With the sale of an uncirculated specimen of the rare R5 Mandela 90th birthday coins in the grade of MS-69 for 2.5 million rand and the sale of a proof 70 at R125 000. These coins are internationally acknowledged as being the fastest appreciating rare coins in the history of the world. The MS-69 grew at a staggering 49.9 million percent in total or 12.4 million percent per annum and the proof 70 at 900% in total or 225% per annum. This is a trend that we expect to continue for many, many years ahead.

We expect the proof 70 90th birthday coin to be selling at R500 000 by the end of the year.

The South African public en masse without any encouragement at all absorbed a staggering 2.5 million units of the rare R5 90th birthday Mandela coins when these coins were issued to the banks for circulation. To put this statistic into perspective the US rare coin market is the largest in the world and the largest single number of any particular coin that the US mint have ever sold is below 500 000 units. The domestic demand for the rare R5 coins and also specifically for the R5 90th birthday Mandela coins has never been engineered nor created by any one person. It is an enormous market force that is present in South Africa and also in all countries out of South Africa. Simply put it is the desire of all peoples to collect and invest in anything that is directly related to Nelson Mandela.

We expect the proof 69 90th birthday coin to be selling at R100 000 by the end of the year.

When these coins were released there was almost a national mass hysteria by all South Africans to get as many specimens of these coins as they could. Demand for these coins was so great that it soon became abundantly clear that none of these coins would ever even get placed into circulation. The South African public made it very clear that they were collecting these coins and placing them away for the future. Even the South African Finance minister and also the Reserve Bank Governor urged South Africans to place these coins in circulation so that they could be used to celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday through they're being used in our daily transactions with money. But very, very few of these coins were ever circulated. South Africans were certain that these coins would be worth far more than their face value in the future and they were not going to use them as money. They were not wrong. Today you will not get a single specimen of the birthday Mandela R5 coins at anywhere near their face value when it has been kept in good condition and not touched by hand.

Time magazine celebrating Nelson Mandela at 90.

The rare R5 Mandela coins dominate the South African rare coin market. They account today for 90% of all of the rare coins that are sold in South Africa. The market for the rare R5 Mandela coins is in it's infancy only being a mere 18 years old. With the market for the rare R5 Mandela coins continuing to grow at an exponential basis with no slowing at all. Most of the specimens of the 2.5 million rare R5 Mandela Birthday coins have been purchased from banks in bags of as little as 10 coins. These coins due to the education of the investors and the collectors of the rare R5 coins by S A Coin have been untouched. The education being the we told all investors and collectors of these coins that in order to get graded and have a rarity value the coin must never be touched by hand. At this time over 140 000 units of the birthday rare coins have been graded through PCGS, NGC and ANACS the world's leading grading companies. This number is growing by the thousands of units per month.

The rare R5 90th birthday Mandela coins are the most numerously graded rare coins of all of the rare coins in South Africa. This is very important and also of great benefit to the entire market for the rare R5 Mandela coins. Whilst a rare coin is only as rare as its numbers are small and its having the highest grade possible. Proof coins and also uncirculated coins are graded on a ten point scale from in the case of proof coins, proof 70 to proof 60. And in the case of mint state or uncirculated coins from mint state 70 to 60. The grade of 70 being a perfect grade and 60 being the lowest grade. For many that are unaware of how the rare coin market works they may find that they think that the graded number of 140 000 units is a negative. It is quite the contrary. It is true to say that rare coins are only as rare or few their numbers and as high as their grade. In other words it would be best at all times to buy the coin with the highest grade at all times.

But the market force that has an enormous influence on the market for any rare coins is the number of investors and collectors in a market for they greatly influence the prices of the coins that are the most rare. For example there are only 12 MS-69 rare R5 90th birthday Mandela coins in the highest known grade with over 140 000 of these coins graded in total. This is the largest number of investors and collectors participating in the entire South African rare coin market in any specific sector. It is also important to note that that the number of submissions is growing by thousands of units per month. There are simply no other South African rare coins that can even hope to try and compete with this enormously powerful statistic. The most powerful statistic is the 2.5 million units that have been placed away by the South African public. Which means that in all likelihood that we will see in the next couple of years up to 500 000 units being graded with that number increasing to as many as 1 - 2 million units in the future. The more of the coins of any issue that get graded the more powerful the market for those coins. The 140 000 is largely accounted for in the lower grades of the coins with the numbers getting smaller and smaller as they get to the grade of 70.

