Of Gold & Silver

If you’re interested in investing in gold–or just putting your money into it for a while to avoid inflation–then you’ll want to look at gold bullion.  This is what investors buy.

What Is Gold Bullion?

Gold bullion is highly pure gold, and while the purity varies from issue to issue, 99.999% is considered the best.  (100% pure bullion isn’t possible, so beware of someone trying to pass off their gold to you as 100% pure!)  You’ll often see the 99 dropped off and the bullion marked as .999 (the 99% part is assumed).

Gold bullion doesn’t refer to the shape of the gold itself, but you’ll usually find it poured into bars or coins.

Bars can be any size from 1 gram to 400 troy ounces, with 1 ounce bars being common.

There are a number of investment-grade gold bullion coins out there.  Examples include one-ounce Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coins and American Eagle Gold Bullion coins.

Where to Buy Gold Bullion

If you’re ready to get started investing in gold, then you may be wondering how to buy some.  I have to confess that I bought my first ounce from eBay.  The online sites I was checking were all sold out, or had very large unaffordable bars for sale (sorry, I couldn’t afford a kilo for my first purchase!).

eBay was a mistake, though, because I paid well over spot and also had to pay for shipping.

You’ll probably get the best deals by finding a local coin dealer.  After I’d purchased my overpriced gold on eBay, I thought to check for dealers in my area and found out there was not only a coin dealer but a mint less than 50 miles from where I lived.  I could purchase gold and silver bars or coins made in their mint (the best deal, but sometimes it’s better to purchase from a bigger mint that is recognized worldwide), and they also had bars and coins from well-recognized mints.

When you buy bullion, you can expect to pay higher than spot ($30 is common but it can be more when precious metals are being snapped up and are harder to come by), since the dealer has to make his cut, but don’t pay ridiculous amounts.  When it comes to investing, bars are just as good as coins, and they are usually less expensive.