One is trying to “get rich quick” with precious metals holdings. Experienced investor/ collectors learn early in the game that it’s long term investment that pays off in truly safe preservation and growth of capital. In other words, they realize that the only things that happen fast are death and taxes -- and they’re certainly not looking forward to either of those. Anything else, trying to get rich at all, much less quickly, is going to take time, a little bit of luck and lots of patience and effort.

Another mistake is checking the value of their holdings each and every day - if not each and every hour -- trying to stay on top of the situation.

These two actions are like jumping on the scale every two minutes to see if you‘ve reached your weight goal after going on a diet. They’re just needless and non-productive actions. Jumping on the scale many times a day won‘t speed up the weight loss. Constant worry about your investments and/or the many variables that can affect them will not provide any hint of investment success. Once you have made your coin investment decisions, just sitting and doing nothing is much more productive in the long run than running around like a worry-wart. Here’s why:

Astute investor/collectors know that the only times the value of gold, silver, rare coins - in fact, any healthy investment medium - is meaningful at all is on the day it is bought and on the day it is sold. At any other time, those figures are only numbers on paper.

There are many unpredictable events - some barely noticed, some in the daily headlines - others simply blips on the great cosmic all of life, that may or may not affect the value of an investment: blips such as inflation, war, political unrest, the price of corn futures - you name it, it will probably have an effect on the value of your precious metals or rare coin holdings, or for that matter, the stock market, and everybody’s life, in general.

The latest example of current events impact on our lives, of course, are the Middle East uprisings that began in Tunisia and then spread to other countries in the area - the most notable being Egypt, which has resulted in the resignation of Hosni Sayyid Mubarak, longtime president of Egypt, who often referred to himself as the “Last Pharaoh.”

I recently only knew three things about Egypt and Mubarak being a “pharaoh” certainly wasn’t one of them. There’s the Sphinx, the Pyramids and orange marmalade. That’s right. I recently bought a jar of the best marmalade I ever tasted in the local dollar store and, much to my surprise, the label noted “Made In Egypt.” My big worry isn’t about my precious metals, it’s whether I’ll still be able to get that marmalade.

With Mubarak’s resignation the United States lost an ally in the area and many a trepidatious investor/collector seems to have lost his/her nerve and focus.

“Is gold poised for a fall?” some whine. “Should I sell my holdings before there’s another uprising somewhere?” another nervous Nellie asked, wringing his hands helplessly about the whole situation.

If that sounds suspiciously like you, my friend, I have to say, come on, folks, man up. Have faith in your decisions and in your investments. Gold, silver, rare coins and other high-quality numismatic investments have traditionally held their value through good times and bad.

Let’s not panic at each political bump in the road, and, as one erudite writer put it succinctly, “run off in all directions.” Political turmoil is just another one of those unwelcome parts of life, as are war, depressions, recessions, inflation and stupidity, any of which could (and probably will) affect the value of our holdings. But rising or falling markets should not be a cause for knee-jerk reactions among us investor/collectors.

What’s the worst that could happen? The value of your precious metals portfolio could be down a bit from what it is today - or was yesterday. So what! Big deal! If you’re not planning to sell your holdings on that day, its value will probably top out again soon. And, even if you are selling on that sad day, you can be thankful you still have something of value to sell. There are many folks who have no assets on hand at all.

And let’s consider the history of gold which, despite a few ups and downs , has traditionally remained an excellent hedge against inflation, economic collapse and political upheaval. In fact, during the Second World War and the War in Vietnam—in fact, throughout history, gold coins helped many folks buy their way out of an occupied country to safety.

“Gold is” (and always has been) “an insurance policy and the cost of insurance has been going up” said Vladeem Zlotnikov, chief market strategist at Alliance Bernstein Research, referring to the recent rise in the price of the precious metal.

So far, despite Mubarak’s resignation, the price of gold has not only held steady, it has risen slightly. And so has the value of an investor/ collector’s portfolio.

Should that investor/collector add more of the precious yellow metal to that portfolio? Only he (or she) can make that decision. However, two financial experts have expressed their opinions in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal.

Leo Larkin, equity metals analyst with Standard & Poor’s Corp. in New York thinks gold prices will continue higher and investors still have an opportunity to make gains.

“Gold competes against riskless assets such as Treasury bills, which are yielding next to nothing,” he points out.

Again, John Steffens, founder of an investment-management firm in New York, said that despite gold’s cost (due to recent highs) it still has a place in a portfolio as a hedge against the unexpected.

“Just don’t expect it to go up 30 per cent every year,” he added with a sly wink. Astute investor/collectors realize it probably won’t do that.

But then again, it could. That’s all part of the unexpected, and the excitement of a longterm, steady precious metals investment plan. Remember, gold is not just sitting around waiting for a chance to plummet. Despite political uprisings, it could also soar.

Onwards and upwards was my one of my teacher’s favorite phrase. It should also be a motto for today’s astute investor/collector.- Glovsky