What are the differences between gold/siver “coin” vs. “round”?
"Coins are legal tender. They're authorized by governments and have a face value. Rounds are simply coined pieces of metal minted by private manufacturers. They do not have any face value and are not legal tender. Rounds are used to own metal, they have no value other than the value of the metal in them. Any premium you pay over the price of the metal is the mint's profit. Coins are also used as bulions (i.e.: to own metal and create profits for the government), but many times coins have limited issue and become valuable because of the rarity, specific issues with a specific coin (mistakes, impurities, exclusive designs), etc. So they also may have some numismatic value (depends on the specific coin). Coins also have the assurance of quality of the authorizing government (and fakes are dealt with by the law as forgery of coins is illegal and is a crime), rounds however do not enjoy such protection, and any one can mint them (only copyright/trademark protections apply, where the enforcement is by the owner and not the government). Re the advantages - coins (if you pick the right ones...) appreciate much more than the metal. However, this is mostly in hindsight, and most of the ""bulion"" coins do not appreciate significantly beyond the price of the metal unless there's something else significant about them (first year of issue, high quality certification, etc). Rounds on the other hand are cheaper (1 oz round will be significantly cheaper than 1 oz coin), and monitor more closely the price of the metal. It is unlikely for rounds to significantly deviate from the spot price (although this does happen occasionally, for specific designs or if a mint goes out of business)." littleadv gave a great answer, but neglected to mention one thing.  Modern minted coins usually only contain a (high) percentage of a precious metal.  For example pre-1965 quarters are 90% silver and 10% other, to maintain strength and durability. Rounds of silver bullion are usually .9999%, or fine, silver, which is considerably softer.
Shops in most touristic places tend to accept major currencies (at least dollar and euro). I remember a trip in Istanbul before the euro existed, the kids selling postcards near the blue mosque were able to guess your country and announce in your language the price in your currency. The calculators on this site should help: http://www.measuringworth.com/  They allow you to choose a currency (only about half a dozen are available), enter an amount and the years to compare, and then provides feedback in a table. Obviously you will need to be careful which calculator you choose. If they don't cover the currencies you are dealing with, see this site: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html They provide numerous links that, while they don't provide sleek calculators per se, they do offer guidance on how to handle conversions  yourself. Regarding comparing the cost to something like gold, to try and help younger readers, I think it's a good idea but gold is not the ideal choice for comparison. I'd recommend something more tangible like household goods - what a Playstation would have cost in 1930s money etc. In short: the value of gold is esoteric even for most adults - concrete examples would be better. This is a good point and where I think we should start the conversation.  We have three coins: the penny, nickel, and dime, which have so little value that people question whether it's even worth the time to handle them.  I think we should consider just getting rid of all three and start pricing everything in multiples of 1/4 dollars.  There are some things, like gas, stocks, etc... that may still need to be sold in smaller increments, but do those things really make the costs and effort of minting and handling pennies, nickels, and dimes, worth it? "I think you're talking about two types of machines, at least in the United States. The term change  machine usually refers to a machine that accepts large denominations of currency and returns an equal amount of currency in smaller bills or coins. Typically these machines are used to provide coins in exchange for paper currency, in which case they are also often known as bill changers. Exactly what bills or coins these machines return depends on the machine. Read the instructions on the machine to get the details (they're usually right on the machine). For example my apartment building has a machine that converts small bills like ones and fives to quarters, since the laundry machines only took quarters. The other type of machine are coin-cashing machines, like the Coinstar machines you might see at a grocery store. Many banks used to have these machines as well although in my area they're few and far between now. These machines perform the opposite function of the traditional change machine and convert smaller denominations (mostly coins) into bill form. For example if you dump all your accumulated pennies into the machine, it will probably give you bills and larger coins like quarters, dimes, nickels in