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Bars are unpopular among gold bullion.. hoarders for this exact reason. People generally only buy factory sealed and assayed bars but most prefer government min

Bars are unpopular among gold bullion.. hoarders for this exact reason. People generally only buy factory sealed and assayed bars but most prefer government minted coins. They are very intricate and quite thin so not really possible to fake. Plus they are usually technically legal currency so counterfeiting them is very serious. US gold eagle, Canadian Maple, Australian Kangaroo, Austrian Philharmonic. I’d recommend anyone with a little interest in physical assets to grab one as they’re beautiful pieces and tend to hold their value over centuries

lazide 4y ago
Accurate! There are starting to be tungsten cored fake coins good enough to fool most, so validation is still required. [https://m.alibaba.com/product/60579932545/Gold-Plated-Tungsten-Coins.html?spm=a2706.7843667.0.0.485c2b4dI8rymJ https://m.alibaba.com/product/60579932545/Gold-Plated-Tungst...]
gumby 4y ago
Fascinating! I’ve never seen the point of owning gold and have wondered why people would buy gold coins (or why they sell simply for the price of the underlying content) rather than just buying plain old bars of whatever size. I still don’t understand why people buy gold but at least I now see why it’s sensible to buy coins. My mum married draped in gold jewelry which was too soft to be worn again. I’ve seen the photos and saw the gold as a kid in their safe deposit box, where it’s sat for 60 years. Given that she moved to the west, what was the point?
- nine_k 4y ago
  Gold is often (though not all the time) anti-cyclical: as stock market goes down, gold goes up. It can be used as a hedge.
- justinzollars 4y ago
  The reason to own gold is that there is no counter party risk. It can also help transfer wealth between incompatible systems. If there is a currency reset, lost war, or you end up a refugee - Gold is a great option.
  - cowthulhu 4y ago
    That’s assuming gold keeps its value in that sort of event! Not that I think that’s unlikely, since we have a long history of lusting after gold and generally appreciating shiny things… but given the metal itself has relatively little utility, it’s like an other currency in that it ultimately relies on people perceiving it as valuable for it to actually be, well, valuable!
    - coffeebeqn 4y ago
      I can’t really think of anything that would have a better chance in a WW3 scenario for example. Any currency could get devalued to heck due to war killing their economy, crypto needs a global trustworthy internet and a China/U.S. could launch a cyber attack on the local chain, etc. Maybe potato seedlings or canned meat will be more reliable
      - cowthulhu 4y ago
        Yeah definitely… outside of like, things that do stuff (seeds, medicine, etc.) gold probably has the best chance of still being worth something in almost any scenario! And it’s very dense value-wise and easy to store, which can’t be said for the others!
    - Koshkin 4y ago
      > relatively little utility I wouldn’t call being used in virtually all microchips “little utility,” even relatively.
      - cowthulhu 4y ago
        It’s hard to imagine a situation where the currencies of the world devalue to zero, but the semiconductor fabs keep working.
        lucubratory 4y ago
        Sure, but there are plenty of plausible futures where the currency of one country, even a major country like China or the USA, has their currency completely devalued, and semiconductor fabs keep working.
- coffeebeqn 4y ago
  Many people have many reasons. Lots of prepper types. Personally I just think it’s cool and fun. Much more satisfying than just seeing a number go up on a website. It’s very cumbersome and dangerous to have a lot of gold though. There isn’t a great solution to storing it. Even a safety deposit box at a bank isn’t insured to more than I believe $200 of precious metals. So if the bank burns or floods or the feds seize it or it goes bankrupt then you probably won’t see that box again. I wouldn’t buy more because of that and also since it’s physical there are a lot of fees - shipping, insuring, storing, mining-refining-minting cost, fees from sellers, low ball offers when you sell yourself, etc. Big headache for larger amounts. But having a few thousand dollars in that form is neat. And it’s a bit of a hedge against any bad event - you can put a few in your pocket and land in any major city in the world and cash it in immediately. Plus there are not really any other things that have held significant value for thousands of years. Other than perishables - so great for time traveling too
- razius 4y ago
  [dead]
pards 4y ago
The Perth Mint in Australia got caught diluting the gold [0] that they sold to China. [0]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-06/perth-mint-gold-doping-china-cover-up-four-corners/102048622 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-06/perth-mint-gold-dopin...
- senectus1 4y ago
  you make it sound like they were trying to rip the chinese gov off. the difference was 99.99 to 99.999 and it was a small number out of a large shipment and it was clearly and accident. Its also taking the chinese gov on good faith as they wont ship it back for testing (china buys a lot of gold, and hoards it, its against the law to ship gold out of the country). as the WA Premier said.. its a f*** storm in a teacup
  - lucubratory 4y ago
    As stated in the article, the Perth Mint's original deal with Shanghai Gold had included Shanghai Gold testing the gold to make sure it met the 99.999% standard of Shanghai Gold as part of signing the contract. After that point, Perth Mint intentionally chose to dope the gold they were delivering down to 99.99% in order to save ~$670,000. This wasn't them switching to a cheaper process or less pure source material - they had an actual employee go into their gold supplies and dope them with lesser metals in order to save money. As soon as Shanghai Gold complained and they realised it had been detected, said employee stopped doping the gold that same day - this wasn't a dispute over standards, them stopping as soon as they were discovered shows they knew they were in the wrong. This was, very clearly, not an accident. It was also not a "small number", it was $8.7 billion dollars worth of gold that will need to be recalled. We also don't need to take the "chinese gov" on good faith, Perth Mint tested it themselves and found non-compliance. They then attempted a cover-up, reporting separate findings of compliance to Shanghai Gold and intentionally withholding their own testing that had found non-compliance. This isn't a storm in a teacup, it's high level corruption in nearly $9Bn worth of trade. The fact that China is the victim really shouldn't factor into it, should it? It's also a bit rich of the WA Premier, as good as he can be on some other issues, to say that this particular issue is a storm in a teacup when he used to run the Perth Mint and may be personally implicated in any finding of corruption.

