Purchasing Gold

Venusflytrap

In coins or bars - how and where do I go about it?

Getting ready for when the economic !!!!!! hits the fan.

Thanks

FLAPJACK

There is a firm I use in Blackpool called CHARD (just Google "Chard Blackpool), they sell anything from gold bars to coins. The mark up is pretty reasonable. They do mail order.

Venusflytrap

I live in London - does this matter? Isn't it better to "see/judge" what i'm buying first in this case?

atush

Go see a coin dealer/Pawn broker. But TBH, it wont' be easy to turn them into edibles or petrol should the worst come. You'd be better off hoarding cash, USDs or even canned goods.

Now if you want to hold precious metals for investment reasons, that is another matter.

FLAPJACK

I have dealt with Chard on numerous occassions (from a distance) and find them to be very professional plus they are wil to advise on certain purchases.
The advise I was given when I approached them for the purchase of bars was that is nothing wrong with buying bars but they are not as flexible for resale as coins, i.e you can plunder your hoard of coins by almost the exact cash sum you require. However with bars you can only sell the whole thing...say if you had a 1Kg bar at £36k you want to raise 10K....you can only the bar whole, whereas £36k of coins you can sell the number that matches the value of £10k.

Wise advise I thought...

Venusflytrap

Thanks both - good advice all round. Will go for some coins and stock up on canned foods and seeds.

I feel a storm hitting soon!

WhiteHorse

I would also recommend Chard's.

A thought ... keep your gold small. A bar, or coins like full krugerrands, are simply too big. When it all goes pear shaped, you will want small change for frequent transactions. Ever tried spending a £10,000 note?

shaun_from_Africa

MrInvestor wrote: »

Just for the record, all gold sovereigns, krugerrands and umicore bars can be purchased with no VAT and sold with no Capital Gains Tax whatsoever!!

Wrong.
The only gold that can be sold with no capital gains liability are gold coins that are UK legal tender.
These are Sovereigns are Britannias, and any other coins or bars are not exempt from CGT.

Hermione_Granger

Can all gold bars/ingots and coins be purchased VAT free or is this also limited to UK tender coinage?

Venusflytrap

Another question guys:

Bearing in mind the advice given to buy gold in small amts that can easily be spent or exchanged, should I go for half/quarter sovereigns which are max 2g of gold or £1 gold coins? I take it both are legal tender?

Also how does it work in terms of trading with gold in a financial crisis? Can it be directly traded for commodities or would I need to exchange it for currency first? I guess it depends on whether gold becomes the official currency in the future...

Very green in this area so valuable advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

WhiteHorse

Venusflytrap wrote: »

to buy gold in small amts that can easily be spent or exchanged, should I go for half/quarter sovereigns which are max 2g of gold or £1 gold coins? I take it both are legal tender?

Forget the legal tender argument. Gold is VAT free, that's all you need to care about. As to what to buy, sovereigns are recognised everywhere. They come in full at 8g and half of 4g.

Also how does it work in terms of trading with gold in a financial crisis? Can it be directly traded for commodities or would I exchange it for currency first?

At that point the government 'currency' has become worthless. You wouldn't swap gold for it. Gold is the currency, and it is used to buy just as before.

I guess it depends on whether gold becomes the official currency in the future ...

I wonder if at some point desperate governments will not again make holding gold illegal for ordinary citizens. In that case, gold would be the black market currency.

On the other hand, if the US government manages to grab control of all or most of the goldfields, then they might find it convenient to revert to the gold standard.