Gold As An Investment

Four of the nine known precious metals are regarded as investment commodities. Of these four, gold is the most popular. Investing in gold is a way of protecting against crises that may be brought about by economic or political instability or by social unrest.

There are at least six ways of investing in gold:

Buying gold coins:

This is the most popular way of investing in gold. Gold bullion coins are typically priced based on their weight; a premium is added to the gold spot price. Gold coins may be bought or sold over the counter in most Swiss banks.

Buying gold bars:

This is the most traditional way of investing in gold. As in gold bullion coins, bullion gold bars can be bought or sold over the counter in most Swiss banks, as well as in major banks in Liechtenstein and Austria. There also are bullion dealers that provide this same kind of service. Gold bars however are becoming less and less an option among investors due to the difficulties (in the verification process, transportation, and storage) associated with them.

Opening a gold account:

Gold accounts are offered by most banks in Switzerland. Here, gold can be bought or sold in much the same way foreign currencies are dealt. A gold account is backed either through non-fungible (allocated) gold storage or pooled (unallocated) storage.

Owning a gold certificate:

A gold investor may opt to hold on to a gold certificate rather than store the physical gold bullion. The gold certificate allows the investor to buy and sell the security and do away with the many difficulties associated with the actual gold's transfer.

Trading in Gold Exchange-Traded Funds (GETFs):

Trading in GETFs is like trading shares in, say, the New York Stock Exchange or the London Stock Exchange. Gold Bullion Securities, the first GETF introduced (in 2003, on the Australian Stock Exchange), stood for 1/10 of an ounce of gold. GETFs are a good means of gaining exposure to the price of gold, minus the inconvenience of storage. Trading in GETFs involves payment of commission and storage fee (charged on an annual basis). The expenses incurred in relation to the handling of the fund are charged through the selling of a certain amount of the gold as represented by the certificate. Over time, the amount of gold in the certificate, as may be expected, decreases.

Entering in a Contract For Difference (CFD):

Some of the noted financial services firms, especially those in the United Kingdom, provide Contract for Difference (CFD). In this gold investment vehicle, two parties (a "buyer" and a "seller") enter into a contract, in which the seller agrees to pay the buyer the difference between the current value of gold and its value at contract time. In case the difference is negative, the seller receives payment instead from the buyer. A CFD, therefore, allows an investor to take advantage of long or short positions, enabling him/her to speculate on these markets.

In a related scenario, an investor may buy gold early in a condition where there is increased investor confidence. The investor then sells the gold before a general decline in the stock market sets in. Obviously in this case, the investor's aim is to gain financially. You can find even more detailed information about investing in gold from Hubpages.

Gold: Most Sought-After Precious Metal

Of all the different precious metals we can think of, gold is certainly the one most greatly desired. Since the beginning of recorded history, gold has been in use in many different works of art, coinage, and, of course, jewelry. Occurring as grains in rocks and in alluvial deposits, gold is shiny, soft, and dense. It is known to be the most ductile and malleable pure metal.

What makes pure gold especially attractive is its bright yellow color and luster. These characteristics are maintained as gold is chemically unaffected by air or moisture. Here are some of the properties of gold:

General:

• Chemical Symbol: Au

• Atomic Number: 79

• Category (as an element): Transition Metal

• Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 11/ 6/ d

• Atomic Weight: 196.966569(4) g.mol-1

• Electron Configuration: [Xe] 4f14 5d10 6s1

Physical:

• Density (near room temperature): 19.30 g.cm-3

• Liquid Density (at melting point): 17.31 g.cm-3

• Melting Point: 1064.18°C, 1947.52°F, 1337.33°K

• Boiling Point: 2856°C, 5173°F, 3129°K

• Heat of Fusion: 12.55 kJ.mol-1

• Heat of Vaporization: 324 kJ.mol-1

Atomic:

• Oxidation States: -1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• Electronegativity: 2.54 (Pauling scale)

• Atomic Radius: 144 picometre

• Covalent Radius: 136±6 picometre

• Van der Waals Radius: 166 picometre

• Ionization Energies: 890.1 kJ.mol-1 (first), 1980 kJ.mol-1 (second)

The term "gold" was derived from "geolu", an Old English Anglo-Saxon word which means "yellow". Its symbol "Au", on the other hand, originated from "aurum", the Latin word for "gold". The exact period when gold was first discovered could be a subject of dispute. While some accounts point to the year 1848 when gold was discovered in California, history tells us that this precious metal was already being used extensively by the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Chinese, and South Americans.