Nelson Mandela has a laugh as he reads one of his many birthday cards.

It is therefore of great benefit to all of the investors and collectors that invest in the mint state and proof rare R5 90th birthday rare Mandela coins as they have a recent massive foundation of over 140 000 graded units in just 3 years. Simply put you have taking into consideration that investors and collectors of the rare R5 90th birthday Mandela coins have more than one coin and there are over 140 000 coins graded in mint state there are potentially 105 000 investors and collectors in the market place. The estimated number of 105 000 being 75% of 140 000. This is the largest number of investors and collectors of any segment of the South African rare coin market. A statistic that is growing by thousands per month. All of whom would like to buy the best graded coins if they are able to do so. In the mint state coins the finest known are 12 specimens in MS-69, 97 specimens of the MS-68 and 23 321 of the MS-67. Therefore the total pressure of the 140 000 of the mint state coins places the greatest pressure on the 12 specimens of the mint state 69 coins driving their prices higher and higher as the number of 140 000 graded units continues to grow.

This is where a huge opportunity awaits those for those invest in the rare R5 Mandela 90th birthday proof coins. They only minted 5 000 of these coins as opposed to 2.5 million of the mint state coins. There have already been graded by PCGS, NGC and ANACS over 3 914 of these specimens. These means that there are very few of these coins left to be graded. Which means that few coins will enter the market place placing a very large amount of demand and pressure on a small amount of coins. In proof 70 there are only 58, in proof 69 there are 1 964 and 996 in proof 68.

The coins that are offering the greatest opportunity for profit in the marketplace this year are the proof 70 birthday Mandela coins and also the proof 69 birthday Mandela coins. For they are at the very apex of the most rare of all of the rare R5 Mandela coins that have been minted to date. With only 5 000 of these coins minted. They minted over 25 000 of the proof R5 Mandela 1994 Inauguration coins and over 40 000 of the Mandela R5 Presidential 2 000 coin. We are projecting that the proof 70 birthday Mandela coins will be selling for R500 000 at the end of the year and the proof 69 coins at R100 000. It is also very important to note that there is no tax paid on the profits that you make from any of the R5 Mandela coins.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela holds a five Rand coin during it's launch at the Mandela foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday, July 7, 2008, to celebrate Mandela's 90th birthday. The coin features a portrait of Mandela, and will go into circulation on Friday, July 18, 2008, Mandela's birthday.

When watching or closely observing a market there are some questions that are not as easily answered as one would like. The question of why the R5 90th birthday coins are the favourite R5 coins of all of the R5 coins that have been minted to date is one of these. The Mandela birthday coins are without doubt the most beautiful of all of the R5 coins. This leads many to speculate that the coins are the most sought after for their sheer beauty. Whilst others speculate that the coins are the most favoured for the nature of they're striking. The 90th birthday of one of the most admired men in the entire history of the world. There can be no doubt that everyone in South Africa and also the entire world looked at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday in a very welcoming and fond manner. He had the 46664 concert in Hyde Park London that year and the whole world was watching as one dignitary after another paid tribute to this great man.

The birthday Mandela coins have also been struck in the bi metallic formation of the Euro a particular striking design. The birthday Mandela coins are widely regarded in South Africa and also internationally as one of the most beautiful South African coins ever struck and possibly the most beautiful South African coin ever struck. In the United States which has the largest rare coin market in the world and also other countries investors and collectors quickly become acquainted with the word 'eye appeal'. What this means is that when you are placing several coins of the same series adjacent to one another the specimens that basically look the best to the eye. So in the rare coin market the beauty of a coin or how good it looks certainly plays a role in the demand for a coin.

Nelson Mandela appearing on the huge screen at the 46664 concert.

All markets are determined by numbers and the larger the numbers the more powerful the market. With 2.5 million units having being absorbed by the general South African public there could potentially be graded over two million units of these coins in the future. That means that you will have enormous pressure from the holders of the 2 million graded units to pair these coins with the only 5 000 proof specimens of the birthday Mandela coins. At this time there are already 140 000 units of the 2.5 million coins that have been graded. Making these coins the most numerously held graded coins in the entire South African rare coin market. This also makes these coins the most widely collected and as a percentage the largest section of the South African rare coin market.

