Americans back to "store gold" rush

Buying gold to hedge against inflation is a deep-rooted concept among Chinese. However, for the Americans, gold is viewed as a precious metal, similar to diamonds, jewelry and others, mainly used for decoration, rather than for investment.

A few years ago, most Americans had the habit of putting money into real estate, stock and fund markets. There are very few Americans who would collect gold. However, as the price of gold has soared in recent years, especially after the outbreak of the financial crisis, more Americans are paying attention to gold's function of preserving value. Due to concerns that the U.S. economic stimulus package will eventually lead to inflation and the continuous depreciation of the U.S. dollar, this year investors have an increasing demand for real gold, setting off a new round of "store gold" rush.

For the average American investor, buying real gold means gold coins and gold bars. There are two main ways of buying gold: First, give money to an agent, and they will buy on your behalf. Second, directly purchase from the bank.

Currently in the U.S. market, the main type of gold coin is the American Eagle gold bullion coin issued by the U.S. Mint. Such coins are 22K gold, weighing up to 1 ounce, and the lightest is 0.1 ounce. However, due to surge in demand for gold coins, the light weight American Eagle gold bullion coin has been out of stock and has not sold since as early as last year. Only 1 ounce American Eagle gold bullion coins are still for sale in this year's market, and other types are expected to restore supply until December 3. In addition, the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf gold coin is also very popular in the U.S. market.

Latest statistics released by the United States Mint show that as of November 23 this year, the number of 1 ounce American Eagle gold bullion coin sales have reached 1.18 million, an increase of 36.7% compared with all varieties of American Eagle coins combined last year. In addition, 1 ounce American Buffalo 24K gold coins issued by the U.S. Mint sold out after 172,000 coins were purchased in 2008, and sales did not resume until October this year. After just over one month, 151,000 coins have now been sold.
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