Coins that can be 'spent like money' are worth their face value, no matter how much you paid for them, PROVIDED they are actual US mintings and NOT from one of those other 'mints'. If I were to buy gold, I'd buy for weight rather than currency, but even at that, it's probably going to be nearly impossible to find someone to actually give you 'going rate' for the gold, or even give you what you paid for it in the first place. remember that gold is not currency.