Boston Gold

If you want to own physical gold and not just a tracking stock there are several options.  Some of the most commonly traded forms of gold are Coins, bars, and bullion.  There are various pros and cons to each form.

If you want to buy a large amount of gold, you could buy gold bars.  The market often prices them close to the spot price, so you usually don’t have to pay much of a premium.  The downside is if you want to sell it, there may not always be a large number of buyers around who can handle such a large transaction.  If you do find a buyer they may require that you have the gold content authenticated which adds to the transaction cost.

Gold coins tend to trade at a premium above spot prices.  There is a cost involved in creating them which adds to the premium.  Since they are smaller and easily recognized by gold dealers they tend to be much easier to transact.

Gold bullion is a mid-range option.  They come in a variety of sizes and usually have a lower cost of production than coins so they tend to trade closer to the spot price than coins.