Gold: How to invest safely in this financial crisis?

Investors who prefer to own physical Gold that they can see and touch have multiple ways to achieve that comfort level. But when stacking up the choices, bullion appears to have the edge over coins for investors who also think about selling as much as acquiring.

“Everyone should keep a little physical at hand,” said Adrian Ash, head of research with London-based BullionVault. “The problem with using coins or small bars for the bulk of your precious metals is threefold: cost, liquidity and security.”

Either way, it’s clear buyers who want physical gold have an array of purchase options to pick through. And these choices come at a time when buyers clamor for owning the real thing.

“We’re seeing an increase in demand by investors for gold ownership in all forms,” said William Rhind, managing director of ETF Securities US.

Gold coins, the smallest of the physical units, can be bought in some surprising venues, said New York City-based attorney David Ganz, a past president of the American Numismatic Association and an expert in the gold market over a period of decades.

“There are even machines at airports that have them,” Ganz said. “I was at an airport in South Africa where I saw them. Cape Town has vending machines where you can buy gold in about half-ounce increments.”

Many vending machines for gold have also popped up in Europe and Asia.

Yet the precise form of gold ownership might not matter as much as making sure to be an owner of the metal, Ganz opined.

“I’m a strong proponent of gold ownership, whether in bullion form, ingots, bars, rounds, an ounce or more, or coins,” Ganz said.

The channels of ownership have proliferated along with the remarkable jump in the price of precious metals such as Gold and silver. This may seem something of a throwback to the past in an era of gold and Silver ownership through financial instruments like ETFs.

“The advantage of coins, bars and bullion is they are physical,” Rhind said. “The disadvantage of an ETF is it is not tangible. You can’t see or touch or hold the gold.”

Experts also point to advantages and disadvantages in owning coins compared with bullion.

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Posted by admin on Dec 17 2011. Filed under Gold predictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry