Buyers flock to gold coins amid stock market turbulence caused by coronavirus

Collectors and investors appear to have flocked to gold coins as a safe haven buy amid stock market turbulence caused by coronavirus, with some at a behind closed doors auction this week selling for triple their estimate.

More than 500 lots of coins dating from the Iron Age all the way through to 2008 went under the hammer at auction house Spink, selling from anything from £30 to £65,000.

While the auction house told This is Money its estimates did tend to be more conservative to encourage bidding, many of the highest-selling lots dramatically exceeded their estimates in the online-only auction of more than 500 bidders.

A five-guinea coin from 1713 displaying Queen Anne, played by an Oscar-winning Olivia Colman in the 2018 film The Favourite, sold for £26,000; three times its upper estimate of £12,000. This five-guinea contains around £1,500 worth of gold, Spink said.

It suggests investors are once again looking to the commodity, which reached an all-time sterling high of £1,388.55 per oz on the day of the auction.

It is often seen as a safe port which goes up in value when other assets like stocks fall.

While the recent boom in the strength of the dollar means that gold is not at an all-time high in that currency, it is at an all-time sterling high of £1,388.55 per oz.

This up from £786.02 per oz in March 2015, though the gold price did actually initially fall along with other asset classes, most notably on March 16 to £1,185.40.

However it is now riding high, and investors can't get enough.

 
Credit: George Nixon