Throughout history, gold has served as a measure of value and a symbol of wealth. It is one of the coinage metals (along with silver and copper). It is used, customarily and legally, as a means of payment or a medium of exchange. Gram and troy weight are the units of measurement used for gold. To indicate the amount of gold present in, say, a piece of jewelry, the term "carat" is used. A necklace, for instance, that is 24 carats means that it is made of pure gold.

While gold's price is determined through trading in the derivatives and gold markets, its daily benchmark price is provided in a procedure called the London Gold Fix. In this procedure, the price of the precious metal is determined each business day on the London market. The fixing is done twice - once in the morning and another in the afternoon. The latter actually was introduced about 49 years after the procedure itself was introduced, as a means of providing a price when US markets are open.

This gold-price fixing procedure is done by the five members of the London Gold Market Fixing Ltd., namely The Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank AG London, HSBC, and Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking. You can find even more detailed information about gold  from Hubpages.

Bullion: Mass Of Precious Metals

Bullion is a mass of any one of the known precious metals. By strict definition, precious metals are those metallic elements that are rare. Bullion is commonly made of either gold or silver. Its value is determined by the worth of the metal rather than by its face value as money. To put it another way, bullion is valued based on the mass and purity of the metal used, instead of its artificial currency value.

New sources of ore have been discovered and there also have been improvements in the mining and refining processes. These two factors may cause the values of gold, silver, and the other precious metals to diminish. Also, the "precious" qualification of a metal is determined by the market value or high demand.

Bullion is traded on commodity markets in two forms: bulk ingots or coins, the latter minted by the government of a country. At least ten countries are known to mint gold and silver bullion coins. These are Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

While bullion coins are issued as legal tender, with nominal values assigned to them on minting, such face values are far below the commodity value of the metals themselves. Here's an example: Most of the gold coins issued by national governments, particularly those with currency values of between 10 and 100 U.S. dollars, usually contain no less than 31 grams of gold. On the average (considering the consistent rise in the exchange rate of gold), the value of gold is around USD12 per gram. Here, it is clear that the currency value assigned by the government to a gold bullion coin has no meaning.

Below is a list of some of the government-issued gold and silver bullion coins:

1. Australian Gold Nugget, Lunar Series I, and Lunar Series II

2. Austrian Philharmoniker

3. Canadian Maple Leaf

4. Chinese Gold Panda

5. Mexican Centenario, Libertad, and Onza

6. Polish Orzel bielik

7. South African Krugerrand

8. Swiss Vreneli

9. British Britannia and Sovereign

10. American Buffalo, American Eagle, and Double Eagle

The 10,000-dollar Australian Gold Nugget is one of the world's largest bullion coins. Minted by the Australian government, this bullion coin is made of 1 kilogram of 99.9% pure gold. Some other bullion coins larger than the Australian Gold Nugget have come out. However, these are not produced in mass quantities and are not practical to handle. Two examples are given here: One is the 100,000-euro Vienna Philharmonic, minted in 2004, which contains 31 kilograms of gold; the other is the 1 million-dollar Canadian Maple Leaf, minted in 2007, which contains 100 kilograms of gold.

Three factors - metal, purity, and weight - affect the value of bullion. The overall value of bullion is determined by the metal used. We know, of course, that platinum is worth more than gold, which, in turn, is worth more than silver. It is easy to understand, therefore, that silver bullion coins have become popular with collectors because of their relative affordability. You can find even more detailed information about precious metals from Hubpages.

Silver: Precious Metal With The Highest Thermal And Electrical Conductivity

Silver is generally described as a soft, white, lustrous metallic chemical element. It occurs naturally in its pure form, as an alloy with other metallic elements (especially gold), and in chlorargyrite and other minerals. As one of three coinage metals (the other two being copper and gold), silver is very malleable and ductile.

Of the different metals, silver is known to have the highest thermal conductivity. Similarly of the different known elements, silver has the highest electrical conductivity. Provided below are some of the properties of this precious metal.

