Buying Gold Bullion?

The vast majority of investors strongly advise not to buy bullion bars. Although the markups and commission are marginally more on coins than on bars, difficulties come up when the time comes to sell the bullion. Most dealers will want to see the bullion bars before purchasing it from you due to problems with counterfeiting. Some will not buy them unless they give it an assay, a chemical analysis that determines the purity of the gold. Most of the time, gold firms will not set the resale price until after the bars have been sent to be inspected in their depository or location. This presents a problem for the client if he is anxious to get a price and discovers that it can’t be done until after the buyer receives the bars. Bullion bars could also present problems for the people who are hoping to trade gold for merchandise in the situation of an economic breakdown, because the person receiving the gold bullion doesn’t have a way of knowing if the bars are real or counterfeit.

We advise our clients not to purchase gold bullion bars because of these exchange and trade difficulties. The marginal added price on gold bullion coins is a minor price to pay when weighed against the potential problems that owning gold bullion bars could have. From the time of Lydia’s Croesus, who was the first person to mint gold coins and from whom the legend of Mydas Touch was created, the coining of gold has served to standardize purity and weight and that way make commerce and trade easier. The coins first minted by Croesus are the ascendants of modern gold bullion coins which are used in our times.