)

How much gold can you physically own?

In reality, there are only three ways to store your gold: keeping it at home, using a bank's safe, or paying an outside storage company. Don't you want to delve too deeply into individual gold companies? So buying an ETF could make a lot of sense. ETFs for gold miners will introduce you to the biggest gold miners in the market. Since these funds are diversified across the sector, the poor performance of any miner won't hurt you much.

If someone exceeds the gold limit or if their investment does not match the level of income indicated on their tax returns, they run the risk that the government will keep the excess gold in tax raids. Since there are no restrictions on the amount of gold you can have in the United States, gold owners don't have to declare their precious metals to the government. But as with gold coins, you're likely to pay more for the amount of gold you receive, a premium that can range from 20 to 300%, depending on the manufacturer. Gold bars are especially valuable, since their value depends on gold itself as a precious metal.

Whether you buy your gold coins in person or online, you don't want to spend money on counterfeits or on less pure gold than you're led to believe. For those who want to invest in gold bars, you can purchase the 1 oz American Eagle gold bar from Grays Silver. From an investment point of view, investors who want to add the physical product that tracks the price of gold may prefer to avoid gold coins. Buyers of gold bullion should check websites such as Better Business Bureau and Ripoff Report for more information on a gold seller's reputation.

This allows you to expose yourself to gold as an investment without the risk or headache of dealing with physical gold. The United States government only places restrictions on the amount of gold that can be exported to other countries due to the Gold Standard Act of 1933. In India, gold is a common form of personal wealth in the form of traditional gold ingots, coins and ornamented jewelry that people keep in their possession. Roosevelt created a policy, Executive Order 6102, which prohibited the possession of gold ingots and prohibited the possession of gold for monetary gain. The maximum amount of gold you can own without exceeding it is 500 troy ounces (a little over 21 pounds) of pure gold.

While all forms of pure gold have significant monetary value, not all investment-quality gold is the same. That said, gold prices can be very volatile, meaning that gold isn't a totally (or even primarily) safe investment. Gold is difficult to reproduce, making it easy for an expert collector or investor in gold coins to detect a counterfeit piece.