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I’m normally reluctant to mention my own investments in my blog, because one’s motive can be easily misconstrued. But as some readers will already be aware, I have a fair degree of exposure in my portfolio to tangible assets, particularly rare coins.

While most of this is via my own coin collection, I also have exposure to this particular collectables market through a long-standing shareholding in Avarae Global Coins. (AVR)

Avarae is a listed investment company that invests in high end coins of a quality that, if I wanted to buy them physically, would be way beyond my fiscal reach.

I mention this only because, in the last two trading days, Avarae’s shares have risen 15%, although even at the current price of 11.75p they are still at a discount of 17% to the last published NAV. It is entirely possibly that published NAV will increase again before too many months elapse.

The company’s year-end is at the end of March and a new set of accounts should be published in the summer.

The strength in this little company is not an isolated instance, however.

Shares in Noble Investments (NBL), the listed coin dealer that manages Avarae’s portfolio and in which it has a percentage stake in the ‘teens, are up by 14.5% in the last month and 65.9% since the beginning of last year. Stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons' (SGI) shares are up by 9.2% and 18.8% respectively over the same period.

I don’t think this can be coincidence. There is a dynamic underlying recent movements like this which is nothing to do with bullion prices or a flight to physical assets. Bullion prices represent a small fraction of the value of rare gold coins, for example.

The message is basically coming loud and clear from auction results that high-value rarities, whether stamps or coins, attract substantial investment from affluent collectors in the USA, Russia, China, India and the Middle East.

Noble’s auction of the stunning Prospero Collection of more than 600 rare ancient coins in New York on January 4 2012, for example, saw the marathon eight-hour sale produce a total of over $25m, more than pre-sale estimates.

This pattern has been repeated in stamps and in some sections of the art market. Stanley Gibbons index of rare Chinese stamps shows prices tripling in five years. Its index of GB Rarities has taken 14 years to register the same gain, but that’s still a compound annual gain of nearly 11%.

It might be a bit late in the day to chase prices too much higher in either category. Stamps underwent a major bubble in the late 1970s, and contemporary art prices and wine have proved pretty cyclical in times of financial crisis.

There are also hefty transaction costs involved in buying and selling physical investments like this. Conventional shares may do better from now on.

But as long as auction results continue to reflect the enthusiasm of wealthy collectors in the way they have in the last couple of years, shares like Stanley Gibbons, Noble and Avarae will continue to prosper. 

For more from The Colonel and others, take a look at Interactive Investor's share trading blogs.

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Tangible assets – a double-sided coin?