Which gold or silver bullion to buy?

There are three categories of investment precious metal bullion that you can purchase today. They are in form of bars, coins and collectables or limited edition.

 

Bullion Gold and Silver Bars

Bars are the most cost effective and recommended form to accumulate investment grade precious metal. They have the lowest premium and cost when compared to coins or collectables because these bars are in the rawest possible form. Bars, especially the casting type require minimum fabrication to make and this directly translate their costing.

In some market, you may see rounds being offered as well. They are gold or silver bar, minted in round format. Rounds are the second closest to bars in term of costing. However, even though round have the same purity as bullion, they are not recognized as investment precious metal in Malaysia and is therefore, subjected to import tax and GST.

Mints that are involved in producing gold or silver bars are usually from mining, metal recycling or financial industries. Popular hallmark for bars are PAMP Suisse (Switzerland), Asahi Refining (Japan) or Johnson Matthey (British), Republic Metals Corporation (USA) and Engelhard (USA/Australia).

 

Bullion Gold and Silver Coins

The definition of coins is bullion rounds that bare legal tender from country of origin. Widely popular gold and silver coins are American Eagles, Canadian Maples, Australian Kangaroos and Chinese Pandas to name a few. Malaysia’s own gold bullion coin is the Kijang Emas, distributed only by banks appointed by Bank Negara.

Coins carry higher premium over bars because of the legal tender status. Most coins are beautifully designed, engraved and produced. This is to represent the craftsmanship of the country it represents. These sophistications increase the cost because of the higher expectation and requirement to make.

Mints that make legal tender coins are mostly government owned, or government linked. Royal Canadian Mint is owned by the government of Canada which mint Canadian Maples and Royal Canadian Bars. Perth Mint is owned by the State Government of Western Australian. China’s Mint, the maker of famous Panda coins is owned by the Republic of China government.

Although both gold and silver coins are tax exempted from GST, silver coins are subjected to 5% import tax and this immediately increases the cost for silver bullion coins. Gold coins are not subjected to import tax.

 

Collectable Gold and Silver

Collectable gold and silver can be in various form, in coins, bars or in odd form such as in shaped of an animal or even a country. All collectables are limited in numbers although the numbers can range from being 1 to 300,000 pieces. The lower the number translate the higher the premium because of scarcity.

Collectables have unlimited upside potential. One example is the 2007 Mongolian Togrog Gulo Gulo Wolverine 1 oz silver coin. Limited with only 2500 pieces, it was sold for USD$100 when it was first released by National Bank of Mongolia. This coin was awarded the coin of the year in 2009 and immediate rocketed the price up the moon. Today, if you are able to find any, it would cost you USD$2,000 a piece.

Perth Mint is famous for their Chinese Lunar gold and silver coin series. Every year, the mint will release one animal design to represent the current horoscope year and this circle takes 12 years to completes, making the collection a 12-year continuous marathon!

Another type of possible collectables is with serial numbers. Serial numbers are commonly engraved onto gold and silver bars. These numbers itself, can potentially be a collection if they are in special arrangement such as, low serial numbers – for serial numbers between 1 to 100, ladder serial numbers – for serial numbers such as 123456 or in reserve 654321, and solid serial numbers – for every numbers bearing the same digit such as 888888 or 999999.

For rare cases, there are some people willing to pay extra for serial numbers that have special meaning to them. For numbers that assemble birthday of theirs or their closed family members, or car registration plates or even some spiritual preference.

We recommend collecting pieces that attracts your personal preference. There is no correct formula on how to buy collectables. No one would know if the collection you buy today may or may not explode with returns. Non performing collections have zero or minimal appreciation, and at worst, it will still worth the price for its metal content.

 

Which Size and Which Weight?

In general, it is recommended to get bigger size for value. However, here are some factors that you want to consider before choosing your ideal size and weight.

For gold and silver bar, the possibility for sizing is almost infinity. They ranged from 1 gram to 1,000 oz (31.1 kg).

However, if the size is too big, it can be difficult to liquidate, transport or store. While 1 piece of kilo gold bar is cheaper than 10 pieces of 100 grams of individual bars, it is easier to split your 100 gram gold bars when you want to sell your kilo investment partially and separately.

We recommend investment gold bars between 10 grams to 100 grams. Silver bars, it is best to accumulate bars between 10 oz (0.31 kg) to 1 kilo (32.15 oz).

Coins are commonly in troy ounces (31.1 gram). We recommend buying coins in 1 troy ounce denomination because this is the most popular weight.

 

Fakes and Counterfeits

There are worrying amount of fakes and counterfeits in the market. The most common ones are faking the originality of prized collectables especially coins and limited edition. Chinese Panda for example is one of the most fakes in the market. A genuine panda coin, dated back to 1990s may worth over 10 to 20 times the metal value. This encourages the black market to make them. It is common to find them with 99.9% pure silver content because it is not the silver metal that they are after. It is the collectable value.

For gold, the fakes burry tungsten, a cheaper alternative metal that has almost identical weight to gold. Wrapped up like a bun, the outer layer of the bar is made with 99.9% pure gold with perfectly engraved design similar to what a buyer would expect. However, the content inside the bar is replaced and filled with tungsten. This type of fakes is usually seen in bigger size gold bar.

