The Detroit News: Rare coin left in St. Clair Shores Salvation Army red kettle
An anonymous donor has been putting a Krugerrand in the kettle each year.
A Krugerrand is a very nice donation, as its a valuable one-ounce South African gold coin worth around $2,700. That the donor has been doing this for 12 years is highly impressive on the donor's part and very generous too.
But Krugerrands, while valuable, are not particularly rare, nor even scarce. In the 70s and 80s, millions were minted per year. In the 1980s Krugerrands were 90% of the gold bullion coin market with millions minted. In 2010, the most recent year with mintage figures being available, over 520,000 were minted and almost 750,000 the year before.
If you want to invest in gold, a Krugerrand is likely not a bad way to go. After all, you get to posses a very beautiful coin you can appreciate as it appreciates in value.
Just because a thing is valuable doesn't mean its rare, nor is rarity a synonym for valuable, and the headline writer should know that.
2 comments:
Uncommon yes but not rare. Thesaurus failure by both the writer and editor of the piece, and I would bet neither one can tell you why uncommon is correct and rare is not.
Rarity depends on your environment. Whales are rare in Kansas, camels are rare in the ocean. Gold coins are rare in the poor side of town.
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