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The first thing to understand about Altier Rare Coins is that it operates primarily as a buying house. While it must engage in some sales to sustain its business, the general public cannot purchase directly from the company, according to its website.
As its name suggests, Altier Rare Coins specializes in acquiring a wide variety of coins, whether collectible or bullion. Additionally, the company is open to purchasing bullion from sellers.
Sellers should note that the company's satisfaction guarantee is always in compliance with legal standards. Altier Rare Coins deals in gold, silver, and platinum but does not buy palladium.
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About Altier Rare Coins
Sellers should be aware that the guarantee of satisfaction will always have to be within the law. The company buys gold, silver, and platinum but not palladium.
The Difference Between Bullion Coins and Collectible Coins
In short, collectible coins have value largely because of their rarity and not because of their metal content. Bullion coins have value largely because of their metal content and not because of their rarity.
Indeed, many rare collectible coins have negligible value when it comes to their metal content. An 1856 Flying Eagle Cent contains a few cents worth of copper, but its rarity prices it, as of June 10, 2023, at more than $9,000 if it's in very fine condition.
Conversely, a gold coin the same size and weight as a Flying Eagle Cent would cost $294.42 at today's price of gold. The advantage of gold over collectibility is that the price of gold has been fairly solid over the years, rising gradually over time.
Collectible coins go up and down a lot in comparison. As an example, an 1881 Morgan Dollar with a New Orleans mint mark is currently going for about $63 in extremely fine condition. In January 2001, Heritage Auctions reported the value of the same coin at $1,495.
Granted, this is an out-of-the-ordinary example, but it illustrates the point. Remember, too, that just because someone once told you that some coin or other would be extra-valuable today doesn't make it so.
What Kind of Coins Does Altier Rare Coins Buy?
Most of the coins with which the company deals are American. Almost all of them are those dated before 1970, which is when the United States stopped making silver coins. The country stopped producing gold coins in 1933.
Altier Rare Coins buys almost any denomination of American coin there is, including such rare pieces as half-cents and two-cent pieces. Some of the coins they buy, such as Lincoln Cents, have to be before earlier dates.
The company also buys foreign gold and silver coins, some of which must predate 1918. Interestingly, Altier Rare Coins does not buy silver dollars of any kind. They do, however, accept all proof sets and mint sets.
The company's website is not specific about rare coins that have dates outside those specified. For example, a 1955 double-die Lincoln Cent, which was accidentally struck twice by the minting machine, is worth about a thousand dollars in very-fine condition. Another would be the 1943 copper penny, of which only 27 are believed to exist currently.
The 1943 copper penny's price is a quarter of a million dollars or more. If you have one of these oddities that exist outside the company's date range, it's probably best to contact them to see what's what.
Bills
Altier Rare Coins also buys paper bills of various existing and defunct currencies, including those issued by the colonies before the American Revolution. One kind of money that the company does not buy is Confederate money.
The company buys fractional notes, silver certificates, gold certificates, and federal reserve notes. Altier Rare Coins has date restrictions on these bills, too, so it's best to check with them for all of the applicable date restrictions.
In much the same way as certain coins have collectible defects, such as the aforementioned double-die penny, some bills have the same kind of valuable defects. Check the website to see which ones Altier Rare Coins currently buys.
Bills are graded using stringent guidelines in the same way as coins. As you would expect, items of better quality are more valuable than poorer-quality items.
Precious-Metals IRAs
Altier Rare Coins does not offer a precious-metals IRA nor do they offer any services associated therewith, such as custodians or depositories. They also don't have partnerships with any company or person to provide these services.
For your information, such an IRA is also called "self-directed." You control all transactions regarding the IRA, including its creation, but because such an IRA contains only precious metals, bullion coins, or both, a custodian has to do all the transactions on your behalf.
Collectible coins, no matter how valuable, are not allowed to be kept in a self-directed IRA. The Internal Revenue Service considers their value to be too volatile to be included in a precious-metals IRA.
You're not allowed to put any precious metals that you already own into a self-directed IRA. To create such an IRA, you would buy the metals you wanted through a custodian, who would then arrange for them to be shipped to an appropriate depository. The Delaware Depository is a popular choice among precious metals companies.
Once you create your self-directed IRA, you have to keep everything you put into it until you turn 59.5 years old. At that point, you can make withdrawals within a certain set of guidelines. Once you turn 72, you have to make minimum withdrawals at regular intervals.
Removing your precious metals in any way, including taking possession of them, before you're 59.5 years old will result in taxes and penalties that could cost you 10% or more of your initial investment. To find out what you need to know about the rules governing self-directed IRAs, it would be wise to consult a company that is in the business.
Precious-Metals Purity
Almost all precious metals and bullion coins that you put into a self-directed IRA have to meet certain purity levels. Gold must be 99.5% pure. Silver must be 99.9% pure. Platinum and palladium must be 99.95% pure. This is so that the price you pay per troy ounce is as close as possible to the theoretical price of what you buy where it is 100% pure.
The single exception is for certain American Eagle Gold coins that achieve 91.67% purity. They are considered a legacy from the time before the purity standards were enacted because so many folks had them already stored using other methods. This is another reason why collectible coins aren't suitable for self-directed IRAs: They don't meet these standards.
Jewelry
Altier Rare Coins will buy your old jewelry too. They'll buy gold, silver, and diamonds. If the pieces are particularly valuable in a way other than because of the raw weight of the precious metal in question, then they'll give you that price.
Otherwise, they'll determine the weight of your items and then prorate the amount based on the karat of the gold or the purity of the silver.
When it comes to diamonds, the "four Cs" are the governing factor. These are cut, clarity, color, and carat. The expression in the diamond industry, the saying goes, "These four affect the fifth 'C': cost."
Altier Rare Coins Options
Although Altier Rare Coins cannot provide you with a precious-metals IRA nor with a method of creating one, what you can do is take the money that you get from them after selling everything and then speaking with a firm that does help with self-directed IRAs, along with the associated custodian, to create the account.
It involves a separate step, but it is a method of preparing for retirement by taking volatile assets and putting them somewhere safer than usual until you're old enough to make use of the deposited funds.
You also have the option of creating other investment accounts with the funds you get from Altier Rare Coins after selling your stuff. And, down the line, if you wanted to roll over a 401K or regular IRA into a precious-metals IRA, then you could do that too.
The Final Word
Altier Rare Coins is not able to be rated as a full-service company for precious metals because all they do regarding the general public is buy things. Still, for what they do, they're excellent. The online reviews are largely positive even if the company doesn't have a Better Business Bureau profile.
Trustpilot lists eight reviews, seven of which are quite positive, but they're all older than two years. The lack of contemporary reviews is somewhat troubling, but the company doesn't seem to have any actionable red flags. Therefore, this reviewer gives them a cautious recommendation. You won't likely have trouble, but "caveat emptor" applies in all such cases.
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