Therefore, we strongly recommend, press and stress that you buy your gold and silver from reputable companies that have direct distribution from mints to prevent yourself paying for fakes and counterfeits. Be suspicious if sellers are offering selling price that much lower than what a normal operating company would offer.

We advise testing authenticity of your product especially if you are buying large value worth of gold and silver. Test it with various type of test which includes XRF, density and ultra-sound. (For more information on testing, please click here)




究竟该买哪类纯金银产品?

想买纯金银产品作为投资用途但不知该买哪一类型?你已经找对地方了!基本上,一共有三种类别的贵金属投资产品。它们个别以块状/ 钱币状/ 珍藏系列/ 限量版 的形式存在。

 

纯金块和纯银块

纯金银块对于积累属投资级别的贵金属而言,是最具有成本效益和最值得推荐的形状。由于这类贵金属是以最初的原料形态被制造出来,故若与金银币/ 珍藏系列的产品比较,其成本及附加费是最低的。而块状,特别是以最初的原料形态被制造出来的种类,其无需过多修饰的特点使其成本变得较低。

纯金银块最为普遍的品牌标志包括:Pamp Suisse (瑞士), Asahi Refining (日本) 或 Johnson Matthey (英国), Republic Metals Corporation (美国) 以及 Perth Mint (澳洲)。

 

纯金币与纯银币

纯金银币也可称为圆状纯金银且同时也是该生产国的法定货币。其中最为普遍的纯金银币包括American Eagle, Canadian Maples, Australian Kangaroos 和Chinese Pandas 等。

相较于纯金银块,基于其是法定货币,纯金银币有着较高的附加费。所铸造的多数纯金银币有着别致的设计与雕刻。由于这些因素在铸造过程中需要较高的品质监控及期许,其成本也相对的增加。

厂家铸造的纯金银法定货币多数由当地政府所有,或者与政府单位有着联系性。Royal Canadian Mint 的所有权是属于加拿大政府的。Perth Mint 的所有权则是属于西澳政府的。China’s Mint, 著名的熊猫币铸造家,其所有权则属于中国政府。

虽然纯金银币两者都是属于免消费税的类别,但纯银币则需付上5%的进口税,这也同时增加了其成本。然而,纯金币则无进口税。

 

属珍藏系列的纯金银

珍藏系列的纯金银产品可以用不同的形状存在:圆状,块状,或甚至是奇形怪状等例如以动物或一个国家的形状来铸造。虽然所生产的数量可以从1片至500, 000片,但所有的珍藏版其数量都是有限的。基于其稀少的特质,数量越少其附加费越高。

珍藏版有着无限增值的潜质。其中一个例子是2007年 Mongolian Togrog Gulo Gulo Wolverine 一盎司纯银币。限量2500片,首推期间其售价为美金100元。然而,这款纯银币在2009年荣获年度铸币大奖,其售价自然也一夜暴涨。至今,如果您还能找到这款银币,其售价已飙至一片美金两千元。

而Perth Mint的著作是农历纯金银币系列。每年,厂家会发放一款生肖造型的纯金银币以象征同年的生肖代表并且需耗时12年来完成一循环,使得收藏家需开启12年不间断的收藏之旅。

我们建议收藏家可跟随各自的喜好收集所偏爱的珍藏版。需强调的是,绝无所谓的“正确准则”来进行收集。没人能预知您所收集的珍藏版会否在未来有着价格暴涨的可能性。

 

尺寸及重量

大致上,尺寸越大较为优先考量。然而,在您决定购买所心宜的产品之前,您必须考量一些存在性因素。对于纯金银块,通常其重量会从1克排至1千盎司(即31.1公斤)。

相反的,尺寸越大就越难被套现,运输或者存放。一块1公斤纯金块售价会比10块100克纯金块来得便宜;然而当您决定分散卖出时,10片100克纯金块则相对变得比较容易着手进行。

我们比较鼓励投资者购买尺寸从10克至100克的纯金块。而纯银块,则从10盎司至1公斤(即32.15盎司)为最佳。

铸币通常以盎司作为计算单位(1盎司=31.1克)。我们建议投资者可以考虑购买以1盎司为面额的纯金银币,因为这是市场上最普遍的重量。

 

仿造品

市场上有大量的假货。最常见的是伪造珍贵的收藏品的原创性,特别是硬币和限量版。例如中国熊猫是市场上最多的假货之一。可追溯到20世纪90年代的真正的熊猫硬币价值可能超过金属价值的10到20倍。这鼓励黑市制造它们。通常发现它们具有99.9%的纯银含量,因为它们不是所追求的银金属而是可收集的价值。

对于黄金来说,仿造品会是钨,这是一种更便宜的替代金属,其密度重量几乎与金相同。制造起来像金条,外层采用99.9%的纯金制成,完美雕刻的设计类似于买家的期望。但是,棒内的内容物被替换并填充钨。这种类型的假货通常见于更大尺寸的金条。

因此,我们强烈建议,强调并强调您从信誉良好的公司购买您的黄金和白银,这些公司直接从铸造厂分销,以防止您买到假货。如果卖家提供的销售价格远低于普通市场公司所提供的价格,请保持警惕的态度。

我们建议您测试产品的真实性,特别是如果您购买价值很高的黄金和白银。使用各种类型的测试进行测试,包括XRF,密度和超声。有关测试的更多信息,请单击此处

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