Diversifying your financial portfolio by investing in gold can help ensure long-term growth. Physical gold coins should make up a maximum of 5 to 25% of your total savings according to financial experts. When purchasing gold coins, you may notice that some gold coins that are marked as genuine and authentic may develop brown or red rust spotting overtime. Although the appearance of spotting may seem like an unusual phenomenon, it actually isn't that uncommon. This article will tell you more.
Faint Traces of Other Metals Cause Rust Spotting
Rust spotting can be an indication that the gold coins are fake, as it means that the coin may not be made entirely from gold, and may instead only be gold-plated; however, gold coins are not composed of entirely gold, as there are trace amounts of other metals. More commonly, you can expect there to be traces of silver, copper, iron, palladium or even artificial additives like rhodium, iridium or palladium. Pure gold is extremely soft and malleable. The addition of these other traces of metals helps toughen and harden up the gold coins.
These metals are generally mixed and distributed throughout the entire gold coin; however, when traces of metals adhere to the surface of the gold coins, they are exposed to elemental conditions. In particular, the oxygen in the air and surrounding environment may begin to oxidize these metals. In addition, trace metals and materials will often get mixed into the surface of the gold coins during the striking process, and contamination can occur at various levels of the minting process. These impurities are often invisible to the naked eye at first; however, they quickly become noticeable when rusting occurs.
Get Expert Recommendations
The truth of the matter is that there is absolutely no way to avoid choosing a gold coin that may later rust in the future. It's simply your luck of the draw, although you can significantly reduce your chances by purchasing gold coins from reputable gold minters. There are several different types of gold coins that you can purchase for the monetary value that they carry, the value of gold that they contain or the numismatic value for their collector's value.
How to Avoid Rusting
To avoid rusting, you will want to make sure that your gold coins are stored in secure environments. You want to avoid exposing them to environments with high levels of acidity or sulfur compounds. Also, store the gold coins in their original packaging and in separate compartments that are away from other metals to keep them from bumping into and scratching one another. In addition, consider keeping silica gel inside the storage boxes in order to absorb any moisture that may linger inside. Silica gels are also a cost-efficient way of maintaining humidity levels.
Do Nothing to Avoid Hurting the Coin's Value
If you already have noticed red or brown rust spotting on your gold coins, most experts recommend that you do absolutely nothing about it. Why? All forms of cleaning may actually be abrasive on the gold coins and may actually end up reducing the overall grade and value of the gold, which will hurt the resell value of the gold coins in the future. You can prevent the rust spotting from worsening by following the steps listed above.
Conclusion
Rust spotting is not as uncommon, as you may think even with genuine gold bullion. Although it is unattractive, it should not take away from the value of the gold coins much, as the coins still contain the same value in gold. This ensures that the value is retained to close to the spot price of gold at the very least. Most of the time, rust spotting will be rather minimal, and should not be a concern when purchasing gold coins.
For more information, talk to a local gold seller, like American Precious Metals Inc.
Share