exchange, after subtracting a small fee. I've heard that now, some of these machines may give you a gift card of some kind instead of bills, although they'll still subtract a fee from your original amount, usually. Once again just read the instructions and they should tell you. When my bank had one of these machines, they didn't charge a fee as long as you were a customer at the bank. I'm sure that varies from place to place and bank to bank though. Wikipedia's article has this to say (see the article for references): In some sections of the U.S., regional banks have begun offering free coin-counting services in the amount of a gift card. Refunds are often given in cash rather than in the form of a gift card. In some cases, it is not even necessary for the customer to have an account at the bank; the free service is offered as a way to attract new business from individuals who are not current account holders. TD Bank's ""Penny Arcade"" coin counters were free and available to both customers and non-customers in many branches, but as of November 2010, the bank charges a 6% fee for non-customers to use the machine." "The best I could come up with would be to simply ask for the amount of ""notes"" and ""coins"" you would like, and specify denominations thereof.  The different currency labels exist for the reason that not all of them are valued the same, so USD 100 is not the same as EUR 100. To generalize would mean some form of uniformity in the values, that just isn't there." Goldprice.org has different currencies and historical data. I think silverprice.org also has historical data. "Are you talking about a country besides the US?  And you're talking about a commercial bank, right?  In the US, banks don't buy gold from consumers.  The last time they sort of did (in the early 1900s), they were trading gold coins for gold certificates, and then they later stopped allowing consumers to trade them back.  This is known by a well-known financial term: ""Gotcha, suckers!"" If someone were naive enough to deposit a $50 Gold American Eagle today in a bank, the depositor will get a credit of $50 on their account, and later some clever person will ask the teller if they have any ""strange money"" lying around, and that lucky person will be able to withdraw a $1,700 coin for $50, if it lasted for even a second in the teller's drawer. But let's say you're going to a place that does indeed still buy gold coins. The discount depends on the type of coin, and the type of damage.  An old (collectible) coin has a part of its value set by the gold value, and part by the collector's premium.  Better specimens command better collector's premiums, so a damaged coin, as long as it isn't a chunk of the coin missing, won't be worth less than the melt value.  (You may not get that much from a dealer, but it should be fairly close.)  If part of the coin is missing, then the person buying it should weigh the coin and adjust the price proportionately.  It's likely, though, that if you have the items in a safe, you may have a puddle or blob of gold, but it should still all be there unless someone takes it.  Gold melts at about 1850 degrees Fahrenheit, but it would take half the surface temperature of the sun for it to boil away.  If it's unidentifiable, it may need to be assayed again." "Wikipedia has a nice list of currencies that use ""cents"" and currencies that use 1/100th division that is not called ""cent"". Cent means ""100"" in Latin (and French, and probably all the Roman family of languages), so if the currency is divided by 100 subunits - it will likely to be called ""cent"" or something similar in the local language. The list of currencies (on the same page) where it is not the case is significantly shorter, and includes countries with relatively ancient currency units that were invented before the introduction of the decimal system (even though now they are in fact decimal they still kept the old names, like the British ""pence"" or the Russian ""kopek""). The point is that ""Dollar"" and ""cent"" are not directly related, many currencies that are not called ""Dollar"" are using cents as well (Euro, among others). It just means ""1/100th"", and it is safe to assume that most (if not all) of the modern currencies are divided into 1/100th." I'll try.  First forget everything OP said (your point? yay!).  Gold has value because it is stamped with a value on the front (say, 10 denarius).  This coin can then be used to pay taxes to Rome.  The value of the coin is the stamp value, not the value of the underlying gold.  The seignorage is the difference in price between the underlying metal and the marked value.    Because the coin has a very valuable use (paying taxes) that the metal doesn't have, the government gets to keep the difference between value and coin price.  