How to Buy Gold Coins
Do you know your Gold Sovereign from your Gold Krugerrand? Or your Gold American Eagle from your Canadian Maple Leaf? If, like many people, you’ve decided that investing in the gold market is for you, then you’ll need to work out which gold coin is the best choice for your investment, and how to buy gold coins in the first place.
This guide is designed to take you through the process of buying, from deciding when to do it, to choosing which are the best gold coins to buy, through to learning how to store them once you’ve made your purchase.
When should you buy gold coins?
If you want to make a solid investment in the gold market, then you’ll want to get the best price. The price of gold is updated regularly; several times a minute, in fact. You can see the current price of gold right now on our chart, in grams and troy ounces. The price of gold coins tracks this, so investors watch these price fluctuations closely, and try to predict the gold prices, buying when the prices are low and selling when they’re high.
Gold is well known for its reliability, and tends to rise in value over time. This means that it is viewed by many investors as a stable long term investment, rather than a commodity from which you can make short term profits.
It is considered a good idea to have a stable contingent of wealth secured in gold, alongside other investment strategies such as shares and bonds. Investors often buy ‘a little at a time’, building over time. Inheritance and work bonuses are often also invested in gold, to give a helpful boost to a diverse portfolio.
Find out more about historical gold price trends here, or check out this quick guide on when is the best time to buy gold.
How to buy gold coins?
There are three main ways to buy:
- The first of these three is to buy the coins from the coin mints themselves. These national mints, like the Royal Mint, or the US Mint are often the official coin mints of their respective currencies, and come with an internationally recognised seal of approval. The mints themselves tend to charge high premiums on their products, however, and the same coins can often be found for more competitive prices elsewhere.
- These coins are often traded by local gold dealers or coin collectors. These come with the added benefit of allowing you to complete the purchase immediately, meaning you won’t have to wait for your product to arrive or worry about delivery times. Often however, the rates these dealers charge are irregular and difficult to compare or align against the market gold price.
- In our opinion, online dealers like The Gold Bullion Company are the best place to buy gold coins as we can offer better prices to customers, and ensure that our products are automatically updated in line with the daily gold price.
What are the best gold coins to buy?
Unless you’re a specialised coin collector, it is usually a good idea to invest in the most internationally recognised gold coins. If you want to sell them in a few years, or even decades, you want the validity and authenticity of your product to be without question, so that you can claim the full value.
Here is a quick look at some of the internationally recognised ones on the list:
British Gold Sovereign
The British Gold Sovereign, produced by the Royal Mint, is one of the world’s oldest examples of a gold coin that’s still minted to its original standards. These specifications were established in 1816, and the coin has been minted near-continuously ever since.
The Sovereign is light and smaller than many coins, making it a popular choice for first time investors who want to build their gold investment slowly.
Canadian Maple Leaf
The Canadian Maple Leaf is the flagship gold coin of the Royal Canadian Mint. It is renowned for being the first gold coin in the world minted to 99.999 per cent purity. Though these coins are still occasionally released, most are minted at a standard 24-carat gold purity of 99.99 per cent, remaining among the purest in the world.
South African Gold Krugerrand
The Krugerrand has been minted by the South African Rand Refinery since 1967, and was one of the first gold coins minted with a troy ounce of 99.99 per cent pure gold. It is one of the most internationally traded gold coins.
The Krugerrand was named after the 5th president of South Africa, Paul Kruger, and the South African currency, the rand.
How to store your gold coins after your purchase
You’ve read up on the gold price and decided when the best time will be for you to buy gold coins. You know where you want to buy them from and you’ve decided which ones you want to buy. The final step is to consider how to store your gold coins after purchase.
Investors take their gold seriously – and rightly so. They know that it is a valuable metal, vulnerable to theft, and therefore must be protected. Investors who keep their gold at home often do so in a safe. The gold can therefore be accessed in an emergency, and is not reliant upon external people or parties for its safety.
Browse our range and start your gold coin collection today.
