It's nice looking and comes sealed in plastic with an assay card and matching serial number stamped on the back of the gold sheet (which is not shown in your picture) but if you go on the Valcambi website you can read more about it. I would think that helps keep it more marketable if you keep it intact. Ebay has lots of people breaking them apart and selling the 1 gram units for more than the cost of buying one of these things. Seems like a pretty good idea to me, but I know others that like the proof gold coins as a better place to put their money. I know one guy that totally believes in the proof buffalos. I wonder if anybody else has an opinion on coins versus baby bullion, or "gold" cards?
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bushi
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...I cannot understand why people pay any attention to the whole "proof" packaging thing - do they think it is possible to counterfeit gold coin/bar, but it is somehow "impossible" to counterfeit it's plastic "proof" packaging? :shrug:
I mean, c'mon??? Is this a part of our today's idiotic "follow the leader" herd mentality: "if it says on the tin it is 'proof' packaged, it means, it CANNOT be anything else" :rotflmbo:
...I can assure you, that Chinese or whomever else is counterfeiting metal products, would have ZERO issues counterfeiting the packaging as well
Re: the OP breakable bars: personally, I find them to be a gimmick, rather than anything else.
I mean, c'mon??? Is this a part of our today's idiotic "follow the leader" herd mentality: "if it says on the tin it is 'proof' packaged, it means, it CANNOT be anything else" :rotflmbo:
...I can assure you, that Chinese or whomever else is counterfeiting metal products, would have ZERO issues counterfeiting the packaging as well
Re: the OP breakable bars: personally, I find them to be a gimmick, rather than anything else.
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On the upside if gold gets more valuable a 1 gram piece is going to be easier to work with. If an ounce of gold gets to $10,000 a single coin is going to be awfully expensive for the average person (or business) to deal with. I don't see much downside except for the premium and if you are going to hold them for the long haul that isn't going to matter much.
mike
Ground Beetle
Too much premium.
I'd rather have bars and coins 1oz and save the headache.
I'm sure I'll be able to barter them too.
-Q
Barter is when you trade shoes for butter. Silver and gold are money :banana:
bushi
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well to each it's own - you would not buy bread & butter & pay in gold. Realistically, when you need to pay the equivalent of 1/32 of (much better priced) 1OZ gold coin - why not use one/two silver coins for that (depending what is the current going Gold/Silver ratio)???
I mean, you will buy a house, and pay in gold - you'll work out the change with the seller, no worries. You'd NOT pay for everyday items with gold. How practical it is, to have these 1g tiny gold squares getting squashed in your wallet? Not at all. Would you accept them as payment yourself? I would not, fuck knows how to assess them, the moment you break them away from that golden chocolate bar.
For all the above reasons, I still consider them as a gimmick, honestly - and an expensive one.
Keep it simple :mrt:
I mean, you will buy a house, and pay in gold - you'll work out the change with the seller, no worries
. You'd NOT pay for everyday items with gold. How practical it is, to have these 1g tiny gold squares getting squashed in your wallet? Not at all. Would you accept them as payment yourself? I would not, fuck knows how to assess them, the moment you break them away from that golden chocolate bar. For all the above reasons, I still consider them as a gimmick, honestly - and an expensive one.
Keep it simple :mrt:
Having Silver to make change is obviously practical, but these gold bars are small and easy to conceal, and silver can get heavy. You could hide one or two of these gold wafers inside a cell phone case, or the sole of your shoe, so you could travel with money less conspicuously.
I would also think it would be very difficult to make a counterfeit version of these "bars" because of the scoring and how easy it is to break them apart. If I understand how counterfeits work you need to put something on the inside that will make the bar weigh the correct amount. All you would need to do is break one of these bars in half and if something was inside you would see it. It would be very challenging and probably not worth the effort to make every single 1 gram piece have their own counterfeit interior weight and you would also need to design it so it could be broken apart and still leave a pure gold edge. I don't think that will happen at these prices. You would be better off trying to make a fake proof buffalo.
