Lets get straight into it...
For thousands of years Gold and Silver has been used as money. Gold has always been a favoured investment to hedge your portfolio against inflation. Gold and Silver prices in the world market have remain fairly stable through times of instability, recession and currency fluctuations.
Investing in gold silver can be done through purchasing physical gold and silver bullion in the form of bars or rounds, minted gold coins. Physical purchase of gold and silver are sold by authorized dealers at premium ranging from 2% - 15% in prices. Some online dealer sell coins and bullion at a lower premium in comparison to some brick and mortar retailer. The brick and mortar I would suggest for a first time buyer, for a hands on experience to have the physical bar or coin. Gold and silver can be invested in other forms such as owing shares in gold and silver mining companies are available and various types of gold and silver funds or ETF's that are managed by professional investors.
Holding at least a small percentage of your stock portfolio in gold bullion is always a good idea. The relatively stable price of gold can help insure your investment portfolio against economic instability. Gold bullion prices may fluctuate over the years but gold investments are highly unlikely to get devalued and have performed well over recent years.
Gold and Silver coins/bars have a legal tender face value in the countries currency that they were minted, and can be easier to dispose of if you need to liquidate your gold assets. Many types of bullion, rounds or coins are available to purchase, such as American Eagles, Canadian Maples, Australian Gold coins, Chinese Gold Pandas and many more.
Gold bullion bars are available in many different sizes up to 400 ounce size. The 400 oz bullion gold bar is the London Good Delivery bar size. Good delivery bars must meet certain specifications, they must weigh between 350oz – 430oz and be of a minimum purity of 99.5% pure Gold. These London Good Delivery bullion bars are normally held by central banks and not usually held by smaller private investors.
Mining shares can be lucrative but their performance depends on the success of the mine and the general standing of the mining company you are investing in. Therefore mining stocks may not follow the general trend of the gold fix market, but can outperform the market if the mining company is particularly successful.
A precious metals gold managed fund can provide a more diverse gold stocks portfolio. The funds manger may invest in various precious metals and gold shares spreading any risk between a selection of stocks. There are other types of precious metals available that also investor can invest in such as Silver, Platinum and Palladium as well as gold stocks.
Billion Bars Vs Coins.
The most cost effective way to invest in physical gold and silver is to buy larger bullion bars. Gold Silver bullion in bar form offers the lowest gold dealers percentage over the gold market price, depending on the bars size the dealers premium over fix can be as low as 2% – 5%. Compared to the premium on various gold and silver coins of between 7% – 20% or more bullion bars appear much more attractive financially. Although the fact that gold and silver bullion rounds or coins are much more liquid than bars may sway your decision to purchase bars.
Coins can be disposed of on the open market fairly easily and quickly in comparison to large bars. Coins are also much easier for the smaller investor or private individual to obtain and to store. There is also the collectable and historical value that coins have against bullion bars.