Numis Marketing

Question by jessy mate: Gold price & quality confused?
I bought a gold coin 1 troy ounce, called Australian nugget from Heng Seng Bank here in Hong Kong. my friend bought a gold 1 troy ounce coin from local jewellery shop “Chow sang sang”. we found the price is different HK$ 500. Heng seng bank is cheaper than Chow Sang Sang. both claim 99% pure. any gold buying experience in past or what differences you think about above case please share your views.

Best answer:

Answer by Rogue Process
not the gold.. you are paying for the coin – numismatics is what it’s called (like stamp collecting), rarity/demand for the coin, etc.. also the dealer tries to make as much profit as they can (same thing can cost different at different stores).

Personally I wouldn’t buy gold like this, it’s gets alot worse trying to sell it back to them, they will offer you several percent lower than what you bought it for (their ‘spread’, how they make money). Although some people swear by having the physical metal in their possession (there is some sense in it).

The other alternative is ‘paper gold’.. e.g. many banks in Hong Kong have gold accounts, but the risk with that is that if the bank goes bankrupt you lose your ‘gold’ (you basically have a gold contract with them, they owe you more if gold goes up, you lose money if it goes down, but there may or may not be actual gold behind it); there are gold ETFs too (GLD in the US, i know there is at least one on the HK exchange but I forget it’s name – they’re like stocks but all they do is hold gold).

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