General:

• Chemical Symbol: Ag

• Atomic Number: 47

• Category (as an element): Transition Metal

• Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 11/ 5/ d

• Atomic Weight: 107.8682 g.mol-1

• Electron Configuration: [Kr] 4d10 5s1

Physical:

• Density (near room temperature): 10.49 g.cm-3

• Liquid Density (at melting point): 9.320 g.cm-3

• Melting Point: 961.78°C, 1234.93°F, 2041.4°K

• Boiling Point: 2162°C, 3924°F, 2435°K

• Heat of Fusion: 11.28 kJ.mol-1

• Heat of Vaporization: 250.58 kJ.mol-1

Atomic:

• Oxidation States: 1, 2, 3

• Electronegativity: 1.93 (Pauling scale)

• Atomic Radius: 144 picometre

• Covalent Radius: 145±5 picometre

• Van der Waals Radius: 172 picometre

• Ionization Energies: 731 kJ.mol-1 (first), 2070 kJ.mol-1 (second), 3361 kJ.mol-1 (third)

Despite having higher electrical conductivity than copper, silver isn't as much used for electrical purposes as copper is. There are two reasons for this: first is that silver has a greater tendency to tarnish; and second is that silver is much more expensive.

As a precious metal, silver has been much valued for ages with its so many applications, as in the following:

1. Jewelry (sterling silver is used in making fine jewelry and watches).

2. Silverware (sterling silver is also used in making utensils, tableware and ornaments).

3. Photography (silver nitrate and silver halides are used in making films).

4. Electrical and electronic products (silver paints are used in making printed circuits; silver electrical contacts are used in making computer keyboards).

5. Dentistry (silver-mercury alloy is used in making dental amalgams).

6. Optics and mirrors.

7. Various industrial and commercial uses (silver is ideal for use as a catalyst in chemical reactions).

8. Clothing (silver ions are mixed with the polymer to make yarns).

9. Medicine (silver compounds and silver ions have toxic effect on some viruses, fungi and bacteria, but not on humans).

10. Currency or coinage (as in silver bullion).

The principal sources of silver are copper, lead, zinc and gold ores. It also occurs in the minerals chlorargyrite and argentite. Of course, silver occurs natively, too. Some of the top silver-producing countries in the world are the United States, Canada, Peru, and Mexico. Fine silver, which has no less than 99.9% silver, is available commercially.

Because of competing store-of-value and industrial demands, the price of silver has fluctuated considerably over the last century. As of the beginning of 2010, the price of this precious metal is estimated at about 18 U.S. dollars per troy ounce (or 588 U.S. dollars per kilogram). You can find even more detailed information about silver from Hubpages.

Silver As An Investment

Silver is like three other precious metals (gold, palladium, and platinum) in terms of being regarded as an investment commodity. In fact, this precious metal has been regarded as a form of currency and a store of value for over four centuries.

There are different ways of investing in silver. Six are presented here:

Buying silver coins:

This is a popular way of taking hold of silver - physically. Perhaps the best example of a silver coin is the Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, which consists of 99.99% pure silver. Silver coins may either be "fine silver" or "junk silver". Junk silver coins are older coins with a lower percentage of silver. Examples of these are the dime, quarter, and fifty-cent U.S. coins minted in 1964 or earlier. These coins contain 90% silver and are 8/10 troy ounce per 1 USD of face value.

Buying silver bullion bars:

This is the most traditional way of investing in silver. Silver bullion bars can be bought or sold over the counter in most banks in Switzerland. They may be stored in safe deposit boxes in banks or placed in non-fungible (allocated) or pooled (unallocated) storage with a silver dealer.

Opening a silver account:

An investor may open a silver account with one of the major banks in Switzerland. Here, silver can be bought or sold over the counter just like any foreign currency. However, the bank client does not own the actual silver metal. Instead, he/she has a claim against the bank for a specified quantity of the metal. A silver account is backed through either allocated or unallocated storage.

Owning a silver certificate:

In lieu of storing actual silver bullion, an investor may opt for ownership of a silver certificate. A silver certificate allows an investor to buy and sell the security sans the inconveniences associated with the physical silver's transfer. The Perth Mint Certificate Programme, which is fully guaranteed by the Government of Western Australia, is the only silver certificate program in the world that is guaranteed by a national government.

Trading in Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs):

An investor can have an easy way of gaining exposure to the price of silver through an ETF. Some of the well-known ETFs include iShares Silver Trust (with ticker symbol NYSE: SLV), Central Fund of Canada (with ticker symbols TSX: CEF.NV.A, NYSE: CEF), and ETFS Silver Trust (with ticker symbol NYSE: SIVR). Trading in ETFs means doing away with the inconveniences associated with the handling of physical silver bars.

