Over the past 12 months, the price of gold has risen steeply, a sure fire indication that the publics faith in paper is falling dramatically. Gold shares are becoming a realistic option to storing savings in bank, in light of the fragility of some of the world’s biggest organisations.

The most familiar and traditional way to buy gold is through the acquisition of small bars or coins. This can be bought through specialist traders and are then housed by the individual purchasing them. The advantage of buying gold in this way is that you avoid any bank charges and are unaffected by any branch collapses, statute changes or break-ins. However, it can also be difficult to insure and you become at dangerous risk of home burglaries, if the information does escape. One of the reasons that collecting gold in this fashion is perhaps so common is due to aesthetic rewards. Many people are attracted by the notion of possessing a great deal of one of the planets most precious materials.

An ulterior method to buy gold is through a gold account. Gold bullion banks offer two varieties of accounts - allocated and unallocated. An allocated account is like keeping gold in a safety deposit box and is the most secure way to buy gold. The gold is stored in a vault owned and managed by a recognised bullion dealer or depository. With unallocated gold accounts, investors do not have specific bars allotted to them. An advantage of this is the absence of any storage or insurance charges, because the bank reserves the right to lease the gold out.If you do decide to buy gold in favour of investing your hard earned cash into a state bank, you are certainly going to want to check out the gold index, which enlightens you to its current price. As mentioned above the value of gold has risen steeply for a number of years now, reaching an all-time high in February of this year. If you are looking to invest in gold through a gold reserve or gold account, then you are effectively purchasing shares in the substance. This is very similar to doing the same with a FTSE 100 company or another high-rate business. The only difference being, that gold is almost certain to maintain its value, and fluctuations are unlikely to be dramatic.
However, if you are desperate to buy gold in the form of physical reward, then you will need to investigate what your money will buy you. The price of gold bars and coins is subject to the market, but here a few standard mark ups that shouldn’t be to misleading. A small 2.5 gram bar of gold will cost in the region of £39, whereas a chunky 1 kilo bar will set you back around £11,000.

Investment

Ever since the collapse of frontline banks like Northern Rock, Alliance and Leicester and AIG, how to buy gold has been the question on many peoples lips. The lack of faith in central banks has caused a flood of interest in investing in a property that is sure to maintain stability.