Jewellery is in fact one of the oldest human tradition that has been around for a staggering 100,000 years believe it or not. Taking into consideration that the human species is not an easy species to please when it comes to adorning themselves with jewellery and being spoilt for choice does not make the task of choosing the right piece of jewellery easy.
Another fact that must be taken into consideration is the fact that jewellery that contains gold does not only hold aesthetic value, but it also has monetary value that could make the ‘old contained in the jewellery’ to be worth a lot more in the future. This is due to the fact that jewellery that is made of gold, silver, platinum or palladium do not become valueless after the jewellery is worn, the precious metals contained in jewellery (especially gold) retain their market value and often jewellery purchased a decade ago will be worth more at the current prices of gold which is around 1070 dollars per troy ounce.
Thus, based on this fact, it would not be too farfetched if one buys jewellery for both aesthetic purposes as well as investment purposes which are the case in India and China. India is the biggest gold consumer on the planet and most of the people in India who buy gold jewellery buy it for both aesthetic purposes and when times get tough, they usually pawn or sell gold jewellery.
However if at all you do intend to buy gold for investment purposes more than aesthetic purpose, P.A.M.P gold would be a good option. Most bullion suppliers sell gold to customers in the form of miniature bars. The good thing about P.A.M.P gold is that customers pay for the gold plus a small premium for minting these pieces that usually come in 1g, 2,g, 5g, 10g, 20g and in some instances 50g and 100g. Primarily the most popular sets are the 1g, 2g and 5g denominations as they provide better liquidity levels.
In the same instance if you are buying jewellery for aesthetic purposes, the best kind of jewellery to invest in would be the 18k and 21k jewellery (the higher the karat, the more gold is contained in that jewellery piece. The only drawback with regards to buying gold jewellery pieces is that you will be paying for the jewellers overhead costs that would usually be an additional 20 – 30 % added to the value of gold and as such, not until the price of gold had increased by 20 or 30 % will you be able to see profit from your investment into that jewellery piece. Based on historic prices, the prices of gold increase by an average of 1 % each year, but there are times when gold prices leap by a staggering 100 % as it did in 2011 or fall by a staggering 50 or 60 % before stabilising again within months to its real value.
The moral of the story here is that buying gold can never be a losing investment in the long run.