Entering in a Contract For Difference (CFD):

Some of the noted financial services firms, especially those in the United Kingdom, provide Contract for Difference (CFD). In this silver investment vehicle, two parties (a "buyer" and a "seller") enter into a contract, in which the seller agrees to pay the buyer the difference between the current value of silver and its value at contract time. In case the difference is negative, the seller receives payment instead from the buyer. A CFD, therefore, allows an investor to take advantage of long or short positions, enabling him/her to speculate on these markets.

It must be mentioned here though that silver has lost its forced tender status in the United States since the abandonment of the silver standard, when, on August 15, 1967, then U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that the U.S. would discontinue redeeming currency for silver (or any other precious metal). You can find even more detailed information about investing in silver from Hubpages.

Gold And Silver: The Two Precious Traditional Coinage Metals

Four transition metals make up group 11 of the periodic table of elements. All, except one, are considered traditional coinage metals. Qualifying this further, only two of these three traditional coinage metals are considered precious metals. These are gold and silver.

Gold and silver are rare and have high economic values. These things can't be said of copper, the other traditional coinage metal. Occurring in nature in metallic form, these two precious metals can be produced sans the use of extraction metallurgy.

Characteristics of gold and silver

These other characteristics make them both well suited for coinage:

• They are not radioactive.

• They are more ductile or softer than most other elements.

• They are less reactive compared with other elements.

• They have excellent luster.

• They have higher melting points compared with other metals.

The high-ductility property of gold and silver means they can be easily damaged as coins for circulation. Coins intended for circulation must be highly resistant to corrosion and wear. For this reason, gold or silver must be alloyed with other metals (example, manganese) so that the resulting coins will come out harder, more wear-resistant, and not easily damaged or deformed.

As numismatic items, gold and silver coins are made almost entirely of the precious metals, respectively. Current collectible gold coins (the 22-carat gold coins), for example, are made of 92% gold, with silver and copper comprising the rest. The coins in circulation in the United States prior to 1933 were made of 90% gold and 10% copper-silver combined. Canada's official gold bullion coin - The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf - is made of 99.999% gold; and so are these four other gold bullion coins:

1. British Britannia (with a face value of 100 pounds).

2. Chinese Gold Panda (with face values of 500, 200, 100, 50, and 25 Yuan).

3. Swiss Helvetia Head (with face values of 100, 20, and 10 Swiss francs).

4. Austrian Vienna Philharmonic (with face values of 100, 50, 25, and 10 euros).

Silver coins, like the minted coins circulated in the United States and other countries prior to 1965, were made of 90% silver and 10% copper. The American Silver Eagle and the Mexican Silver Libertad bullion coins, introduced in 1986 and 1982 respectively, were made of 99.9% silver and 0.1% copper.

Other notable silver bullion coins include the Australian Silver Kookaburra, Chinese Silver Panda, and the Russian George the Victorious.

Minting coins, whether gold or silver, always entails the risk of having the value of the metal used in the coin greater than the coin's face value. This is especially true in coins of low denomination. Because of this, there exists the possibility of some smelters taking gold or silver coins and melting these down for the scrap value of the precious metals.

A couple examples, in this regard, are worth mentioning here: US pennies have been made of copper-clad zinc since 1982, when they were before this time made of copper alloys; and British pennies were once made of 97% copper, but are now made of copper-plated steel.

As additional information, gold and silver both have a currency code of ISO 4217. You can find even more detailed information about gold and silver from Hubpages.

Krugerrand: Most Well-Known Precious Metal Coin

There are thirty-three known bullion coins in the world. Of these, 5 are made of platinum, 1 of palladium, 9 of silver, and 18 of gold. And of all these precious metal coins, the South African gold bullion coin Krugerrand is perhaps the most popular.

In 1967, the South African Mint Company introduced the Krugerrand, with the intention of circulating it as currency. Its status as a legal tender was seen as the best way for marketing South African gold around the world. In fact, thirteen years after its introduction, this precious metal coin accounted for about ninety percent of the gold coin market.

