What Should I Know About Investing in Gold?

Physical gold and paper gold are two ways you can invest in gold and there are several ways to go about doing this.  Your goals, objectives, and time frames will determine what type of gold you will want to acquire. This is the beginning of the process. A precious metals firm can give you guidance and knowledge that will help you determine the best fit for your needs, especially when buying gold and silver online. The only difficult part about speaking with a consultant is that usually if one sells paper gold they do not sell physical gold and vice versa.

A gold ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) and or GLD (Gold Shares) are good to have if you are looking for short-term price speculations. If you want to put anything into gold you should think about holding it long-term. Meaning you will want to hold onto your gold for at least 3-5 years. If you decide to own physical gold you can acquire bullion or numismatic gold.

Gold bullion derives its value from gold content alone and it comes in the form of coins and bars. They do not receive any value for their rarity, quality or collect ability. The price of gold bullion is based off of the spot price of gold and a premium that is added from it being mined, minted and distributed. The premium is not a set price, it changes based off of the dealer, what coins you purchased, and the price can be anywhere from $50 to $100 above the spot price.

Numismatic gold is another type of gold that you can obtain. The numismatic gold coins that are most often purchased are the pre-1933 US minted coins, including Liberties and Saint Gaudens. Numismatic coins contain the same gold as bullion coins however they hold more value because they are rarer, they are considered collectibles. You can see that these coins have several perks and are what makes these coins so desirable.

These coins are non-reportable when buying or selling them. They have also been eliminated from confiscations of the past, unlike gold bullion. If the dollar continues to weaken it is quite possible that we will experience another confiscation in the future. Numismatic or rare gold coins have done quite well in the past in terms of their growth, another perk. The Professional Coin Grading Service data shows that mint state rare gold coins have performed better than the Dow Jones Industrial Average at about 7 to 1 and preformed better than gold bullion at close to 3 to 1 in the past 42 years. Many people believe that this is the best way to own because of all the factors involved.

Whatever you decide, paper gold or physical gold it is important to do your research, become knowledgeable around the market and speak with a highly regarded precious metals companies. This will help you become more knowledgeable and give you a great experience.