Gold is bought not just in the form of jewelry; you can also buy gold coins. The gold coin is a round medallion bought for saving or gifting purposes. If you are planning to buy a gold coin here are some things you must know.
You will not get to know the purity of gold coins, just by looking at them. You can identify the purity of the gold coins through Karat and fineness. Karat is mainly used to measure the purity of gold. 24 Karat gold is the purest form of gold. In case of 22 Karat gold, 22 parts of gold are mixed with 2 parts of other metals such as zinc or silver to make a gold coin.
Fineness is another factor to measure the purity of gold. It is mainly used to measure the purity of 24KT gold. Even pure gold contains minute amounts of mixed impurities which the manufacturer is not able to remove. Fineness is a weight of gold in proportion to the total weight. Fineness is expressed in units of parts per 1,000. 24 karat gold, when measured in fineness, shows 999 parts per thousand of purity.
Take a look at the purity of gold:
999 - 24 carat- Pure Gold
958 - 23 carat
916 - 22 carat
875- 21 carat.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been set up by the government to make sure that customers are not cheated while buying gold. BIS certifies gold coins and jewelry by stamping it. You need to look for 4 components that are marked on gold namely BIS stamp, jeweler’s identification mark, the mark of the Assaying and Hallmarking Centre and purity/fineness corresponding number.
Gold coins will be packed in a tamper-proof package. It is advised not to open the tamper-proof packaging of the gold coin, if you want to resell the coins. This is because packing ensures the credibility of the purity of the gold coin.
In the Indian market, the denomination of gold coins starts from 0.5 grams to 50 grams. Choose a gold coin which you can afford.
Making charges of gold coins will be less when compared to gold ornaments such as earrings, bangles, and chains. Making charges of gold coins will be around 4 - 11%, whereas for gold jewelry it starts at around 8-10%.
You can buy gold coins from banks, local jewelers, the Stock Holding Corporation of India, MMTC (a government-authorized public sector unit for the sale of gold and silver), and non-banking financial companies.
To get good resale value, it is advisable to sell gold jewelry to the shop from where you bought it. But as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directives, banks cannot buy back the gold coins.
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