The Krugerrand comes in four varieties:

1. One-tenth ounce coin (0.11 troy ounce in weight, 1.35 millimeters thick, and 16.55 millimeters in diameter).
2. Quarter ounce coin (0.27 troy ounce in weight, 1.89 millimeters thick, and 22.06 millimeters in diameter).
3. Half ounce coin (0.55 troy ounce in weight, 2.22 millimeters thick, and 27.07 millimeters in diameter).
4. One ounce coin (1.09 troy ounces in weight, 2.84 millimeters thick, and 32.77 millimeters in diameter).

Each of these four coin varieties is 22K, containing 91.67% pure gold and 8.33% copper. This composition was meant to make the coins more durable and harder and thus resist dents and scratches, as, again, they were originally intended for circulation.

On the obverse of the Krugerrand is the face of Stephanus Jonannes Paulus Kruger, fifth president of the South African Republic (note the surname Kruger and the South African currency Rand were combined to give this precious metal coin its name). Also here are the Afrikaans and English versions of the name "South Africa", both inscribed in capital letters.

On the reverse of the coin is an image of the springbok, an antelope specie which is a South African national symbol. Atop the image is an inscription of the name of the coin, in capital letters, while below it is the coin's gold content, inscribed in Afrikaans and English.

Special samples of the coin (proof Krugerrand) are minted and offered as collector's items. These proof Krugerrands are priced above the bullion Krugerrands. The two coin versions can be distinguished from one another by the number of serrations they have - the proof version has 220, while the bullion has 40 less than the former's.

Other nations, such as Canada, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, started producing their own precious metal coins one after the other beginning in 1979. The decisions of these gold-producing countries to mint their own bullion coins were most likely inspired by the success of the Krugerrand in its role as a vehicle for promoting the South African gold to the international market. As of 2008, about 1.3 million kilograms of South African gold, contained in Krugerrand coins, have been sold.

Unlike the bullion coin series of other countries, which come in gold and silver, the Krugerrand comes only in gold. Coins made of silver that are passed off as "Krugerrands" are neither produced by the South African Mint Company nor sanctioned by the government of South Africa.

Gold Standard Definition And The Three Distinct Kinds

The gold standard is defined in many different reference materials as a monetary system in which the unit of currency used is a fixed quantity or weight of gold. Under this system, all forms of money, including notes and bank deposits, were freely converted into gold at the fixed price.

There are three known kinds of gold standard that have been adopted since the early 1700s - the gold specie, gold exchange, and gold bullion standards. Following is the definition and a brief historical account of each.

Gold Specie Standard:

In this gold standard, the unit of currency is linked to the gold coins that are in circulation. More specifically, the monetary unit is associated with the unit of value of a specific gold coin in circulation along with that of any secondary coinage (coins made of metal that is valued less than gold).

Recorded history points to the existence of a gold specie standard in medieval empires. For example, the Eastern Roman Empire made use of a gold coin called Byzant (from the original Greek term Bezant). The first known major area in the world to be on a gold specie standard in modern times is the British West Indies. That standard, however, was more of a commonly applied system rather than an officially established one. It was based on the Spanish gold coin called the doubloon.

The United States adopted the gold specie standard "de jure" (by law) in 1873, using the American Gold Eagle as unit.

Gold Exchange Standard:

In this gold standard, only the circulation of coins minted from lesser valuable metals (such as silver) may be involved. The authorities, however, will have undertaken a fixed exchange rate with a country that's on the gold standard.

Before the turn of the 20th century, countries that were still on silver standard started pegging their monetary units to the gold standard of either the United States or the United Kingdom. For example, Mexico, the Philippines, and Japan pegged their respective silver units to the U.S. dollar at fifty cents.

Gold Bullion Standard:

In this gold standard, gold bullion is sold on demand at a fixed price. It was introduced in 1925 by the British Parliament in an act which at the same time voided the gold specie standard. Six years later, the United Kingdom decided to temporarily stop the gold bullion standard because of the large amount of gold that flowed out across the Atlantic Ocean. The gold standard eventually ended that same year.

One of the advantages of the gold standard is that it sort of restricts the government's power in inflating prices, which is possible through excessive issuance of paper currency. Also by providing a fixed pattern of exchange rates, the gold standard may effectively lessen uncertainty in international trade.

As to its disadvantage, the gold standard may make monetary policy ineffective in stabilizing the economy in the event of a general slowdown in economic activity. This is likely, as many economists fear, since under the gold standard the supply of gold would be the exclusive determinant to the amount of money. You can find even more detailed information about gold standards from Hubpages.