Political Metals

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Holding physical gold & silver in your personal custody is an essential component of your asset portfolio. It may be helpful to view this portion of your asset as an insurance or part of your emergency survival kit.  In the event of a monetary crisis like bank run, hyperinflation or currency debasement, you will have sufficient at hand to keep your family and friends going until the crisis settles. It’s back to the old days when people keep cash under their pillows, except that it will be a disaster to do so under the present monetary system. Gold & silver coins and small bars are modern day equivalents.

As you browse the various sources to buy gold & silver coins, you’ll notice that you’re paying a rather large premium over spot prices (See the first and second column in the table below for gold & silver premiums respectively). Hence, you may want to consider this small portion of your assets as a “Savings Account”, while you hold the bulk of your assets as “Fixed Deposit” or ‘Term Deposit” in the form of professional grade bullion bars securely stored in private vaults outside the banking system. Read Buying & Storage Options for details on buying and storing  professional grade bullion.

You will own substantially more ounces of gold or silver in this form compared to coins for the same amount of cash outlay. Savings in premiums are substantial, and will usually cover storage fees for many years. These vaulting services are listed at the bottom of the table under Vaulting Services

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Summary of Mints & Dealers.
Click on the respective country flag for Reviews. Mouse over icons for legend 

Bullion Money	5.0	20
Perth Mint	5.0	26
Aust. Bullion Co.	4.5	22
Gold DeRoyale	9.0	32
Gold Bullion	?	?
Ainslie Bullion	5.0	30
1StopGold	4.5	?
BuySilverMalaysia	NA	45
ClickGold2U	NA	60
GoldSilver2U	13	?
GoldSilverResources	NA	50
Maybank	5.5	NA
Merlip	5.7	40
Nubex	9.0	60
Public Gold	12	?
SilverKini	NA	40
UOB	4.0	NA
NZMint	7.0	21
BullionDeals	6.5	25
MyGold	?	?
GoldMadeSimple	7.0	21
TaxFreeGold	7.0	NA
GoldLine	4.2	16
APMEX	0.9	4.5
GoldSilver	4.5	7.4
CMI	2.3	?
BullionDirect	2.9	10
Vaulting Services
AFE	9.8	9.8
BullionVault	1.0	1.5
GoldMoney	2.5	4.0

Online Purchase means you’re able to submit an order based on online prices. When this feature is not checked, any published prices are indicative only. Orders can only be placed after obtaining a quoted price by phone, email, fax or over the counter.  

Premium Over Spot is an estimate of the difference between selling price & spot price for one piece of 1 oz gold & silver coin or closest equivalent based on published prices. “NA” indicates bullion type is not available while “?” indicates bullion type is available but there is none in the 1 oz range available for fair comparison. See “Reviews” for premiums of other products.

When buying coins, beware of fakes! Get them from a reputable source or take some trouble to check their authenticity yourself. Here’s one of the earlier videos about testing for fake silver coins.

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… and here’s one for testing fake gold coins with a Fisch Test Kit - See How and Why it works

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For more high-end testing, watch GoldMoney’s Ultrasonic Testing of gold bars.

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