Gold Bullion

Gold bullion is any gold that is at least 99.5% pure. It is usually formed into gold bars, wafers, or ingots. Gold bars are the most convenient form of gold bullion to buy for several reasons. You can get gold bars in small weights starting at 1 troy ounce, or you can buy them in heftier bars weighing up to 400 troy ounces. A troy ounce is equal to 1.09714% of a regular ounce (also known as an avoirdupois ounce).

One advantage of buying your gold bullion in the form of gold bars is that refiners generally stamp their hallmark (or logo) in the bars they produce. Gold bullion bars are easy to sell because of the recognizability of these hallmarks. The hallmark also indicates that the refiner has tested the metal and verifies its purity.

Buying Gold Bullion

Buying gold bullion in the form of bars is also convenient because it can be purchased at some commercial banks as well as brokerage houses and through dealers in precious metals. You can also buy gold bullion online. Whenever you are buying gold bullion, you will want to know the gold spot price which is the price you would pay for the immediate purchase of gold. You can find the gold spot price online at numerous websites, and many of these sites update the information several times per day. Remember that you can buy and sell gold 24 hours a day.

Once you have determined how you will diversify your gold portfolio, you may want to invest in gold in the form of rare coins, as well as in gold bullion bars. Gold coins can be bought in a number of places in addition to the standard brokerage firms. Gold coins have the advantage of always being worth at least the face value of the coin based on the fact that the coins are backed by their country of origin.