You should know that the (seemingly) never-ending refrain regarding the precious metals markets that my former colleagues and I at Monetarium would write about are the subject of some mirth within the dealer community - I have been the subject of such hurtful and insensitive remarks as "you've been writing about it for years for God's sake, the law of probability says you were going to be right sooner or later", and so on. They have a point of course, I learned from trading coach that if a trader has a strong opinion about a market, they'll say and do pretty much anything in order continue to "be right", no matter what circumstances they're lokking down the barrel of.

My investment in the numismatic markets is primarily through the stock that I trade with through my business, and I know that I'm pretty balanced across all sectors of the market - I don't have a lot of capital invested relative to a lot of other dealers, however I'm satisfied that I'm not overly exposed to one area of the market. So what then should someone that knows how this market (for coins and banknotes) works, know about the current state of play?

Simply put, you'll do well to get up to date on what the most readily available bullion-based Aussie coins are now trading for - why, you may have a stack of them sitting in a cupboard somewhere that you've been "meaning to get around to" one of these days. You might have bought some gold or silver coins from either of the mints early on in your collecting career, and may have written them off as never, ever being of value! Or you may even decide to take a bit of a punt on where this metals boom is headed and want to start buying them.

Later this week I'll post a list of the most often-encountered Aussie silver & gold coins for you to look over, given that gold in AUD has risen by at least 15% this year alone, it'll be well worth your while to check in with what all those "junk coins" are worth.