Anyone who knows anything about collecting rare gold coins knows that it’s important to have them certified. Important might even be an understatement. If you really want to make good decisions, purchases, and sales in the rare coin industry, it’s actually vital that your coins be certified. This is why certification companies are becoming more well-known! However, if you’re purchasing bullion coins, is it worthwhile o have them certified as well?

The truth is that it really depends on your investment goals and the level of collecting you’re really doing. If you’re buying rolls of coins that are guaranteed by the American government just to have some gold on hand, certification is probably not important. As long as you know the coins aren’t fake, they aren’t going to be influenced much by a scratch or two.

Even still, you want to make sure you’re handling your gold coins carefully, as major defects can actually reduce their value. Handle your bullion coins with gloves on, and leave them in their original wrapping as much as possible for their safety and t protect your financial investment.

If you’re buying bullion coins as a collector, then it might actually be a good idea to have your coins certified. This is true if you’re buying proof coins, for instance. These coins are minted in limited quantities, and a large portion of their value comes from the fact that they’re very rare. An MS70 proof coin can actually be worth quite a bit more than an MS69, so grading for these coins does become important.

Of course, any time you’re buying gold coins that are valuable primarily because they’re rare, you’ll certainly want to make sure that you’re getting certification with your coins. You can either buy coins that are already certified, which is a good idea and may cost less in the long run. Another option is to send a coin in for certification once you’ve already added it to your collection.

One reason that you might end up doing this is if you find out that a coin in your collection is rare even when you thought you were buying a regular bullion coin. Once in a while this happens, and in these cases, it’s important to get your coins certified as soon as possible. You might be surprised at how much a simple certification can change the perception of a coin’s value!