Somalia Gold Elephant Coins

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Somalia Gold Elephant Coins stand out as a beautiful testimony of the world's biggest land mammal and its majesty. As an issue in the African Wildlife series, these bullion gold coins contain an impressive 99.99% gold purity. They were first produced by fellow African nation Zambia in 1999, though Somalia assumed the series from them beginning in 2004. These coins are now minted in various sizes and denominations in both gold and silver.

Somalia Gold Elephant Coins Background and History

Somalia Gold Elephant Coins started in 2004 when the war-torn African nation from the horn of the East African region took over production of the coin from Zambia. This is among the few bullion coins on earth which changes its designs every year. This helps to explain why the Somalia Gold Elephant Coins remain a highly sought out issue by investors and collectors alike for their high gold purity and beauty of design. The obverse side of the golden coin constantly showcases one or several elephants within their natural habitat. Beginning in 2004, the reverse side of the coins have highlighted the Somalia national seal. Before 2004, that side showed off the national seal of issuing country Zambia instead.

These Somalia Gold Elephant Coins are struck every year by the Bavarian State Mint. This is the oldest firm in Munich by reputation. The facility started striking coins back in 1158 during the rule of Heinrich dem Löwen. The mint has long been called by locals the Das Bayerisches Hauptmünzamt. It has a deserved centuries old reputation for its excellence in manufacturing of collectible coins, medals, and seals.

The Gold Elephant's bullion history proves to be fascinating and controversial at points. The Bavarian State Mint originally produced the issue for Zambia. In 2004, the mint states that it received legal authorization to transfer over the legend of the series to the Republic of Somalia. There have been various experts who expressed doubts regarding this claim from the mint. This is because Somalia has never accepted this Gold Elephant coin as legal tender within its territory. What's more, the pieces themselves have not yet been distributed by Somalia's Central Bank. It is true that a great deal of the confusion on who stands behind these coins can be blamed on the continuous unrest and political turmoil that constantly grips the East African nation. Civil war has been ongoing here, even as Somalia is struggling to establish a parliamentary-based federal republic.

This helps to explain why the Bavarian State Mint does not have the appropriate documentation to prove that they are authorized to strike this coin on the behalf of Somalia every year. While these issues could be troubling to collectors and investors in the gold pieces, it does not change the fact that they are still highly pure gold coins created by one of the world's longest established and highest quality official government entity mints. In fact, some analysts contend that this lack of clarity concerning Somalia's gold and silver coins makes them more interesting and valuable all at once.

Somalia Gold Elephant Coins Physical Characteristics

Somalia Gold Elephant Coins are struck and guaranteed for purity and content by the highly reputable, German-based Bavarian State Mint, for centuries the money producing authority for the entirely autonomous Principality of Bavaria. This mint today remains among the four main mints for the German nation. It is owned by the Free State of Bavaria, as it has since been since the Bavarian local princes ruling in Munich established it in the 12th century over 800 years ago.

Coin Design

The “obverse” is the name of the front side of a coin. These coins have a changing obverse design which varies each year of production. Somalia Gold Elephant Coins' obverse in 2017 bears the image of an enormous elephant which stands in knee length grass on the African Serengeti savanna. It is in the process of emitting a deep and powerful bellow in the striking picture. The background boasts a traditional Somalian hut bordered by a little cluster of coconut palm trees. There is a setting sun at the top of the image. The coin inscriptions state “AFRICAN WILDLIFE” at the top and “ELEPHANT,” and “1 oz Au 999.9” in the bottom half of the obverse.

Coin aficionados the world over refer to the rear side of coins as the “reverse.” Somalia Gold Elephant Coins' reverse features the country's unique national coat of arms. This emblem is made up of a single star emblazoned on a backdrop containing horizontal lines upon the nation's heraldic shield. To either side of and upholding the shield are leopards. The leopards themselves stand upon two outward pointing crossed lances which are covered by a ribbon and are framed by two crossing palm frond leaves. The mintage year is split in half on the outside of each leopard's flank. The much debated face value adorns the bottom of the coin in an arc shape. The top of the coin bears the inscription “SOMALI REPUBLIC” in an upward facing arc.

Specifications

These Somalia Gold Elephant coins come available in a variety of sizes. These include one kilogram, five ounces, one ounce, one-half ounce, one-quarter ounce, one-tenth ounce, one-twenty fifth, one-fiftieth ounce, and half gram sizes. The specifications of the most heavily produced and most commonly purchased one ounce size are:

• Mass:  31.1 grams
• Diameter: 39 mm
• Thickness:  1.9 mm
• Content: 1 troy oz. gold
• Purity: 99.99% gold

Somalia Gold Elephant Coins Pricing

Somalia Gold Elephant Coins are struck advertising an impressive-sounding thousand Somalia Shillings face value. The question remains whether they are truly legal tender in the Republic of Somalia or not. According to the Central Bank of Somalia, they never have been legal tender. This is where the confusion comes of having one foreign national mint produce a coin for another country's completely independent central bank. Regardless of whether the coins bear any actual face value or not, they certainly contain a nearly pure troy ounce of gold whose value far eclipses the nominal legal tender value in any case. This intrinsic value demonstrates why gold coins are so useful as store houses of value. Even if their issuing government and central bank goes bust or renounces their fiscal responsibilities and obligations, the coins' precious metal content holds up alone.

It is this intrinsic value of gold which sets the market pricing of all Somalia Gold Elephant Coins contained within an investor's portfolio. These coins trade at a substantial premium over gold prices because of the controversy which surrounds their legal tender status, which in turn drives high collector demand into the relatively scarce issues. The market worth of these coins fluctuates every market trading day based on the value of the gold which they contain. You can simply find out today's live gold prices by navigating over to our homepage.

Can IRA Accounts Contain Somalia Gold Elephant Coins?

If you are contemplating investing retirement dollars into Somalia Gold Elephant Coins, you need to know if the IRS allows them to be included in an IRA retirement account. The question is one which the American taxing authority determines in its sole discretion. They decide on the purity and collectibility standards which allow or disallow such coins from self directed IRAs.

In order to open such an account, you have to start by funding a precious metals IRA account with minimally $5,000 in approved gold or silver bullion coins and bars. After this point, you can always add additional purchases and shipments of precious metals by depositing funds that are at least $1,000 or more. In case you have your own traditional type of IRA account now, you can simply and easily roll it on over to a precious metals IRA vehicle. Once your bullion arrives, your IRA administrator will move it on into a vault that the Internal Revenue Service officially approves for IRA bullion storage within the United States. These secure third party depositories bear the burden of both maintaining and guarding your valuable stake of physical precious metals in gold and silver. They will not relinquish your holdings until and unless you issue a sell order which is conveyed to them by your precious metals IRA administrator on your behalf. The coins must never be in your personal possession, even for a single day, or they become invalid for IRA account inclusion.

However interesting and controversial these Somalia Gold Elephant Coins may in fact be, the IRS forbids you to include them in your IRA account. The reason is because of their failure on the collectibility standard. While the coins easily exceed the IRS standard for minimum purity of at least .995 with their impressive .9999 purity, they command an excessive premium over spot gold prices because of their apparent rarity and consistent investor- and collector-based demand. Even though these striking tributes to the vanishing African elephant may not be a part of your IRA account, they are excellent choices for other forms of investment and retirement vehicles you may have. You can purchase them from many U.S. and global precious metals dealers.

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