Many Shapes and Sizes
Long ago, buying gold bullion was almost completely out of reach for ordinary people, the only options to buy gold coins that were available were large 400 ounce gold bars or gold coins such as the South African Krugerrand. Times have drastically changed; nowadays gold bullion is available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. In fact, it is now possible to buy gold bullion bars weighing as little as a 20th of an ounce.

The Best Gold Bullion to Buy
Deciding what kind of gold bullion to buy should depend on why you are buying it.

Buying gold bullion coins, such as the South African Krugerrand, The American Eagle, or the Austrian Philharmonic, is a popular option. It offers an attractive compromise between aesthetic pleasure, collector possibilities, and gold investment. However, if you have no interest in anything but getting the most gold for your money, it is not the optimal solution. Fabrication costs for gold coins are higher than for bars, thus the amount of gold you get for every dollar is less.

If the sole purpose of your purchase is as an investment in the gold price, the ideal is to buy gold bullion in bars. This present additional choices as well. Bars come in many sizes; to get the most gold for your money, you should get the largest bar that you can afford. Smaller bars come at a higher premium, as an example, if you buy the smallest bars available, you will end up paying twice the value of the gold contained in the bar. If you buy large bars, however, you can come very close to getting the amount of gold the official price of gold suggests. Smaller bars also offer benefits though, as an example, transport and where to store them becomes much less of a headache.

Buying Gold Bullion
The process of buying gold should start by you determining how much you want to spend. Then find a host of reputable gold dealers, making sure they have experience, a good reputation, and a positive track record.

Make a note of the current price of gold and compare it to the offers at the various dealers. Remember your motivation for purchasing the gold, and find the offer with the most value based on your preferences.

You can also buy gold coins online. Prices at sites like eBay can easily be compared to those at any dealer, but many dealers are also online so that you can order automatically once you set up an account.

It’s easy now to invest in gold, both actual bullion, gold coins and also paper assets that in turn invest in gold. Once you have found the gold coins for sale that make the most sense for you, then all you need to do is send payment to the dealer, and your gold bullion should be on the way!

Necessary Research prior to Buying Gold Coins
To make sure you avoid getting ripped off when buying gold coins, you need to determine what would be a fair price for a given coin.

For a legal tender gold coin, this can be done by consulting a coin book or by searching online. The value depends on the current price of gold, the weight of the coin, how rare it is, and how the condition of the coin is.

When it comes to gold bullion coins, the most important factors are the current price of gold and the weight of the coin. Mainly, you want to buy well-known coins, weighing one ounce, in mint condition.

Reputable Coin Dealers
You can find coin dealers both online and in “the real world”. When choosing a coin dealer make sure you have all the information available, ensuring your chosen dealer is trustworthy and knowledgeable.

A help in finding reputable coin dealers is the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG). This is an association of coin dealers; to join a coin dealer must document and live up to strict requirements. These concern his or her experience, knowledge, financial stability, reputation, and track record.

Choosing a coin dealer from the PNG thus maximizes the possibility of you dealing with a stable and reputable business. An additional benefit is that the PNG has established a binding arbitration council to resolve disputes, if you get ripped off this makes it a lot more likely that you will get your money back.

Buying Gold Coins on Auction Sites
You can also buy gold coins online, at online auction sites, such as Ebay. This entails risk as you are essentially sending money to strangers hoping they will send you real gold coins back. To reduce said risk, choose only well reviewed and reputable sellers. Always keep a healthy amount of skepticism in the back of your mind, and try to notice if what is being offered sounds realistic or too good to be true.

Make Sure You get Your Happy Ending
Finding gold coins for sale is fairly easy; the hard part is making sure that you get a fair deal. To make sure the story has a happy ending, you need to do the research and keep a level head.

Gold Coins versus Cold Coin Bullion
Before the 1930s The US, and many other countries around the world, were on what is known as the gold standard. This meant, among other things, that gold coins were often minted as legal tender. A “true” gold coin if you will.

This is not done anymore. Gold coins made today are gold bullion, shaped as coins, often with various artistic engravings. In other words, what gold coin to get, depends partly on whether you want a coin made of gold or gold shaped like a coin.

Legal Tender Gold Coins
The standard size of gold coins is considered to be one ounce. If you want to buy legal tender gold coins, the American $20 gold coin was about this size. Other smaller denominations included $10, $5, $3, and $1.

Popular foreign legal tender gold coins are the British Sovereign and The French 20 Franc coin. These are relatively small coins, the Sovereign weighs about a quarter of an ounce, while the 20 Franc weighs about a fifth of an ounce.

The value of legal tender gold coins depends not only on the weight and the current price of gold, but also on how rare, and in what condition, the particular coins are. People not only buy them as investments, but also as collector’s items, due, for example, to the history behind.

Gold Bullion Coins
Gold bullions coins’ value depends more heavily on the current price of gold, although considerations such as rarity play a part as well. It is advisable to buy gold bullion coins weighing one ounce, as these are the easiest to sell again. Likewise, buying the most well-known coins will make them easier to sell. These include the American Eagle, the South African Krugerrand, and the Austrian Philharmonic.

