Hi Horsa,I became a minor "gold bug" a few months ago when it...

Hi Horsa,
I became a minor "gold bug" a few months ago when it became apparent that nearly all the world's major governments were horrendously in debt and that they were printing or were going to have to print uncountable banknotes to cover that debt.

I carry a Zimbabwe 100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion) dollar banknote in my wallet to remind me how this sort of thing ends up when fiat currencies get out of control and debased by the governments controlling them.

Yes, there are a myriad of other reasons to be concerned about the worlds finances but that was the first one that got me interested in gold as an investment, insurance policy, storage vehicle of wealth.

The main choices I could find were:
Physical gold
Listed gold miners
Perth mint gold certificates allocated
Perth mint gold certificates unallocated
Perth mint listed gold warrants
Gold ETF's

I wasn't keen on holding the actual gold as someone could always steal it and who wants to have to worry about that all the time.

The others all have various advantages and disadvantages which are easy to research.

I ended up buying the Perth mint warrants which trade on the ASX under the code ZAUWBA. Mainly because you can exchange them for actual gold fairly easily (if you really want to) and they would even safely deliver it to your doorstep when given two week's notice. You can also sell them in 30 seconds like any share if you wanted too.

Also I put a third of the money towards Newcrest mining who if they merge with Lihir as planned in a few months, will be the world's fourth biggest gold miner.

The warrants usually trade at a slight premium to the ETF's (ASX.GOLD) probably because they more closely track the gold price thanks to the warrants market makers who must set the buy and sell orders on either side of the actual gold price (five cents either way at the current gold price level). Also swapping them for underlying actual gold they are based on is easier than the ETF's (ETF's can be exchanged for actual gold too but the bars are London Good Delivery bars and weigh 400oz, oh yes, and you need a London bullion traders licence as well).

So with some of my money now in ZAUWBA warrants and NCM I feel a little more insulated from a global currency meltdown that I hope will never come in my lifetime.

PS. The Zimbabwe note cost AUD$3.50 on eBay which is probably more than it was actually ever worth as a medium of exchange.