I’m seldom asked, and I wish I were, what  best  to buy when buyers of gold and silver bullion begin amassing their ‘stash’.

Gold particularly requires due diligence as the loss cost of buying a single bogus piece will run into the thousands of dollars.  There is no single safe guard that will guarantee your gold purchase, but there are a number of ‘BEST PRACTICES’ that if taken in the whole make it highly unlikely you’ll ever end up with a counterfeit.  To that end, I’ve compiled a few recommendations:

1. Know who you’re buying from.  This applies whether you are purchasing from a local coin shop, an established national dealer, or an individual known to you.  Despite the claims of some of my peers, we all are capable of being fooled by a good counterfeit.  Everyone looks good and seems credible when things go well.  Take care to deal with someone both experienced and reputable.
2. Consider smaller weights and values.  Besides limiting the risk, there are pragmatic reasons for taking this approach.  If the reason you’ve chosen to buy precious metals (notice I didn’t use the word invest) is to guard against hyper inflation or collapse of fiat currency, who’s going to be able to give change on that 100 ounce silver bar when you need groceries?
3. Start with good old US 90% silver coin as your base.  It’s easily identifiable, trade-able, and the chances of a bogus non numismatic coin highly unlikely.  Silver has been the every day ‘workingman’s’ exchange medium since the old testament age, and no stacker should be without a good supply of this type of ‘hard money’.
4. When buying gold, my recommendation would be towards established coins struck at government mints.  Gold has a unique physical and chemical composition.  It is both one of the densest and softest of metals.  That combination makes it very difficult for counterfeiters to match up the weight and size.  Recently, there are some very good counterfeits coins being produced in China with tungsten as its base metal.  The weight and size can be very closely matched, but the detail in the coins not so much.  Tungsten is a much harder metal (also fairly rare), so even the best of counterfeiters will be hard pressed to match the detail in a high relief gold coin.

In closing, a word or two about gold bars.  In most cases, those bars are encased in plastic ‘assay cards’, and most private mints stamp official looking registration numbers on their bars.  They can’t be weighed or measured, and private mints at least in my experience won’t authenticate a specimen based on a registration number.  They can only be verified genuine by using an x-ray spectrometer (a ten thousand dollar machine), and most local coin dealers don’t have such equipment.  I’ve read about a promising alternative technology available for about a tenth of that, and if sufficiently convinced of its reliability expect that to be my next major asset purchase.

At the Goldbug Exchange, I have sufficient quantities of gold and silver bullion on hand for most investors, and can arrange through a partnership with a well-known national dealer to acquire larger quantities if needed.

Stop by and we’ll talk coins and precious metals.  I take my coffee with cream, no sugar.  Gene