Purchasing gold certificates is a way of investing in gold. They denote one’s ownership of a particular amount of gold which is being secured or held by a bank or a company. This does not incur the actual delivery of the gold to the owner and so the issue of security for your gold assets is not placed on your back. They can also be used for purchases which is one of the best advantage of these certificates. Not having to worry about how they are going to take care of the gold makes it also one of the hassle free ways of owning gold and being able to use it without actually handling the actual material.
Due to some government restrictions, such as those that were issued on London, issuing of gold certificates had been banned in some countries and had not been used since then. So the usual way of getting them would be through a country which allows the usage of such certificates such as Australia. There are also some gold manufacturing companies which issue these certificates but there are not many to cite. Through these gold certificates, you save on the holding and other expenses that you may have regarding the ownership of gold.
There is only one reliable source for a good gold certificate and that is the Perth Mint. The mint has been issuing gold certificates and what is good about this is that they are supported by their own government making it more secure to acquire them. You can purchase a certificate for unallocated gold which will not cost you any fee for their safekeeping or storage. But still, there is the choice between owning the real stuff and the certificate. Which would be better? What if the certificate gets stolen? Will there be any way with which you can still be able to secure the gold in your account?
If you will try to think about it, gold certificates are only pieces of paper which other people can damage, steal, and forge. Will it still be usable even if these events had unexpectedly happened? These are just some of the concerns that some people have over the ownership of these certificates which are very fragile pieces of evidence that you own a certain amount of gold in a bank. But just like other important papers that you possess, they always have duplicates in possession of the holding bank which helps assure you of the gold ownership even when the paper has been destroyed, stolen or damaged.
Buying a gold certificate is one way in which you can enjoy the ownership of gold without the usual worries that are often associated with owning it. Since gold certificates are liquid just like paper money, you can also know they are similar to your other investments such as stocks or bonds. You can possess only a piece of paper yet still make the same usage as if he is holding the real gold itself. So if you want hassle free gold ownership, go buy a gold certificate from a participating bank. [Image attribution from wikipedia}