Before Buying Gold Coins
When you have made the decision to buy cold coins, you should learn how to determine a fair price. This is done by doing a bit of research. You need to check the price of gold as it changes daily. This can be done on the financial pages of most newspapers or on many internet sites. Since the value of the coins depend on additional factors, you also need to know how rare they are, etc.. This information can be found in coin books or by searching the internet.

American Eagle Gold Coins as an Investment
American Eagle gold coins derive their value not only from the price of gold, but also from how rare they are. If your goal as an investor is to invest directly in the price of gold, they are not the ideal solution, as you will be able to obtain more gold bullion per dollar by buying gold bars.

However, gold coins can still be a great investment, as their value doesn’t come exclusively from the gold price, but also from the fact that they are a collector’s item.

Buying American Eagle Gold Coins from Local Coin Shops
If you live in, or close to, a larger city, you should be spoiled for choices when it comes to coin shops carrying American Eagle Gold Coins. If your local coin shop’s selection of American Eagle coins are less than ideal, and you prefer not shopping online, you can usually ask the store to order the coins you are looking for and then pick them up later.

Buying from Online Coin Shops
If you prefer shopping from the comfort of your own home and you value the massive selection, shopping at an online coin shop might be for you. Remember to make sure that the online dealer you choose has a good reputation and a proven track record.

Get Your Coins Directly from the US Mint
New American Eagle gold coins can actually be purchased online directly from the mint. Often you are even able to get the same price paid by coin dealers, making this a very favorable option for new coins. Old coins must still be found using coin dealers, however.

Be Careful when Using Online Auction Sites
It is possible to buy American Eagle coins from online auction sites. In fact, you can get some fantastic deals this way. The downside is that this is also the most risky option. Before purchasing any coins, make sure the seller has a slew of positive reviews and no accusations of fraud have been levied against him or her.

A Little Research Goes a Long Way
As you can tell, there is no lack of options for those interested in purchasing American Eagle cold coins. Whatever option you choose, a little research will go a long way in making sure you obtain the most value for your dollars, and that you will soon be enjoying your beautiful, shiny American Eagle gold coins.

What are the different options available online?

Online Coin Dealers
Just as you can find “real world” coin shops in all larger cities, the online world has a significant number of them. Between all of these, the selection carried is positively gargantuan. Always make sure, however, that the shop you choose comes highly recommended, as there are con artists out there.

Auction Sites
Online auction sites, the largest and most well-known of which is Ebay, also have a good selection of gold coins. Remember that you are not dealing with the site as such, but are actually buying from other users. This means that buying from auction sites is the most risky option. It does offer benefits as well, and you will be hard pressed to find as attractive bargains from other sources. Before purchasing anything, be sure that the seller is long established and has received glowing reviews. Always keep in mind, if something sounds too good to be true, it likely is.

The US Mint
If you are looking for brand new gold bullion coins, buying from the US mint is an extremely attractive option. From the mint’s website you can buy new American Eagle gold coins, it even allows you to get the same price as dealers receive.

Before Buying
Before buying any gold coins you need to make a few decisions. First of all, how much do you want to spend?

Then you need to decide what kind of coins you want. Gold coins are divided into many groups. First of all, there are historic coins that used to function as legal tender, the value of these coins deviates highly from the price of gold, depending on how rare they are. Second, there are gold bullion coins, while the value of these also depends on rarity, they are much more tied up to the current price of gold.

You need to establish what a fair price will be for any given coin. This can be done by consulting coin books, searching online, and noting the current price of gold. You also need to establish what condition the coin is in.

Finally, how to buy gold coins online, also depends on much risk you are willing to take.

Adding up these factors, you should now be able to browse the online selection, decide which deal offers the most value to you, pay, and wait for your new coins to be delivered!

Investing in Physical Gold versus Gold Exchange-Traded Funds
If you want to invest in gold, you can either buy gold yourself or buy shares of gold exchange-traded funds. Each option offers benefits and drawbacks. Which one to choose depends largely on your personal preferences.

Buying Physical Gold
Buying gold and storing it yourself, offers a direct investment in the price of gold. You can either buy gold coins or gold bars.

If you buy gold coins you will not maximize the amount of gold you receive per dollar spent. Gold coins offer added value in other ways though, since they also act as collector’s items, and old, rare coins, thus has value far beyond what their weight and the current price of cold suggests.

If you want to directly invest in the price of gold, buying gold bars offers the best value. Buy the bars in the largest size you can afford, as this will reduce the premium the dealer receives per unit of gold.

Investing through Gold ETFs
If you have no desire to store gold yourself, but still want to invest in the price of gold, gold exchange-traded funds, abbreviated gold ETFs, offer a great alternative.

Gold ETFs are investment funds that track the price of gold. Shares in these can be bought on major stock exchanges, including New York, London, and Paris. The ETF will either directly buy physical gold or they will track the price of gold using various financial instruments, such as stocks in gold mining companies or futures contracts.

Holding physical gold allows gold ETFs to most accurately track the price of gold, but it is associated with higher expenses, since transporting and storing gold is expensive. Using financial instruments on the other hand reduce expenses, but can result in significant deviations between the value of the fund and the gold price.

How to Decide
If you want to invest in gold, the first decision you must make is whether you want to store gold yourself. If you like the idea of having the gold in your house or in a bank vault, this is a great option. However, if you think of storing gold more as a hassle, investing in gold ETFs is an attractive alternative.