Below are some tips that you can follow to ensure a hassle-free and profitable purchase of gold coins:
Gold is naturally a soft metal and hence it becomes difficult to craft it into coins and jewellery.
Therefore it is alloyed with other metals such as copper, zinc and silver to improve desirable characters like hardness. However, only a fixed level of adulteration is sufficient to increase its durability and strength.
It is essential to measure this amount for the right valuation of a gold coin. There are two methods of measuring it. One being fineness, and the other is Karat.
Fineness represents the parts of gold metal in an alloy. Let’s understand this with the help of a simple example. If you come across an alloy with a fineness of 98.5, it implies that it has 985 parts of gold out of thousand, and remaining parts other metal. However, the fineness of the same gold alloy varies considerably by country.
Karat is the most popularly used method of measuring the purity of gold. The purest gold generally has a weight of 24 Karat and a fineness of 999.9 parts per thousand.
2. Check Hallmark of Gold Coins
The gold that a jeweller uses to make the coin is first tested at the BIS Hallmarking centre to certify its purity and fineness. Once tested, they put a trademark, also known as a hallmark, to let the buyers know this. A hallmark on a gold coin implies that the gold used in making it is pure according to the Indian Standard specifications.
You should only purchase gold coins that have hallmarks. Thus you can ensure that you are paying the correct value for the coin. Additionally, you can easily opt for a gold loan if the coins have hallmarks on them, certifying their sound quality. The financial institution will offer you a substantial amount if you keep such coins as collateral.
3. Choose the Denomination of Buying Coins
Determining the denomination or weight of a gold coin is essential as its price is calculated according to its weight. Mainly the cost of gold coins is calculated by multiplying their weight by the gold rate on that day.
The majority of the jewellers offer denominations of 1 gram, 5 grams and 10 grams. However, many offer denominations that range between 0.5 and 50 grams as per your need.
The price of gold keeps fluctuating every day. Hence, this rate plays a crucial role in deciding the number of gold coins you can purchase. If you notice that the price of gold is less compared to other days, you can buy more.
4. Check out Options for Buying Gold Coins
There are a variety of options from where you can purchase gold coins. You can buy them from either a bank or from jewellers. There are several pros of each that you can benefit from.
Some of the benefits of purchasing gold coins from banks are:
They offer attractive discounts,
You can get gold of highest purity,
You can get a certificate of authenticity for these coins
Packaging of gold coins is sturdy
Alternatively, you can also opt to purchase gold coins from jewellers. One of the main benefits is that you can customise the weight and design of the same according to your choice. However, while reselling the same, you might have to opt for gold jewellery in exchange instead of receiving cash as returns.
Another option is purchasing gold coins online from an authentic store. These online platforms have generally been an extension of the physical store. As a result, you can get the same coins delivered right at your home.
However, there are high chances of fraud and cybercrime in online stores. Hence you must ensure maximum security so that you can avoid being a victim of such fraud.
5. Be Aware of the Charges for Buying Gold Coins
The price of a gold coin that you are paying involves several charges. These include making charges for the ornament or coin, taxes paid on making charges, and the gold prices on the day of purchase. You can easily optimise these factors to get gold coins at affordable rates and, in turn, aid in maximum savings.
The first thing that you can do is purchase the gold coin on a day when the prices are comparatively lower. For this you can track the price fluctuations daily to select the lowest price and purchase your gold jewellery.
Additionally, go for a trusted jewellery shop that offers low making charges. You can also opt to buy jewellery during auspicious days such as Makar Sankranti, Dhanteras or Akshaya Tritiya to get attractive discounts on making charges. Diminishing this can ultimately lead to an overall lowering in the price of a gold coin.
Once the making charges and the gold price lowers, the taxes also reduce in turn. This way you can decrease the charges of the gold jewellery and make a profitable purchase.
6. Ensure Appropriate Billing while Buying Coins
Once you have completed purchasing gold coins, you must ensure your jeweller issues you a bill. This is essential to confirm that you have made a legitimate purchase. Also, you must go through the bill thoroughly to check if there are any errors. You must verify details such as the spelling of your name, gold price, weight of the coins and the taxes charged.
If you come across any mistake in the bill of your gold coin, you must immediately point that out to the jeweller. Otherwise, in the long run, if you are planning to resell these coins, you can face issues. Also, it is quite possible that you get a lower resale value that that you could have due to errors in the bill.
7. Ensure Ease of Selling
Selling gold coins is not complicated. However, you must strictly adhere to RBI guidelines while selling your coins legally in India. For this, you must purchase these coins from the authentic online and offline platforms. Furthermore, you must note that on purchasing gold coins from a bank, you cannot resell them back to the bank.
Another essential point that you must keep in mind is that if you purchase a coin from one jeweller and sell it to another, its resale value reduces considerably. The main reason is that while purchasing the coins, you had to pay different charges apart from the price of the gold. However, when you sell it, the jeweller will only offer you the gold price and not the additional ones.
Now that you know the tips for buying gold coins, you can proceed to make a profitable purchase. However, you can also wait till auspicious occasions like Dhanteras, Akshay Tritiya, Makar Sankranti, etc., when jewellers offer the best deals on gold.
