Buy Gold Bars and Bullion – this gold can be bought from a member of the LBMA as well as various storage services like GoldMoney, BullionVault and Perth Mint Depository.

Pros and Cons of Buying Gold Coins or Small Gold Bars

Gold is widely available through dealers and mints

Gold can be privately held and stored locally

Satisfaction of owning gold that can be seen and handled personally

Gold coins tend to be easily recognisable and popular gold coins are easily bought and sold

Gold content of coin should be known, unless it has been tampered with
Gold bars will need to be tested for gold content if held privately to ensure it has stated gold content

Privately held gold may need to be insured against loss or theft, which may require secure storage facilities or other insurance stipulations

It is possible to inadvertently buy fake gold from less reputable suppliers or gold has less gold content than expected

Usually a small premium is paid for gold and so it is more expensive to buy initially

Selling gold may incur some return cost that the dealer covers through their dealing price spread so again is more expensive

Pros and Cons of Buying Gold and Holding it at Storage Service

Gold held within a storage service is safe and secure and typically insured

Gold content is known because gold will typically stay within storage service and is not privately held

Gold buying and selling costs are typically less than for gold coins and prices quoted are closer to the actual gold price

Storage service will wrap up costs into a regular storage charge that is applied for as long as the gold is stored there. These costs could become substantial

Pros and Cons of Buying Gold Coins or Bullion

Key factors of gold ownership include:

    Buying and selling costs
    Storage, security and insurance costs
    Personal satisfaction from type of gold ownership

For those who want the satisfaction of physical gold ownership:

For modest amounts of gold then gold coins are simple and straightforward and if held for many years the additional buying and selling costs will be relatively insignificant

For larger amounts of gold then using storage services may be more cost effective, especially as it relates to storage and security

In the final analysis there are many different ways to purchase gold and buying it physically involves some additional factors for consideration. These should be considered carefully before making a final decision.