Best way to buy Gold bars or coins?

Hanks6

might go for some physical silver too but i already have 3-4kg in coins/scrap lying around.

btw read the small print for the perth holding schemes. backed by the government yes, great if you trust them to the end. also insured by lloyds of london ;]

jon3001

trenchwars wrote: »

Or alternatively gold should be £285 an oz.

Some history on the gold:silver ratio here:
http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/goldsilverratioshistoric1970onward.html

The mean since 1970 has been 54. I don't own gold but am currently in silver and am watching the gold:silver ratio. If it goes to 54 then that's my trigger point to rebalance my portfolio and diversify 50/50 between gold/silver.

Whether that ratio is achieved by silver rising, gold declining or a combination of the two remains to be seen.

thrupence

Asheron wrote: »

Historically, an ounce of gold will buy you 31 ounces of silver

That can't be right.

Historically the sovereign is £1 and one pound of sterling silver.

A sovereign is approx 1/4 ounce of gold.

A £/pound is 16 ounces of sterling silver.

So 1 sovereign equalled 16 ounces of silver.

Therefore 1 ounce of gold was deemed to have equalled 64 ounces of sterling silver.

Pretty much the same ratio as today, in fact.....

Spookie, eh?

Ounce of gold = $940.95
Ounce of silver= $13.67

a ratio of 68.8 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold

QED!!

Stavros_3

Asheron wrote: »

So Silver should be today £40 an oz,


If Oil was at what it was in July $140 a barrel, Gold would be about $2000 an oz right now, bare that in mind, when oil goes back up which it will do, Gold will go up with it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but that would be £60 an oz of Silver

The time to buy gold was when it was $300 an ounce IMHO, its at a peak right now not a trough. buy low, sell high

jon3001

thrupence wrote: »

A £/pound is 16 ounces of sterling silver.

There are 12 troy ounces in a troy pound.

Hanks6

IMO the time to buy gold has not passed. Sure you'd have made a killing on it previously but the reason most people are buying gold now is to short currencies and hedge against inflation/preserve wealth.

It boils down to how bad you believe this reccesion/depression is going to get. If you're optimistic about government plans and stocks/financial system, stay away from precious metals.

Personally I think confidence in all of this stuff will increasingly fade away - fiat currency based on nothing is illusory and the debt based system is completely immoral. People aren't as stupid as they used to be, thanks in large part to the internet.

Do people seriously think gold has hit its highs for this unfolding crisis?

thrupence

jon3001 wrote: »

There are 12 troy ounces in a troy pound.

You're missing the point.

When gold was real currency in the UK, there was a ratio of 64/1 silver to gold.

And that ratio stands today.

thrupence

jon3001 wrote: »

There are 12 troy ounces in a troy pound.

It doesn't matter how stupid your maths are.

Gold was 64/1 in the 19th century when it was normal currency in England and it's 68/1 today.

IOW, the same!!

jon3001

thrupence wrote: »

It doesn't matter how stupid your maths are.

Gold was 64/1 in the 19th century when it was normal currency in England and it's 68/1 today.

IOW, the same!!

There are 20 shillings to the pound. In Victorian times the sterling (0.925) silver Florin (2 shilling, 1/10th pound) was issued. The coin weighs 11.3g.

11.3g * 0.925 = 10.4525g of silver.
10.4525 * 10 = 104.525g of silver to the pound.

1 gold sovereign contains 7.3224g of gold.

104.525/7.3224 => 14.27/1

thrupence

jon3001 wrote: »

There are 20 shillings to the pound. In Victorian times the sterling (0.925) silver Florin (2 shilling, 1/10th pound) was issued. The coin weighs 11.3g.

11.3g * 0.925 = 10.4525g of silver.
10.4525 * 10 = 104.525g of silver to the pound.

1 gold sovereign contains 7.3224g of gold.

104.525/7.3224 => 14.27/1

Even using your numbers then, there are 48 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold and NOT as Asheron claimed 31 ounces to one ounce of gold.