International markets are not determined for South Africans coins overseas but domestically. When overseas investors look at South African coins like the rare Mandela R5 coins they look to the local market to determine how they invest. The international markets have mirrored our local market and shown that they too favour the birthday Mandela R5 coins more than any other of the Mandela R5 coins. In the near future it is the intention of S A Coin to market the R5 rare Mandela coins broadly overseas. International investors and collectors will be looking to accumulate as many of the 5 000 proof birthday rare coins know that they are the best supported and the overwhelming favourite of the entire series of these coins.

There are certain mechanisms that determine all markets. In the rare coin market it is not only important that you buy the highest grade coin that you can to get the highest growth. It is also important that you form a set of coins that you are buying. Coin investing and also collecting has always achieved the highest growth by forming a complete set of the coins that you are investing or collecting in the highest grades possible. Essentially what long term investors and collectors would be doing is forming a complete R5 Mandela set. This would be a single example in the highest grade that you can afford of one of each of the Mandela coins that was ever struck in both proof and also uncirculated or mint state. That would mean that you would have in a complete rare R5 Mandela set a mint state R5 1994 Inauguration coin, a proof R5 1994 coin, a mint state R5 Mandela presidential 2 000 coin, a proof R5 Mandela 2 000 coin, a mint state R5 Mandela 2008 coin and a R5 Mandela birthday proof 2008 coin. This would mean that a complete rare R5 Mandela coin set would consist of 6 coins in total. That means that all of the people that are investing and collecting in the rare R5 Mandela 90th birthday sets should have a proof R5 Mandela birthday coin as well as one that is in mint state in the highest grades you can afford.

Whilst a complete rare R5 Mandela set would consist of 6 coins many investors and collectors will be initially compiling sets of the year that they started buying. In the example of the R5 birthday Mandela coins this would be a mint state version and proof version of that year. This is where you can start to see the potential of the proof Mandela birthday coins. In the future most of the rare R5 Mandela coins will be marketed in the form of complete sets because they are more valuable than single coins. This means that there will be considerable pressure on the prices of the 5 000 minted Mandela birthday proofs by the 2.5 million mint state Mandela birthday coins chasing 5 000 coins to form a complete Mandela set. There will only ever be 5 000 complete Mandela sets out of 2.5 million potential partnering coins. Complete sets of any coins are known to sell for up to 50% above the prices that you could get for the coins if they were sold separately.


Guests like Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Leona Lewis, Forest Whitaker,Naomi Campbell, Robert DeNiro, Uma Thurman, Jaa Pinkett Smith and Bill Clinton attended a the dinner in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrating his 90th birthday, at Hyde Park on June 25, 2008 in London, England. The dinner raised funds for Madiba's global charity projects, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and 46664.

There are few incontrovertible facts that anyone that is a participant in the R5 rare Mandela coins should be aware of. Firstly the R5 Mandela rare coin market is a creation of all South Africans and a significant amount of the international community. It was South Africans that started the rare R5 Mandela market 18 years ago with the mass collecting of the 1994 inauguration R5 coin that was minted for Nelson Mandela in 1994. Without anyone telling South Africans they started to collect every single specimen of the R5 Mandela inauguration coins that they could. Soon after the coins release these coins were so widely collected that you could not readily find one in your change. The demand for these coins was so high that at one stage it was widely commented through the South African public that the coins were worth R50. A whole R45 over their face value the very year that they were minted.

This posed a significant market force for all of the participants in the South African rare coin market to identify. Namely that there was a very large domestic demand for South African rare coins that had any association with Nelson Mandela both locally and also internationally. It was S A Coin that with the sale a few years later of graded 2 000 rare R5 Mandela proof coins that educated the country as to how to determine if the R5 Mandela coin that they had was indeed rare and sought after. This was simply done by informing investors and collectors in rare R5 Mandela coins that the coins had to be untouched by human hand and then graded. If any of the coins that they had were circulated i.e. passed from hand to hand they were worth their face value of R5. But if the coins were untouched and they were graded they would be sold for a price far and above their face value.

