Does anyone ever have experience taking gold or silver out of Australia? Anyone knows if there is customs regulation, checking, declare, paying or whatever?
Have never taken any out of the country but have come back from europe with about 15sovs, customs didn't say anything or even bat an eyelid.
Some thoughts here: http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-5391-coins-vs-paper-money-page-3.html post 73 onwards ......
They were in a pouch in my backback, my backback was searched upon arrival in melbourne and everything was taken out. they prob thought i was some nerdy coin collector.
I was picked out at random Not normal. Plus the sniffers were smelling my bags. I had 6 weeks of facial growth.
I bring gold through customs all the time, never been pulled up on it yet. Haven't had my bag searched though, merely sent through the x-ray machine.
I did once and had my bag checked, (I was being evasive to the intrusive airport gestapo so they hauled me aside). The gold(krugerrands) was buried so deep they didn't come across it. The guy searching kind of knew it was pointless, and was only half-hearted as it was obvious I wasn't a terrorist or drug-smuggler or anything. I was just joking around as he waded through all my used and smelly clothes and he soon got fed up. Oh, they did ask me if I had brought more than 10,000 cash into the country. The krugers added up to more than that. I said no. lol
I supposed I was just wondering if they are going to get suspicious when they see chunks of same sized bars (roughly) lining up through scanner, might think something weird, explosive or whatever and decides to dig in to satisfy their unwelcome curiosity. Anyone ever refused to get their bags searched?
Well i have gone overseas with gold in my pockets but let me tell you if they catch you they can easily confiscate it..... But with interstate its all good.
Travelling interstate I have had gold and silver bullion in my carry on, and I have always been asked to remove it from my bag when they see it on the X-ray machine. Most of them then hold you up wanting to have a chat about it- the assumption usually is that your a coin collector I even had one guy on the bomb residue scanner pull me aside because he wanted to know where I bought my shoes.... I guess they just get bored.
Who - Australian Customs or the customs in the country of destination? I can't see any reason at all why Australian Customs would have a justification to confiscate gold on your personal being without a valid suspicion of money laundering, and merely encountering someone with gold isn't a reason. I recently travelled with gold & silver in carryon from the US - went through two airport scans, both of them flagged the silver on the x-ray machine for further inspection, the gold they ignored. More worried that I had something concealed in a coin tube than worried about the monetary aspects. Be warned that coin tubes will get opened and inspected if you're carrying numismatics.
GP - i meant with overseas customs like Europe, Asia etc..... they have some weird laws sometimes and make it up as they go. Just be cautious is all im saying.
Did anybody try or know somebody who tried to take gold out of Australia ? Would there be any issue if I put about 500 gm gold in my check-in luggage ? I am not worried about overseas customs as all they require is some customs duty which I am willing to pay but I don't want any issues here in Australia.
None whatsoever - but I would most certainly put it in carry-on, not checked. The only concern would be if it has a face value of $10,000 AUD or equivalent, but at 500 grams I can't think of any coins that would have a face value that high.
I will have 5 PAMP bars of 100 gm each. what is the face value of these bars ? Do I need to declare them ? I would prefer not to declare them. put it in carry-on for safety or something else ? I thought of check-in because I thought that is less likely to be searched.
There is no face value on a bar - they're not legal tender coinage. I'd be far far far less concerned about my carry-on being searched than I would be concerned about them being stolen from checked luggage. Keep them on you at all times.