Paper dollars are just like gold coins with a higher seignorage value. "The general argument put forward by gold lovers isn't that you get the same gold per dollar (or dollars per ounce of gold), but that you get the same consumable product per ounce of gold. In other words the claim is that the inflation-adjusted price of gold is more-or-less constant. See zerohedge.com link for a chart of gold in 2010 GBP all the way from 1265. (""In 2010 GBP"" means its an inflation adjusted chart.) As you can see there is plenty of fluctuation in there, but it just so happens that gold is worth about the same now as it was in 1265. See caseyresearch.com link for a series of anecdotes of the buying power of gold and silver going back some 3000 years. What this means to you: If you think the stock market is volatile and want to de-risk your holdings for the next 2 years, gold is just as risky If you want to invest some wealth such that it will be worth more (in real terms) when you take it out in 40 years time than today, the stock market has historically given better returns than gold If you want to put money aside, and it to not lose value, for a few hundred years, then gold might be a sensible place to store your wealth (as per comment from @Michael Kjörling) It might be possible to use gold as a partial hedge against the stock market, as the two supposedly have very low correlation" "Coins are assets because its the actual money. Notes are liabilities because the Federal Reserve is obligated to pay money on these notes. Basically a Federal Reserve $1 note in your pocket is an ""I OWE YOU"" from the Federal Reserve, not money. While a $1 Susan B is not a ""I OWE YOU"" but the actual $1 worth of currency. Coins are minted by the US Government, the only authority to mint coins and create physical currency in the US. Federal Reserve doesn't mint coins, and doesn't create physical currency in the strict sense. It only prints its own obligations that are accepted as legal tender on par with coins. Printing more of the obligations doesn't create more money, as opposed to what many people are thinking and saying. It only creates more liability for the Federal Reserve. The Fed covers this liabilities with the US Treasury bonds, which it can use to cover its debts, and thus the Fed notes are covered by the US government indirectly. Coins are no longer made of precious metals since the 1960's. Last circulating coin made of silver was the 1969 50 cents coin (40% silver). All the rest of the denominations stopped being made of silver after 1964. Since then precious metals are only used for collectibles and bulions." "The question I think is not: ""What is a certain material worth in a coin"" but ""What is a certain material worth in a coin and how much does it cost to get it out of there"". Just because something contains a certain element doesn't mean that you can get to it cheaply. Also as George Marian said: I don't think that it is legal to melt coins. So if the time comes you would first have to find a company willing to process the coins etc. Also you should not only compare what it is worth now and at a later time but also what that money would be worth if you put it into a high yielding savings account or something like that." "Gold has very useful physical properties for some engineering applications.  Even tiny amounts of gold can substantially improve products, so it can be worthwhile to pay high prices per ounce for gold.  For example: Gold can be ""beaten"" or electroplated to produce very thin shiny coatings.  Entire roofs (of famous buildings) have been covered with ""gold leaf"", at a cost that was small compared to the supporting structure. A very thin layer of electroplated gold provides better protection against corrosion than a much thicker layer of electroplated nickel.  Even if gold costs thousands of times more per ounce than nickel, it is cheaper to use gold as an anti-corrosion layer than nickel (for use in military-grade naval electronics). A thin layer of electroplated gold greatly increases the electrical current-carrying capacity of a thin copper wire." I apply what you term 'money' to the word 'commodity'. And I agree with littleadv, you are just selling us your perspective on (such things as) precious metals.  What I want you to think about is these truths: When used as currency gold just has two values: utility value and currency value. I hold it is better to separate the two.  There is not enough gold in the earth to represent the value in aggregate economies of the world. Trying to go back to the gold standard would only induce an unimaginable hyperinflation in gold.  Recent years shows that gold does not retain value. See the linked chart. "There are a lot of funds that exist only to feed people's belief that existing funds are not diversified or specialized enough.  That's why you have so many options. Just choose the ones with the lowest fees. I'd suggest the following: I wouldn't mess around with funds that try and specialize in ""value"" or those target date funds. If you really don't want to think and don't mind paying slightly higher fees, just pick the target date fund that corresponds to when you will retire and put all your money there. On the traditional/Roth question, if your tax bracket will be higher when you retire than it is now (unlikely), choose Roth.  Otherwise choose traditional."