I think they might have more going for them than just a gimmick?
I would also think it would be very difficult to make a counterfeit version of these "bars" because of the scoring and how easy it is to break them apart. If I understand how counterfeits work you need to put something on the inside that will make the bar weigh the correct amount. All you would need to do is break one of these bars in half and if something was inside you would see it. It would be very challenging and probably not worth the effort to make every single 1 gram piece have their own counterfeit interior weight and you would also need to design it so it could be broken apart and still leave a pure gold edge. I don't think that will happen at these prices. You would be better off trying to make a fake proof buffalo.
I think they might have more going for them than just a gimmick?
CharlesMcLain
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Wow!!! Looks good, economical and fits in a wallet like a credit card. I wish to possess them very soon.
bushi
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well, I have to give you that one - it seems to be more time consuming to counterfeit this one, than a coin - although I don't think it would put it into "extremely difficult" territory. You can sandwich 50 little tungsten petals, and it is more laborious & time consuming than to sandwich one tungsten disc (but I suppose, you can automate it pretty well), but it's not really that far fetched. Definitely worth it, if silver coins are worth counterfeiting now.
There are also other factors to consider: with coins, you have intricate design, that have to be replicated as well - here, there's nothing like that. When one counterfeits coins, legal tender laws apply, and he will be going against the Secret Service, and the punishments are really tough as well. With these - you are "just" a regular crook/conman.
If anything, there's lower probability they will get counterfeit, simply because I suppose there's very small demand, comparing to coins, so why would anyone bother to counterfeit them.
on the other hand, what is the probability of getting a fake coin, if you buy from reputable seller - I think it is very, very low...
Lastly - buy yourself a Krugerrand, and do a "ping" test on them - you'd need to be completely deaf, to miss that pure ringing from them
. I don't know how it works for Eagles, though. Most definitely, wouldn't work for these breakable bars (pure gold, it will rather make a "thud", than ring )Lastly - buy yourself a Krugerrand, and do a "ping" test on them - you'd need to be completely deaf, to miss that pure ringing from them
:rotflmbo: OK, I gotta admit the "thud" comment got me laughing, and of course there is something about a shinny new coin, maybe because as kids we all collected them, or back in the day when silver dollars were really a "dollar", they were a real treat when you got one as a gift or earned one. I will never forget my little stash of silver dollars that I collected as a kid and traded away when I became such a smart teenager (ouch). So yes, coins might make more sense for the majority of the holdings. Ka-Ching!
Lastly - buy yourself a Krugerrand, and do a "ping" test on them - you'd need to be completely deaf, to miss that pure ringing from them
It works on other coins too. However each coin has it's own specific "ping". There is no "ping" specific for gold in general (at least I can't hear it). Shape and size of a coin/bar makes a huge difference.
The easiest way is to compare the sound with an original coin (if you have some 100% genuine one). Otherwise you may use a computer program for sound analysis or a dedicated iPhone app -> CoinTrust.
bushi
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The type of alloy used to coin the coin makes big difference too. Also, for pure gold coins (i.e. Am. Buffalo), there's no "ping" - pure gold does not ring, it is too soft)
That's exactly what I am saying. There is no "pure gold ping". Each kind of coin has it's own "sound pattern" (characteristic frequencies).
However if you know frequencies of the original 1oz Krugerrand, you may check any 1oz Krugerrand-like coin.
11C1P
Yellow Jacket
If you are just looking as gold as an investment to sell for cash at a profit in the future, it's not a very good choice as others have said it has a high premium. If you are a person who is 100% convinced our paper dollar will collapse in the next few years or even several years and you will either need to trade barter or pay with PM's then it's probably a good choice for you as you can easily break it down into smaller amounts. Also if you just like novelty and want it for that or a potential collector value added onto it you may want to buy it. If someone wants to give me one or more, I will gladly accept. I generally can't afford to buy full 1oz gold coins with a low premium over spot, and this is over an ounce with a high premium, so I probably will have to pass.