I would like to invest in gold, may i know if investing in gold bar is better or gold coins? thanks?

Recently i would like to invest in gold, is it worth my effort to invest in gold commodity? which is better gold bar or gold coins? and what is the minimum weight of the gold that i should invest? thanks

Get the bars. The coins sell at a higher premium then the bars do. For example, at www.kitco.com (a great site by the way) a 1 oz. Gold American Eagle Coin sells for $644.39, while a 1 oz. bar sells for $622.80.

The one poster that says don't invest in gold cause too many negative possibilites is being a little short sighted. You could say don't invest in equities cause too many negative possibilities - they could go bankrupt, they may have a product recall, account scandal, get caught in the down draft of a market crash.

I could also say never drive, too many negative possibilities - car could break down leaving you strandand, you could get hit by a drunk driver and killed, the insurance can kill your budget, fuel prices could go up making it too expensive to operate the vehicle.

I could say never get married, too many negatives - your wife could be spend you out of house and home, she could cheat on your, or worse cheat on you and give you a disease, she could be an absolute witch, her parents could move in with you and drive you crazy.

See what I'm getting at? There are risks in anything you do. And it doesn't matter which investment you get into, they ALL have their pluses and minuses. All you an do is do your due diligence and pay attention to what you've invested in. Have a plan for what you'll do if things don't go the way you hoped they would etc.

I personally like gold. Heck, for 2006, gold is up almost 20%, while the Dow was up a little over 16%. From 2000 to 2006, the Dow is up 8.42% while gold is up 113.34%. So, gold has been there better buy in the past few years.

Gold bars are usually better accepted internationally. Other than that, gold is gold.

Invest in Gold bars and the investment should be as per your pocket.

gold bar, and the weight and size depends on how much money you have to put into the bar. I personally wouldn't buy gold whatsoever. Its a decent way to invest but there are too many negative possibilites when investing into gold.

Don't invest in Gold or physical metal you will find it difficult to store up and even difficult ot sell and even if you can then you will have to sell at discount then. Your speculative product should have risen so high to afford the discount at sale. This might be a gamble. Play gold options where you don't have to take physical delivery and you can take full advantage of the price movements and earn profit if you are right about it.

Gold should not be viewed as an investment, but as an insurance policy. Gold purchased 10 years ago would have doubled in prices. That's little more than 7% interest. Gold purchaed in the early 80s and sold in the mid 90's would show a decline of over 50%. Again, it should be viewed as insurance. You should have at least 10% of your investable assets in gold.

Owning gold will protect you in times of severe inflation, depression, recession, declining dollar, war and turmoil or the end of the world as we know it. It is at these times that the worthlessness of the dollar becomes apparent and people see the value of gold.

I prefer the hard shiny kind rather than ETFs or certificates because, after all, you're preparing for the unknown. In an emergency, you don't know what will happen to the institutions holding those vehicles, but you will know about the gold you have stashed away. In an emergency where financial institutions are off-line and the dollar is distrusted, folks will trade goods and services for the shiny stuff.

Do not buy "rare" gold coins. Instead buy Bullion. Bullion comes in coins and bars. Bullion sells for the price of gold + a small premium for minting. Bullion coins are generally more expensive than bars because they have the backing of the govt. that produced them, are easily identifyable and are harder to counterfeit as well. Either is good.

American Eagles and Krugerands are 22Kt and weigh 33.9 grams per ounce.
Bars, Austrailian Kangaroos and Canadian Maple Leafs are 24Kt and weigh 31.1 gram per ounce.
Either contains an ounce of gold. The 22kt kind contains a bit of copper as well for hardness.

Buy a gram scale to verify the weight of your bullion. You can find these on ebay for ~ $10.

Store it safely and keep it quiet. With recent bank mergers, safety deposit boxes have been subject to "disappearance" and many people have lost their contents. Beware.

Never sell your gold for anything but cash as you may find the IRS looking for their cut.

Good luck.