How To Buy Gold Or Silver
Reading time: 10 – 17 minutes
HOW TO BUY GOLD OR SILVER
How to buy gold, silver or platinum? This is becoming a uncharacteristically common question. Not all too surprisingly I receive this question all the time. I buy gold and silver. I do not sell gold professionally. Through some trial and error along with a lot of research I hope to be able to provide you with a very helpful answer to this question and teach you where to buy gold. You likely found this page as a top result in a search engine. But do not trust any entity just because they are at the top of the search engine.
BEWARE OF SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS
Buying silver or buying gold is very simple but if done incorrectly then the results can be financially devastating. It is extremely important to learn how and where to buy gold or silver from trusted and reputable sources in safe and secure transactions and not through companies which have issues like in this Monex review.
At all times and in all circumstances gold and silver remains money. Therefore, both gold and silver belongs in your portfolio at all times and in all circumstances.
DAUNTING QUESTIONS WHEN CONSIDERING BUYING GOLD OR SILVER
But there is a plethora of options in determining how and where to buy gold or silver. Some questions you may begin to ask yourself is do you buy rounds, gold ingots, a gold coin, an american silver eagle coin, a gold krugerrand from South Africa, a gold maple leaf coin from Canada, a gold British sovereign coin, an Engelhard silver bar. Do you buy silver directly from a mint, producer or dealer or do you use a ‘pool account’ or some other form of unsegregated storage? Do you buy a silver gram or a kilogram of gold and do you buy gold as an investment or merely to preserve your wealth? How do you determine the price you are willing to pay for the gold or silver? Do you use the gold spot price or silver spot price or live gold prices from a gold exchange, gold dealer or the prevailing gold rates? Should a premium be paid for gold or silver jewelry?
In this article you will only learn about investing in gold or silver bullion in allocated storage through your own personal possession or with a trusted-third party storage service. This is the only type of gold ownership method I recommend. Additionally, I am not very interested in numismatic gold or silver coins and think that a gold confiscation is highly unlikely. I like investment grade gold and silver bars, such as those from the London Bullion Market Association, which have a chain of integrity and chain of custody. Then you know that the gold or silver is real and not a lead bar painted gold.
While gold and silver are tangible assets and physical elements, making them extremely transparent, the gold and silver markets are particularly murky with many shady characters lurking around. Thus, when looking at how to buy gold or silver you have two primary methods: (1) your own physical possession or (2) third-party storage.
GOLD OR SILVER IN YOUR OWN PHYSICAL POSSESSION
Personal physical possession can be accomplished by buying gold coins, buying gold bars, buying silver coins or buying silver bars and immediately taking physical delivery. The ideal way to purchase in this manner is in person with cash.
There are many reputable gold and silver bullion dealers throughout the world. You can open up the phone book or go down to the local pawnshop. This is an easy way to find a place to buy gold or buy silver. Unfortunately, because this article is directed generally it cannot really give recommendations on specific local bullion dealers. Additionally, there is typically a significant premium is charged for this exchange.
I recommend everyone have at least some physical gold or silver bullion in their immediate possession. Like extra food you never know when it may come in handy but will be extremely grateful should you need the gold or silver. Often being prepared helps calm the conscience. Do not keep gold or silver in a safety deposit box, or anything else of value for that matter, as it may end up on Ebay.
Storing silver or gold bullion yourself will not cost anything. But you may misplace it, have it stolen, etc. Therefore, many of my readers want to know where to buy gold or buy silver in amounts of $50,000 or more where they do not take personal physical possession.
I take all of my readers time, attention and trust extremely seriously. I feel a poignant heightened sense of trust when some of my readers want to allocate several millions dollars to buy silver or buy gold and so answering their questions of how to buy gold or buy silver bears down with a weighty responsibility.
WHERE TO BUY GOLD OR SILVER: THIRD-PARTY STORAGE
Another way you can buy silver or buy gold is by having a third party store the bullion after taking physical delivery. Where to buy silver or gold is extremely important to you because of governmental restrictions, customs, etc. However, this can be a very tricky area and you may unwittingly subject your valuable assets to unnecessary risks if you are naive.
If a third party takes delivery then the silver or gold is either encumbered or unencumbered. If the gold or silver is encumbered then the silver or gold is subject to counter-party risk and I highly recommend avoiding counter-party risk with your precious gold, silver or platinum. If the gold or silver bullion is unencumbered, meaning subject to physical delivery at any time and not subject to the financial ability of the storage entity, then it is subject only to performance risk.
You will also want to consider insurance, corporate governance, audits, compliance with applicable regulations or laws and the firm’s reputation.
GOLDMONEY – A TRUSTED AGENT
A trusted third party, like GoldMoney, is a viable option when you delve into answering the question of how to buy gold or how to buy silver or how to buy platinum. GoldMoney is the only firm I have thoroughly researched.
The gold, silver and platinum is insured, there are polices in place and enforced for strong corporate governance, external audits take place on a regular basis, rigorous compliance with applicable law and GoldMoney has a sterling reputation in the industry with LBMA vaults in London and Switzerland with insurance covering your bullion.
Additionally, investors can redeem and take physical delivery of their gold at any time in convenient units of 100 gram, 1,000 gram or 400 ounce gold bars.
