Buying gold in Australia can feel a little overwhelming, with many bullion dealers and a multitude of gold products to choose from. To make the process a little less daunting, we’re including a few important things to consider when making your first purchase of gold in Australia. Keep in mind, at Imperial Bullion we’re always a quick phone call away if you have any questions. We also have numerous physical locations if you’d like to visit in person to discuss your bullion buying and selling requirements.
Pricing Gold and how it works
Gold is predominantly sold in troy ounces. A troy ounce is slightly heavier than a kitchen ounce and weighs 31.103 grams.
The price of retail gold is based on the spot price of gold, which is set internationally in a live market. Most bullion dealers show the current spot pricing of gold either on their website or pricing list and then show the pricing of gold products separate to the spot price. Everyone uses the same spot price making the margin (or premium) for each gold product transparent. We recommend shopping around to ensure you are getting the best value for your gold purchase. Reach out to Imperial Bullion if you’ve found a better price elsewhere; we’ll try our best to match this pricing for you.
Older or existing gold products are usually sold as poured or cast bars. They are cheaper to manufacture and have the producer or bullion dealers branding and weight visible on the front of the bar.
Some newer gold products are special minted and can be sold in grams. These smaller minted products are a great way to buy gold in a more affordable way, though they can generally have a slightly higher premium compared to buying a larger weights.
Gold as an investment does not attract any GST when buying or selling. When selling your gold it may incur capital gains taxation, so please consult your taxation specialist when you’re looking to sell.
Purity and how its measured
For gold to be considered investment grade it needs to be considered pure. Look closely on the bar you’re looking to purchase for the numbers 9999. These numbers stands for 99.99% pure and meets the requirement to be
classed as pure gold. Some older bars are marked with only 999 (99.9%) and while still very high quality, don’t meet this requirement.
Also consider that while a bar can be marked with 9999 to be completely sure of its purity you should measure your gold with an XRF machine (X-ray fluorescence). Imperial Bullion has an XRF machine at each of its locations to aid measuring any bar or jewellery we have for sale, as well as quickly measuring any gold product you should wish to sell back to Imperial Bullion.
Gold Coins
Gold can also be sold as coins. The Perth Mint is Australia’s largest gold coin manufacturer and releases new coins regularly every year. Internationally gold coins have also been an important part of gold investment. A few iconic international coins include Krugerrands (South Africa), Sovereigns, Gold Eagles (United States) and Maple Leaf (Canada), Britannia (Britain) and Philharmonic (Austrian). A gold coin is also considered an investment product if it meets a high level of purity and clearly shows who manufactured it.
Dealer reputation
When buying or selling gold it is very important to work with a bullion dealer that provides a great price and access to products that are of a high quality. With many dealers now offering online sales, it is also important to consider visiting a real bullion dealer at their location and see the actual gold before
committing to a purchase. After establishing a relationship with any bullion dealer, it becomes much more efficient to either purchase online through their website or via the phone.
Delivery or pickup in person
When making your first purchase, we do recommend visiting in person. This will ensure you love your new gold, as well as allowing us to answer any of your questions you may have. Picking up your purchase is also free. If you do find it more convenient to have your gold freighted we do offer this service for a small charge (this is calculated in our online checkout process). We try to keep our freight costs as competitive as possible.
Secure storage
Following your purchase, you may wish to consider storing your gold in one of our safe deposit boxes in our Vault. Our safe boxes are very well priced, have extremely high security, are flood and fire proof while keeping your gold (or valuables) accessible as you require them. For select clients we can also offer custodial services that include buying and selling into and out of dedicated vault storage. For any SMSF purchases, secure storage may be part of your trust requirements. We can also provide audit services on all safe deposit boxes upon request.
If you’re looking to purchase gold today we encourage you to research pricing through our website and either visit one of our locations instore or complete you purchase securely online. And if you have any questions, please reach out to our friendly staff.