It is also important to note that there is no way that the grading statistics can be manipulated. They are compiled by the largest grading companies in the world. The grading of all of the coins of a particular series of coins like the R5 Mandela coins allows all of the participants of that market to easily see which of the coins are the most rare. The coins with the highest grades are always the coins that have the smallest number graded. The coins with the lower grades always have the largest number of coins graded. All rare coins in the United States the worlds largest rare coin market are graded by three major US grading companies they are PCGS, NGC and ANACS. These are the only grading companies that S A Coin uses to have the R5 coins graded. The vast majority of all of the 10 000 con dealers in the United States only sell coins that have been graded by the three aforementioned companies.

The Springboks celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.

S A Coin did not create R5 Mandela coin market. This was done by millions and millions of South Africans that decided that these coins would possibly be rare in the future and command a price above their face value. South Africa has a population of around 60 million people and a very significant number of South Africans hold R5 Mandela coins. S A Coin was the first company in South Africa to introduce to the country the grading systems that protect the coins and allow investors and collectors to determine whether a coin is rare or not. Quite simply put if all of the R5 Mandela coins were ungraded and not placed into the internationally recognised and accepted grading capsules they would not be rare but all command the same price. Once the coins are graded from in the case of the uncirculated coins from mint state 60 to mint state 70 and in the case of the proof coins from proof 60 to proof 70. This allows all of the investors and collectors to see how many of the coins are available in the various grades.

In other words investors and collectors can determine how rare a coin is. The amount of coins graded is referred to as a population number. All of these statistics are made readily available to the public. The coins of the highest grades have the smallest number. With the coins of the lower grades having the highest numbers. The lower the number of any particular coin graded the higher the price that will be attained for that coin.

The reason that the rare R5 Mandela coins have the capability and the potential to be the most rare and sought after coins in the world is simple. All the people of South Africa and the world have shown already that there is an enormous global market for rare Mandela coins. The only Mandela coins that are rare or that have the ability to be rare are the Mandela R5 coins. This is because as I have said before it is only currency coins that bear the image of Nelson Mandela or that are associated with him that can become rare. There are a plethora of Mandela coins and medallions that have been produced by the South African mint and various mints around the world. None of these coins or medallions will ever be rare or have the ability to be rare for they are not official currency coins that can be used as a commercial currency.

This means that the only coins that can be marketed in South Africa or abroad as rare Mandela coins are the R5 Mandela coins. There was always Kiwi fruit in New Zealand but it was only in recent times that the Kiwi fruit came to be marketed internationally. Today there is not a fruit salad that you will see in any prestigious hotel that does not adorn the Kiwi fruit. It took years and years of marketing for New Zealand to build markets for this fruit. We South Africans sit on one of the greatest international marketing opportunities in the world and that is to create broad international markets of investors and collectors for the rare R5 Mandela coins. We already have a significant amount of international investors and collectors for these coins and they are as receptive to the investing and collecting of the rare R5 Mandela coins as South Africans.

Aug. 2 2008 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela, flanked by African President Thabo Mbeki, right, and ANC President Jacob Zuma, left, cuts a birthday cake at the Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, South Africa for a celebration of Mandela's 90th birthday, organized by the African National Congress.

Nelson Mandela is a global icon and not just a South African one and as such there is huge demand for anything that is related or associated with Nelson Mandela from the international community. A hand painting by Nelson Mandela was recently sold for £200 000. The Mandela R5 coins provide the only reasonably affordable collectable that is directly associated with Nelson Mandela.

The domestic market for the rare R5 Mandela coins was created by South Africans and not by any company or individual. S A Coin has only played a role to market to the general public in South Africa and abroad the rare R5 Mandela coins that they desired. This has been done in the form of graded coins that are internationally acknowledged by the vast majority of all of the coin dealers of the entire world that invest and collect in rare coins and market these to their clients.

S A Coin over the past 5 years has sold over R100 million rand of the rare R5 Mandela coins. Mandela R5 coins account for over 90% of all of the rare coin sales in South Africa. The R100 million rand in sales pales in comparison to the multi billion rand international and domestic market that has been created by South Africans. The rare R5 Mandela coins have made thousands and thousands of South Africans and international collectors and investors in these coins vast amounts of money. This will continue to be the case for decades and decades to come.