Many Indians buy gold during festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, and Dhanteras. Some prefer to buy gold coins over jewellery. This is because gold coins can be bought in denominations as low as 0.5 grams. If you are planning to buy gold coins this festive season, here are 7 things that you must keep in mind.

1.Purity of Gold Coins

The purity of gold coins is determined in terms of Karat and fineness. Karat is more commonly used to measure of gold purity. 24 Karat is the purest form of gold which contains 24/24 parts of gold, while, 22KT gold contains 22 parts of gold and 2 parts of other metals such as zinc or silver.

Fineness is the parameter used to find the purity of 24KT gold. As per the World Gold Council’s website, even ‘pure’ gold can contain minute amounts of mixed impurities. Fineness is defined as weight of gold in proportion to the total weight which includes alloy and impurities. It is expressed in units of parts per 1,000. The purest form of gold, 24KT, when measured in fineness shows 999.9 parts per thousand of purity.
Even if you cannot buy 24 KT gold jewellery, you can buy a gold coin of 24KT.

2.Hallmarking

When you buy a gold coin, apart from its purity, check if it is hallmarked. Government of India has set up the Bureau of Indian Standards.  This ensures that consumers are not cheated while buying gold by embossing its mark on the gold item to certify the level of its purity.

You can find these four components hallmarked on gold: BIS logo; Purity in carat and Fineness;
 Logo of Assaying and hallmarking centre, and Jewellers’ identification mark and number. Hallmarking will be done only for gold items of 22KT, 18KT and 14 KT.

 However, you can always approach any BIS approved gold testing and hallmarking centre to check the purity of any other karat of gold.

3.Packaging

 Buy gold coins in a tamper proof packaging. This packaging is a guard against counterfeiting, fraud, and damage. It’s recommended that you do not tear the tamper proof packaging of the gold coin in case you intend to resell it because the packaging ensures the credibility of the purity of the gold coin.

4.Denominations

Gold coins are available ranging from 0.5 grams to 50 grams in weight.  However, the availability of the denomination you wish to buy depends on your jeweller.

5.Making Charges

Buying gold coins not only offers you the option to buy the purest form of gold in the minimum weight of 0.5 grams, it also comes with lower making charges in comparison to ornaments. Making charges for gold coins usually ranges between 8 percent and 16 percent. On the other hand, making charges for jewellery can go higher depending on the craftsmanship.

6.Where To Buy

Apart from the local jeweller, you can buy gold coins from online e-tailers, banks, the Stock Holding Corporation of India, Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India, and certain non-banking financial companies like the Muthoot Group.
Only a few like the Muthoot Group offer smaller denomination coins in 0.5 grams. Muthoot also offers coins with designs of Lakshmi, and Ganesha.
Banks like Canara Bank offer 24KT gold in denomination of 5 grams, 8 grams and 10grams.

7.Ease of Selling

Gold coins bought from a bank will not buy back those coins as per the RBI directive.

You can come to Aaradyaa Gold to sell your gold coins, and get instant cash in hand!Aaradyaa Gold is the best Gold buyer!