Dabbling with gold

[Englander]

So, I have too much money and not enough to spend it on. Thus, I've decided I want to dabble in investing, which has led me to looking at gold coins (Britannias in particular). I have very little knowledge about gold and investing other than a few google searches, so could anyone shed light onto the pros and cons of buying gold coins over gold bars? I'm looking at buying an ounce and it will be a long term investment.

Furthermore, Britannias are only 22 carat gold (alloyed with silver since 1990, for those interested). Does this mean that the coin will weigh a spot more than 1 troy ounce to compensate for the lack of perfect purity, i.e. so that the end result contains a troy ounce of 24 carat gold? Or, will the coin be exactly 1 troy ounce (thus not actually containing one ounce of .999 gold due to the extra silver content)? I'm not really sure how this all works and would be grateful if someone could clear it up.

Thanks, Michael

[Fraz]

lol - I really want to see just how many people can explain the details of being a gold investor...

[Agent]

I saw the title and almost hit the red button then.....thought it was going to be a WoW gold bot

[Zak33]

I only know about Adena

[Stoo]

I must admit, a few of us at work were wondering how difficult it would be to invest in gold..

I think it put us off when we found that a kilo ingot costs about £13k..

1 Ounce isn't too bad at around £440 though..

Edit: Actually, just found the info you were looking for..

The following coins are available which contain 1 troy ounce of fine gold. Some of these are 24 carat gold, some are 22 carat, but all contain exactly the same amount of pure gold. They are also available in half, quarter and tenth ounce sizes:

* Britannias
British coin from the UK Royal Mint
* Maples
Fine gold from the Canadian Royal Mint
* Eagles
Flown in from the USA
* Philharmonikers
From the Austrian Mint in Vienna in fine gold
* Nuggets
Original "Natural Gold Nugget" or "Kangaroo / Wallaby" designs from Australia
* Krugerrands
The original one ounce bullion coin
* Pandas
Take away a Chinese Giant Panda
* Buffalos
Fine gold (.9999) from the USA
* Lunar Calendar Series - Australian
Original Chinese lunar calendar designs from the Perth Mint
* Manx Cat Crowns
For cat lovers, with different breeds and types of cats, kittens, and moggies
* Manx Gold Angels
Saint Michael slaying the dragon. Not currently produced, but available spasmodically.

[Whiternoise]

I imagine 1 troy ounce is all you get, nothing over.

If you buy a 22 carat coin, you'll get 22 carats - since it's a unit of weight rather than gold content.

[Englander]

I must admit, a few of us at work were wondering how difficult it would be to invest in gold..

I think it put us off when we found that a kilo ingot costs about £13k..

1 Ounce isn't too bad at around £440 though..

Lol, yea it's not the cheapest metal in the world Hence the reason why I'm looking at an ounce which I believe should only cost me (very) approximately £650 after I pay a premium over the spot price.

Regarding the weight, what confuses me is that on the coin it claims to be "fine gold", which wikipedia (brilliant source, I know ) implies only refers to 24 carat - "Therefore 24-carat gold is fine (99.9% Au w/w), 18-carat gold is 75% gold, 12-carat gold is 50% gold, and so forth". The description from the Royal mint page then goes to say it's only 22 carat. Would a 22 carat gold coin (i.e. Britannia) then be worth less than a 24 carat Canadian Maple?

EDIT: just got your edit, that's exactly what I wanted to know! You've rendered this whole post fairly useless!

[Stoo]

I think they get around it by the fact that it has the same amount of pure gold in it (1 troy ounce), but it has impurities, so the coin is made slightly larger to make up for it.

The site I was looking at had sell prices all around the same price for all the coins, with slight premiums made on the slightly more collectable coins - all of which were slightly above the price of bullion..

I'm quite tempted by the Canadian 99.999% pure Maple Leaf from 2007

[HSK]

While over in Dubai recently, I was told if currency goes down, the price of gold goes up. I have no idea if what I was told is even true.

So sorry for not being much help

[Englander]

While over in Dubai recently, I was told if currency goes down, the price of gold goes up. I have no idea if what I was told is even true.

So sorry for not being much help

Yea, I've read that poor economic climate pushes gold up becase gold is generally a safer investment as it isn't subject to inflation like standard currency is.

Or something like that, at least

@Stoo: that's what I suspected; make the coins slightly larger to account for the less pure gold. That pretty much clears up the whole weight issue then

[Stoo]

*nod*

I'm quite tempted by this one too:

[streetster]

i got a good deal on some of these from the supermarket:



they were 99p which i thought was a bargain

[Stoo]

lol, I used to get them at Christmas and hang them on the tree.. then sneakily get the chocolate out and leave the wrapper in place

[Stringent]

lol, I used to get them at Christmas and hang them on the tree.. then sneakily get the chocolate out and leave the wrapper in place

I used to do that. Took a few attempts to get it right though!

[Englander]

To say I'm pro-England is an understatement, hence the reason I'm specifically looking at Britannias . I like the picture on the reverse, too. (I've developed a thing for coins since I started trying to get the whole set of shield coins a week or two ago. Only the 50p left to go )

[Stoo]

I've got dual nationality, so I can be equally patriotic