Many reputable financial professionals recommend GoldMoney including billionaire Eric Sprott, John Embry, Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock, Doug Casey, Peter Schiff, Michael Maloney and myself. There are many reasons in the fine print for this consensus from respected experts and I have detailed them here and also in the following video:
The only other third-party storage service I am aware of with similar proficiency is BullionVault but I have neither thoroughly researched their various legal documents nor can I recommend them. But not all third-party storage services are created equal and there is ample reason to be cautious.
BEWARE OF SHADY CHARACTERS
There are many untrustworthy agents which purport to help you answer the questions of how to buy gold or how to buy silver but really attempt to sell you paper silver and paper gold which is merely a form of fool’s silver or fool’s gold.
There are many unscrupulous rogues attempting to answer your query about how to buy gold or how to buy silver in a way that will unjustly enrich themselves at your expense. For example, in TheStreet.tv video in the upper left the host recommends using the GLD ETF.
I have thoroughly reviewed the prospectus and found problems with the GLD and SLV ETFs. If you desire to own physical gold or physical silver, which I recommend, then I WARN YOU NOT TO BUY THE GLD ETF.
There are other third-party storage services such as E-gold or the Perth Mint in Australia. But in July 2008 E-Gold pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in US federal court. In 2009 the nation of Canada’s Royal Canadian Mint withheld employee bonuses and sent in external auditors to determine the cause of a multi-million dollar ‘unreconciled difference’ between the financial accounting and the physical bullion.
I recommend staying away from unnecessarily complex instruments even if issued through perceived reputable firms. For example, in June 2007 Morgan Stanley & Co. settled a class action lawsuit for $4.4 million where the complaint alleged
that Morgan Stanley told clients it was selling them precious metals that they would own in full and that the company would store. But Morgan Stanley either made no investment specifically on behalf of those clients, or it made entirely different investments of lesser value and security.
While the efficacy of the claim may still be at issue the Better Business Bureau-like complaint from unsatisfied customers who initiated litigation does not inspire confidence for those seeking to reduce risk.
There are other more complicated ways regarding how to buy gold or how to buy silver. Many of these options include some type of paper instrument such as a futures contract, warehouse receipt, etc. If you are new to buying gold or buying silver then I would recommend you avoid these complex instruments.
One reason is because when you buy gold or buy silver through shady customers or ‘paper gold’ instruments then counter-party risk may be present along with restrictions on demanding delivery of bullion. For example, the NYMEX has significant restrictions which can significantly delay delivery and the TOCOM now allows ‘paper gold’ to settle futures contracts on physical gold contracts.
You neither want to get involved with an asset that you do not understand nor do you not want to get taken in a scam, Ponzi scheme or other type of fraud or theft. Keep the process of buying gold or buying silver simple by exchanging your cash for the bullion.
CONCLUSION
For you to learn how and where to buy gold or how to buy silver I recommend keeping it simple. Engage in buying silver coins, buying silver bars, buying gold coins or buying gold bars and taking physical delivery. For larger amounts consider trusted and secure third-party firms like GoldMoney. Avoid shady characters, like the GLD or SLV ETFs, NYMEX, TOCOM, etc. where the contracts are complex and difficult to understand and may result in your gold or silver actually being paper silver or paper gold and may be impreganted with counter-party risk.
As you decide on how to buy gold or how to buy silver I hope these suggestions are valuable. Buy a gold coin or silver bar that you can hold in the palm of your hand as it ignites a deep-seated gold lust that has lain dormant in most of humanity for almost 80 years. Consider using the storage services of a trusted third-party, like GoldMoney, to vault your gold or silver. I hope these suggestions assist you in safely, securely and confidently taking physical possession of the ’sweat of the sun’ and ‘tears of the moon’.
If you have any other questions about how to buy gold or silver then please contract me.
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Trace: I have purchased your book. It is a good read. For US citizens, is the form TD F 90-22.1 applicable for goldmoney holdings?
In probably 95% of cases I would recommend filing an FBAR. There are
some rare exceptions where genuine issues would be raised and the
filing would likely be a question of law. But in most of those
exceptions I would recommend filing to be within the safe harbor
because the penalties are so draconian and filing the form incurs such
a small burden excepting the loss of privacy which is likely breached
anyway as all wires are automatically reported.
Of course, if you have wired in excess of $10,000 and if you do not
want to file the FBAR for some reason then you may want to consult an
attorney for individual analysis of your situation but the answer will
likely be to file. It is what it is.
Some exceptions would involve odd fact patterns such as those involving:
http://goldmoney.com/en/bullion-into-gg.html
Mr Mayer, I contacted you about GTU and CEF recently.
I don’t want to pretend to be an expert in any of this but I saw that you were interested in TSN stock. As a former shareholder, were you aware of the 2 classes of stock? The A shares trade to the public and the B shares were held mostly by the family. the B shares had 10 times the voting rights as the A shares. It doesn’t smell right to me. Don Tyson used it as his personal piggy bank for a long spell…..Don’t know if it is over yet or not. Please let me know what you find out. Thanks !!
Hi,
I rolled over my IRA to gold bouillon with Capital Gold Group last spring. Can you tell me what you know about this company and whether you would recommend staying with them or not?
Trace: Great columns.
I have PM in several forms: bullion (personal possession and storage), collectible coins, jewelry, mining stocks, exploration /development stocks, royalty stocks and CEF/GTU. Are the latter ones safer than GD, IAU, SLV. etc?
Trace would you consider speaking at one of our Millionaire Cafe’s luncheon in Carlsbad?