Message from a Gold Bug

To get gold coins in hong kong, you will have to try your luck by going to the hang seng bank and Wing Lung bank in Des Voix Rd, Central. For the hang seng bank, go down the escalators to B1 and line up at the money exchange/gold bullion counters and ask what gold stock they have. You will have to go on daily basis and try. They charge a very low premium of 5% above the gold spot price fro 1oz. (dealers in Aus/US, charge 7-12%)When I was there on 5th Feb, 2009, they had 5-6 x 1 oz Australian Nuggets and dozens of 1/4 oz maples from the Canada

With the main branch of Wing Lung bank in des voix rd ( just 300m away from Hang Seng ), walk up the stairs to the Money Exchange and ask for gold bullion. Cash only! No credit cards.
These are the best two banks. Bank of China, main branch may have some as well. Most of the other banks are waste of time and HSBC and others sell only Paper Gold, which is false gold as it is based on promise of delivery.

The main rule of physical gold buying is ALWAYS TAKE POSSESSION of your gold. Do not buy into Gold Trusts or Gold Certificates. You are buying just 'Paper'. It wise to buy a good quality small fire-rated safe of $US 600+ to store your gold at home. Avoid the chinese made safes as thief can pry your cheap safe in 2 minutes! (see youtube.com). You can also store it in the safe deposit boxes but it has risk of becoming subject to Government freezing of access or bankruptcy of the banks and limited opening hours, which is a risk in the current environment. The HK banks will also offer "Taels" bars which are popular in HK, but not overseas. I would stick to the Gold Coins that are issued by the Perth Mint ( good source, goto their website sale and ring them for orders as they ship overseas, subject to bank transfer of $, big tip!) which are known as "nuggets" or "Kangaroos" as they are .9999 gold and come in protective plastic housing. The second choice would be Canadian Maple leafs as they are also 24 kt, but do not come in protective housing and are subject to scratching due to being pure gold. The next choice would be Kruggerand, which are 22kt, weigh 36gr per "1ounce" due to the inclusion of copper & nickel to make the coin more durable, that is why they have a red-copper look. Be careful when exporting the Kruggerands, as many countries such as Australia/UK will charge you VAT or GST tax at customs, because the Kruggerand is defined as "improved value added raw material". However, 24kt or pure gold is not and is a "raw material". US Eagles are 22kt and are also good. Avoid old gold coins from rome, France, UK, except for Austrian gold. Some dealers offer old Amercian St Gauden 22kt coins from 1907-1928, these are numastics coins and are for professional collectors with a lot of experience and knowledge. You just plain simple modern issued coins & gold "biscuits" from Australia, Canada, S.Africa and US.

Your next choice of Gold Buying would be Swiss "Biscuits" or flat credit card bars issued by PAMPS , Valcambi and Credit Suisse. These have less premium than coins, very popular on the re-sale market. Avoid the gold coins for sale at Chow Fook jewellery stores. They carry a 12% premium! Yes they are pure gold, but they are cast in China and are not recognised by most international dealer. Stick to the Government mint issues from Western Governments. Many say "gold is gold". Yes, granted, but you will achieve a better premium when you re-sell well-known brands as they are perceived a trustworthy by buyers. Avoid generic gold bars as well.

If you want to re-sell your gold (only if desperately necessary! keep your gold as the $HK is pegged to the $US and will take a battering in July-Sept due to inflationery pressures in the US), sell it on E-bay, less Ebay seller commission, you will get 10-15% gross premiums, whereas dealers will give 1-2% less spot.

It is always a good time buy gold if you have the cash. Do not wait for it drop 5% or10%, you could be very sorry as it is forecasted to climb $1000+ in 2009, while the $US/$HK will be heading south once investors wake up with fantasy of US Bonds and start selling them, thereby putting pressure on the $US. Buy gold with your spare cash when you can. Go with 1 oz as the price is easily determined by just going to 24hgold.com or kitco.com. 1/4 oz and 1/2 oz carry extra premium. Avoid the 1/10 and 1/20th oz, wasting your time as you are paying premiums of up to 40% above the spot price!Avoid buying proof/commerative coins from dealers, paying a big premium as well. Leave that to the collectors and novices. Make sure that the coin/bar states in the weight in ounces or grams, not Tolas or Taels. Most Westerners do not understand Middle East/Asian gold measurements.

Buy gold now while it is too late! Leave silver alone unless you plan on staying in HK for a while, because silver is bulky and you will need 70 times as much silver to equal 1 oz (31.1gr) of gold. In fact you will need nearly 2 kg of silver for 1 oz. Imagine trying to take $US20,000 silver out at the airport? That is 40kg! while gold would be around 22 x 1 oz (681 grams, $US900oz ) which you just put in your pockets and jump on a plane! Get the picture? Or even still $US100,000 is 3.45kg, you can put that in your carry on luggage. Please check with your local customs that it is o.k to import without declaration.

Physical gold, especially gold coins from US, Canada and Australia, are very hard to get at the moment, so when you find 1oz coin, buy it asap! Come back in a few hours it will be gone! I went to over 20 dealers and most were sold out! It is the same around the world. Imagine if there was a panic and everyone wanted gold? P.s I am a professional international gold coin trader. Share the Knowledge and karma will reward you!

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