20/20 Program

20/20 Program explained

Nearly three decades ago, Dr. Mike Fuljenz revolutionized the United States rare coin market with the advent of his innovative Select 4 program. It took the antiquated industry standard of recommending every coin under the sun and turned it on its ear by only focusing on four small areas of the market. These areas were chosen based on their, mintage, rarity and surviving populations, combined with consistent demand from collectors and investors. This idea gave Universal Coin and Bullion the ability to closely monitor and support these areas with our exclusive “secret sauce” strategy. Today, the Type 2 and Type 3 $20 Liberty gold coins, $3 Indian Princess gold coins, Indian gold coins of the 20th century and select $10 and $25 American Gold Eagles remain some of the most popular gold coins in the world.

Robert Leuver, the former Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and past Executive Director of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), said,” Count me among Mike Fuljenz's numerous admirers. He is a leader in the coin industry and his picks have consistently outperformed the market.” Recently, COINage Magazine compiled a panel of experts, who named Dr. Fuljenz as one of the Greatest Coin Graders and Authenticators of All Time. He truly is, The Experts’ Expert.

Famous investor, author, media personality and gold buyer Kevin O'Leary once said what he went through in writing a book, stating, “It was much harder than I thought it was going to be and it took a lot longer. I thought it would be a six-month process. It took 18 months and now it’s so much part of my life – the process of doing it – that I miss working on it. I used to spend a couple of hours every day and now I don’t do that anymore.”

That feeling of accomplishment and desire to educate people are two of the reasons Dr. Fuljenz has written eight books on rare coins. Seven of his published works have received national recognition from the prestigious Numismatic Literary Guild (NLG), including an Extraordinary Merit Award, five Investment Book of the Year honors and one award for writing the Overall Book of the Year. These books have historically been coveted not only by collectors and investors but also by other dealers within the industry. We learned long ago that increasing demand through continued education of dealers, collectors and investors, along with market support, are essential ingredients in our “secret sauce”.

In mid-2019, we wanted to further refine our strategy to the greater benefit of our clients. Dr. Fuljenz painstakingly studied every coin within the Select 4 program, looking at each coin in every grade certified by the Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) and the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). He then calculated the overall market capitalization of each coin to decide which pieces would make the cut. From that point., he narrowed our top recommendations using this laser like focus. This refined focus of recommendations is what we now refer to as the “20/20 Program.”

In addition to our antique/pre-1933 recommendations, the other major pillar of the 20/20 Program is our “Key Date” $10 and $25 American Gold Eagles, which are IRA eligible. Despite being a more modern coin type, we were able to apply the same strict market capitalization filters to our American Gold Eagle recommendations to help determine what best fits an investment portfolio. One major advantage these coins provide over other investment products is their IRA/401k eligibility.

To further support the market for our clients, Dr. Fuljenz also bids aggressively to find the best coin for collectors. He and his team of experts (Team Mike) hand-select and inspect every rare coin sold by our company to ensure its quality, authenticity and appearance. Dr. Fuljenz has found that the 20/20 Program, which pinpoints popular coin series with lower mintages and survival rates, often helps boost the demand and value of coins included in the initiative.

When you combine demand from collectors and investors, with the overwhelming demand from qualified plans, it gives these coins three distinct circles of demand that virtually no other coin type can provide. This dual demand from both IRA investors and numismatic coin collectors gives our 20/20 American Gold Eagles not only more growth potential over the mid to long-term life of your IRA or 401k but simultaneously provides more stability than traditional gold and silver bullion. Typically, in traditional investments, to get the type of return our 20/20 American Gold Eagles have historically provided, there is usually a large degree of risk involved. Conversely, to get the type of safety and security they provide, one would almost certainly have to sacrifice profit potential.

Our 20/20 Gold Eagles seem to stand alone as the ultimate lower-risk/high-reward investment. Since the implementation of the 20/20 Program in May 2019, many of our recommendations have outpaced even the gold bull market, increasing in value by 100 percent, or more. Because of our strategy, you don’t need an increase in gold for your coins to do well. In fact, many of them rose significantly in value even when the gold bullion price fell nearly 20 percent from 2020 to 2022. That’s why we believe the performance we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg … regardless of what happens in the precious metals market or the stock market.

Obviously, past performance does not indicate future performance or mitigate risk entirely, as all investments carry inherent risks that could result in loss. While the past doesn't guarantee the future, we cannot ignore the lessons that it can teach us. Like Mark Twain reportedly said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it sure rhymes a lot.” Whether you are adding to a collection, bolstering your investment portfolio or interested in protecting and growing your IRA, our 20/20 Program American Gold Eagles are a perfect fit.