Oxstones Investment Club™2016 has been an outstanding year for gold and other precious metals. Since the beginning of the year, the yellow metal has gained 28% in value, showing sceptic investors that gold is far from disappearing from the markets.
Both Brexit and the real negative rates being used by several central banks worldwide have been pushing gold prices up to the roof, mainly because the terrible sensation of uncertainty among markets.
Gold futures, ETF’s and mining stocks aren’t the only popular alternatives investors have chosen during the last months to protect their assets. In a classic move, many people are choosing practical gold coins and bullion, being coins way more accessible and easy to get.
Why Exactly Investors are Choosing Gold Coins?
As we already said, gold coins have a notable advantage over bullion due the price. That’s a good point for choosing coins. At the same time, gathering some gold in a safe box feels safer than having gold futures or mining stocks during the financial and political turmoil.
Also, we must understand that the relation between gold prices and mining stock isn’t absolute and mandatory. While the gold prices are escalating quickly, you could get a mining stock and suffer shortly after from syndical issues, strikes, administrative conflicts, and corruption.
Gold at hand is harder to manipulate. Many experts insist that the gold market is, in some way, rigged by central banks. This “conspiracy theory” claims that this market is manipulated to benefit currencies and maintain the US Dollar winning the race.
While some of this theories have a little sense and few realistic facts, something is guaranteed: buying gold futures and physical gold isn’t the same. Of course, you will feel safer by purchasing some legit gold coins and then selling your gold later on, rather than paying for gold in a piece of paper.
The Legit Status
As expected by some, this gold fever we have nowadays, pushed by many factors going on worldwide, has ignited a massive scamming operation to deliver fake gold coins.
We see on the news, every day, that some swindler somewhere in the world has been arrested for selling counterfeit gold coins.
Counterfeit coins are more popular than ever. Catching a careless investor is easy these days, because the massive demand on the streets for physical gold.
The great fear authorities have is that counterfeit coins coming right now from China are really well made. Even a dedicated gold professional could get scammed by one.
Striking Back
While the danger of these coins is too great to be ignored, a good share of investors is now well informed. But, as we already said, the modern counterfeit coins have a good construction and quality, so it is hard to notice the difference.
The only thing investors can do to protect their assets is to shop with reputable dealers only. There are big companies with a solid reputation in the U.S., Europe, and Australia that offer a satisfaction guarantee.
This advice is especially useful for gold buyers in Australia. Being so close to China, criminals use this advantage to get the product easier and without a major intervention of international authorities.
India is also suffering a great deal from counterfeit coins. At the same time, the police are working hard to reduce the chances of scamming gold buyers.
Recently, an arrest in the Bommanakatte community was related to this illegal activity. Criminals were offering fake coins, allegedly acquired during “an excavation at an agricultural location”.
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