G'Day all. What sort of gold does one buy for a nearly adult grand-kid as a gift and as emergency capital if those doomsday you-tube stories or part there-of come true one day. The gift will be minimal as I'm a pensioner. I have in mind a couple of those 1 oz. gold Kangaroo coins. But I see there is plenty of different things to buy. I've gleened so far it must be 24ct. (9999). Are some forms of gold better than others for when one needs to sell it later on? e.g Minted Bars or Cast Bars or coins? And what hallmarks are best to seek out?
Stick with 999 from a recognized mint and you should be fine, the Roo is a good choice. Especially if it's a gift. Bars vs coins... Main difference is that bars generally have a lower premium so if you're on a budget, you can buy more gold with your $'s. As you're only buying a few coins, the premium difference isn't that much of a deal. I'd rather gift a pretty looking coin than a boring lump of gold to someone who isn't aware of PM's.
Whatever sells easily in your/grand-kid's local market. And make sure you give them instructions on where to liquidate it for maximum $$$, otherwise they'll take it to one of those cash-for-gold booths in the local shopping center and take a 50% hit on it's actual market value.
This is important. Doesn't have to be long, just a couple sentences that say you can check the gold price online and call around until you find a place that will give them at least that price, that sort of thing. If you want to get more detailed then you could talk about weight and testing methods. You could look at getting some common/bullion sovereigns, not 24k but almost universally recognized. Otherwise 24k bars or coins from a known mint, as has already been suggested, will be an easy way to go. The only thing I would add is that if you plan to get a couple ounces that it might be good to get some fractional sizes, 1/= and 1/2 oz maybe. Just if you buy 2 or 3 1oz bars then you have to sell half or a third of the gold you have even if you only need a small amount of cash for something.
The problem with sovereigns is that if you don't know what they are they could easily get tossed or sold at a garage sale.
I would suggest Gold Maple Leaf coins from Canada. These are usually pretty low premium coins, readily available (liquid) and very recognisable (design doesn't change). You could go for 1oz, 1/2oz and/or 1/4oz depending on budget. The Roos are nice, but the design changes so they are not as recognisable IMHO.
Personally I would always go for coins rather than bars, with both you always have the value of the gold at current spot price but coins also give you the potential for added premium. I would hardly call an ounce or two of gold a minimal gift, that's a major gift IMO. I know you are in Australia so Perth Mint stuff makes sense but I would take a chance on the Royal Mints Lunar series coins rather than the Perth Mint. Since they have only just started producing Lunar series coins they have the potential still to be anything. If their Lunar Series takes off there may well come a time when the earlier coins become sought after and command a good premium in the same way that early Perth Lunar coins do. They have only just started the third year of their Lunar series and the 2nd year Lunar Sheep are very low mintage at 8888.
1/2oz gold coins are good. price <$1k they can hide amongst the usual clad coins, so easy to hide in the open most common maple roos etc all good .
Might be useful to know the sex and age. Introvert or extrovert? If introvert you could try to kick off a collection, which means you need to aim at a suitable fraction, so something within an appropriate serious preset dollar range, unless you get them into coinage. If extrovert it's probably all about the money, so low premium high liquidity. Bear in mind if it doesn't whistle or bleep it might be a fail. Another option, buy a limited addition single piece for storage in the heirloom box, with annual revisits.
You might consider jewelry. Many people don't see the need for coins or rounds and will just go out and sell them, then spend the money, but they are less likely to sell jewelry which has sentimental value, and they get to wear it besides. If/when it ever came down to it and mutants were crawling the countryside, yours would suddenly realize "hey, I can trade the ring ..." and still get the same benefit as if you had purchased a coin for them. Precious metal doesn't have to be boring, and really, jewelry is probably why precious metal ever had any value to start with.
1oz Kangarooo is a nice choice. I'd love to receive one. In my opinion you can't go wrong with any 1oz gold whatsoever, but you'll have to explain what gold is and the reason to hold it, and why you are giving them a gift of this kind (which I think it's one of the greatest signs of love), but being young they may be find it hard to understand. I received a gold Napoleon coin when I was younger from the grandfather of my wife and I stored it somewhere without thinking about it and lost it forever. Now that I'm older i understand why he gave it to me, and the fact that I lost will make me regret forever that i was so careless about it. I wish I could go back in time and thank him a million times for giving me that coin.
Coins can make a great gift, if done properly. I'd go with fractionals.. That way you could get more than one for "roughly" the same price. 1/2-oz is a nice size. Probably 1/4-oz, too. Anything less is getting a bit tiny in diameter. Hard to go wrong with modern stuff from any of the major mints from around the globe. Air-tites / capsules are a must, IMO -- especially for 24K / 9999. Lucky grand-kids!
Aesthetically appealing coins or jewelry over bars in most cases unless the child/teen is exceptionally different from most children/teens today who generally can't readily (or even with effort as most have a very short attention span) perceive the value of a blob of metal. A blob will save you some money in most cases but a thematically interesting and neat looking coin or piece of jewelry may give them more reason to take interest in that gift. As a point of reference, my first purchase of silver back in the 1980's (a China silver Great Wall medal) had nothing at all to do with the value of the metal...I purchased it because it was thematically interesting and it was visually very appealing. I valued that medal because of the latter (interesting and pretty) not the former (value of the base metal). I would never discard or forget about that medal over the years because I attached sentimental value to it. That medal, decades later, is probably the main reason behind the journey of the opening of my mind to the importance of buying precious metals. .
Same for me, I was young and I was at a fair where people dress up in Renaissance era garb and there was someone there stamping images on smallish silver blanks and putting them on cord to make necklaces. I chose a design and watched them stamp it, that was the first time I bought something made of silver. I hadn't thought of that in years, thanks mmissinglink! It was only about 1/8oz, but it seemed like treasure to me at the time, and now it does again for sentimental reasons.
Thanks for the tips people. I'm actually starting to like this gold stuff. Been reading other threads & blogs. I'd like to wander around the city & see what's about. I'm in Sydney. Apart from "NEW" product such as ABC Bullion in the city (seen the website) are there gold dealers in the city who carry a variety of 'used' 24ct coins (& bars) from all over?
Most of the times you won't be able to tell apart the "used" from the new. And not necessarily dealers will declare that something is a buyback and sell to you at a discount. If you want a slightly better price you can try to place a WTB request in the trading section of the forum and transact with a reputable member. The seller will sell over spot but cheaper than a dealer. Win-win situation.
