U.S. gold coins and foreign gold coins are both made of the same element. But the question arises: Which is better? This isn’t an easy question to answer. The short answer depends on what you are looking for in a gold coin. While both types of gold coins are made of gold they are not by any means the same. Not all that glitters is gold.

There are many types of gold coins available to collect, simply because almost every country mints some type of gold coin. The problem is that not all of them are .9999% pure gold. As such the selling price will greatly depend on the current spot market price of gold and the individual coins purity.

So if you intend to buy some kind of gold coins you probably want to buy gold coins that are .9999% pure gold as opposed to gold coins whose gold content is somewhat less. Canadian Maple leaves and the Chinese Pandas are some good examples of foreign gold coins that are .9999% pure gold.

Surprisingly, U.S. gold coins are one of the least pure gold coins around and among the costliest to buy. U.S. gold coins are only .900% pure gold. If you are strictly looking for gold bullion coins, U.S. gold bullion coins aren’t the best ones to buy. If you are looking for investment gold coins, you should avoid buying U.S. Gold Eagles in grades of MS68 or lower.

Gold Eagles in these grades seldom go up in value unless the gold coin is on the rare side. Most of the time they will cost you more than they will ever appreciate. And to top it off the gold content isn’t .9999% pure. So you would be better off buying a good foreign gold coin of .9999% purity. You should only consider buying U.S. Gold Eagles unless they grade MS69 or higher.

You should never buy U.S. Gold Eagles lower than MS69. Strongly consider moving up to MS70 as you should get a better return on your investment over time. There is some debate as to whether it is better to buy foreign gold coins or U.S. gold coins. From any kind of a serious investment perspective, hardly any foreign gold coins will ever compare to rare U.S. Gold coins.

In truth the purity or the grades of the foreign coin won’t matter too much in comparison to rare U.S. gold coins. Rare U.S. gold coins continue to be one of the best investments while offering one of the strongest returns when compared to nearly all other precious metal coins around the world.

The bottomline is that if you just want to invest in gold bullion coins, nearly any .9999% gold bullion coin will suffice. But if you are serious about investing in gold coins, stick with good quality rare U.S. gold coins.