lazide 4y ago

Accurate! There are starting to be tungsten cored fake coins good enough to fool most, so validation is still required. [https://m.alibaba.com/product/60579932545/Gold-Plated-Tungsten-Coins.html?spm=a2706.7843667.0.0.485c2b4dI8rymJ https://m.alibaba.com/product/60579932545/Gold-Plated-Tungst...]

gumby 4y ago

Fascinating! I’ve never seen the point of owning gold and have wondered why people would buy gold coins (or why they sell simply for the price of the underlying content) rather than just buying plain old bars of whatever size. I still don’t understand why people buy gold but at least I now see why it’s sensible to buy coins. My mum married draped in gold jewelry which was too soft to be worn again. I’ve seen the photos and saw the gold as a kid in their safe deposit box, where it’s sat for 60 years. Given that she moved to the west, what was the point?

nine_k 4y ago
Gold is often (though not all the time) anti-cyclical: as stock market goes down, gold goes up. It can be used as a hedge.
justinzollars 4y ago
The reason to own gold is that there is no counter party risk. It can also help transfer wealth between incompatible systems. If there is a currency reset, lost war, or you end up a refugee - Gold is a great option.
- cowthulhu 4y ago
  That’s assuming gold keeps its value in that sort of event! Not that I think that’s unlikely, since we have a long history of lusting after gold and generally appreciating shiny things… but given the metal itself has relatively little utility, it’s like an other currency in that it ultimately relies on people perceiving it as valuable for it to actually be, well, valuable!
  - coffeebeqn 4y ago
    I can’t really think of anything that would have a better chance in a WW3 scenario for example. Any currency could get devalued to heck due to war killing their economy, crypto needs a global trustworthy internet and a China/U.S. could launch a cyber attack on the local chain, etc. Maybe potato seedlings or canned meat will be more reliable
    - cowthulhu 4y ago
      Yeah definitely… outside of like, things that do stuff (seeds, medicine, etc.) gold probably has the best chance of still being worth something in almost any scenario! And it’s very dense value-wise and easy to store, which can’t be said for the others!
  - Koshkin 4y ago
    > relatively little utility I wouldn’t call being used in virtually all microchips “little utility,” even relatively.
    - cowthulhu 4y ago
      It’s hard to imagine a situation where the currencies of the world devalue to zero, but the semiconductor fabs keep working.
      - lucubratory 4y ago
        Sure, but there are plenty of plausible futures where the currency of one country, even a major country like China or the USA, has their currency completely devalued, and semiconductor fabs keep working.
coffeebeqn 4y ago
Many people have many reasons. Lots of prepper types. Personally I just think it’s cool and fun. Much more satisfying than just seeing a number go up on a website. It’s very cumbersome and dangerous to have a lot of gold though. There isn’t a great solution to storing it. Even a safety deposit box at a bank isn’t insured to more than I believe $200 of precious metals. So if the bank burns or floods or the feds seize it or it goes bankrupt then you probably won’t see that box again. I wouldn’t buy more because of that and also since it’s physical there are a lot of fees - shipping, insuring, storing, mining-refining-minting cost, fees from sellers, low ball offers when you sell yourself, etc. Big headache for larger amounts. But having a few thousand dollars in that form is neat. And it’s a bit of a hedge against any bad event - you can put a few in your pocket and land in any major city in the world and cash it in immediately. Plus there are not really any other things that have held significant value for thousands of years. Other than perishables - so great for time traveling too
razius 4y ago
[dead]

pards 4y ago

The Perth Mint in Australia got caught diluting the gold [0] that they sold to China. [0]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-06/perth-mint-gold-doping-china-cover-up-four-corners/102048622 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-06/perth-mint-gold-dopin...

senectus1 4y ago
you make it sound like they were trying to rip the chinese gov off. the difference was 99.99 to 99.999 and it was a small number out of a large shipment and it was clearly and accident. Its also taking the chinese gov on good faith as they wont ship it back for testing (china buys a lot of gold, and hoards it, its against the law to ship gold out of the country). as the WA Premier said.. its a f*** storm in a teacup
- lucubratory 4y ago
  As stated in the article, the Perth Mint's original deal with Shanghai Gold had included Shanghai Gold testing the gold to make sure it met the 99.999% standard of Shanghai Gold as part of signing the contract. After that point, Perth Mint intentionally chose to dope the gold they were delivering down to 99.99% in order to save ~$670,000. This wasn't them switching to a cheaper process or less pure source material - they had an actual employee go into their gold supplies and dope them with lesser metals in order to save money. As soon as Shanghai Gold complained and they realised it had been detected, said employee stopped doping the gold that same day - this wasn't a dispute over standards, them stopping as soon as they were discovered shows they knew they were in the wrong. This was, very clearly, not an accident. It was also not a "small number", it was $8.7 billion dollars worth of gold that will need to be recalled. We also don't need to take the "chinese gov" on good faith, Perth Mint tested it themselves and found non-compliance. They then attempted a cover-up, reporting separate findings of compliance to Shanghai Gold and intentionally withholding their own testing that had found non-compliance. This isn't a storm in a teacup, it's high level corruption in nearly $9Bn worth of trade. The fact that China is the victim really shouldn't factor into it, should it? It's also a bit rich of the WA Premier, as good as he can be on some other issues, to say that this particular issue is a storm in a teacup when he used to run the Perth Mint and may be personally implicated in any finding of corruption.