maple Leafs (and American Silver Eagles to a lesser extent) for silver. Krugerrands have no face value, while ASE's have a face value of US$1 and CML's a face value of C$5. although silver is silver, i do prefer the Canadians for the higher face value, even if i don't know if there will be any practical difference between them if and when the time comes...