I'm a complete newbie and considering purchasing some gold. My first thought was to start collecting Perth Mint 1oz coins and suffer the premium over spot with the hope of being able to pass it on later. I'd be interested in people's opinions on coins or other forms of gold that are recognisable and hard to counterfeit, thus ensuring easy re-sale of smallish amounts without assay. Could suffering the premiums of fractional gold coins be worth it given that they're either harder to copy, or not worth copying? Some gold bars appear to have serial numbers: are these effective (eg. being able to retrieve a bar's ownership history since leaving the mint would be nice) or not much use? Thanks
Pandas have seriously low mintages and yet are one of the most faked coins out there. They're faking cheap silver morgans...and now 1oz Dragon Lunars... Krugs, Sovs, you name it they'll have a go. All it takes these days is a quick scan with an XRF... walk away from any clown that wants to acid test your gold. I reckon all you can do is just hedge your bets by having a mix of various coins bars.
When gold prices rise I would think it more likely that it will be profitable to fake anything and spend a bit more money on the dies to make them more accurate. Whether they chose to fake modern coins with a current date or back issues of modern themes who knows? High value coins like Pandas would bring more money but are under more scrutiny from collectors. I have seen 1937 Crowns faked, poorly, if they wanted to make more money they would have faked the 1938, but who checks 1937's or would even consider that they could be faked? At the end of the day you would be best served by specialising in one area, knowing the items you are buying, knowing what fakes are present etc. rather than having a bit of everything. I think gold bars are already being faked and according to one internet news site, a Bank in China drilled some of its Gold bars to find they were gold plated titanium. Coins are harder to fake convincingly but not impossible and I would expect the quality of the fakes to improve as prices rise.
seriallized certicarded bars are your safest bet IMO, but as the monkey says, anything can be counterfitted
Avoid rare and numismatic gold coins unless the seller can be 100% trusted. Sticking to bullion coins which are only worth spot or thereabouts, you would be very unlucky to receive a fake gold coin if bought from a dealer or on e-Bay that has a good record and history of selling coins. Until you are very familiar with gold coins always weight the coin and compare to specifications. Check size as best you can. Take thickness measurements at several places and not just at the rim using callipers or a micrometer. Always be suspicious of a coin that is larger or thicker and more than not underweight at the same time. High sheen and varnished looks for a regular bullion coin would merit checks also.
"I think gold bars are already being faked and according to one internet news site, a Bank in China drilled some of its Gold bars to find they were gold plated titanium." Seem unlikely,titanium is lighter than steel.Steel would be closer in weight but still very obviously underweight.
This counterfeiting issue is very important.Many people who buy PM's do so for safety.Now it is unsafe for beginners.In a SHTF situation,how liquid would it be? Gold is a much better option because alloys can give you the correct weight in Silver ,but not in gold,given the correct dimensions. Tungsten is close to the density of gold,but is very hard and too difficult to work. These xray machines are 10's of thousands of dollars,and not everyone has one. As to the certicards , whats impossible now will one day be possible.And you can't get at the gold to test it. Even a density test is doubtful because of the plastic covering.But at the moment they would be safe . Perhaps tungsten slices could be heavy plated to produce large gold coins. Havent heard of this happening though. Small gold coins or the wafer 1gm lots would be the best way to go,in my opinion.
