Data suggests India’s interest in searching “1gram gold price” on the internet keeps increasing. With that, the interest to buy physical gold or silver is also on the rise.
But most are confused about where to buy it from, what factors to look into, which brands are best etc. Personally, I am stacking gold coins, bars & other physical gold & silver products for more than 4 years now. So here is a detailed guide about the easiest and cheapest ways to buy physical gold and silver in India. Below is the index to the entire guide, you can click on each option to directly read that part:
Factors
Online Buying
Offline Buying
Discount
Brands
Conclusion
Factors to Consider When Buying Physical
Purity
There are different types of gold & silver available in the market like 24 karat, 22 karat and so on. There is also something called Fineness i.e. 999.9, 999, 995 and 916. 24 karat with 999.9 fineness is the purest form of gold available in the market.
As the purity (gold is mixed with other metals like silver) goes down, the price also goes down. But 24 karat pure gold is soft so most jewelers use 22 karats with 916 fineness to build long-lasting gold jewelry. Most coins & bars are available in 24 karats.
Weight Tolerance
This is basically human or machine error while making a particular gold coin or bar. So when gold is refined through heavy machines and made into coins or bars, it is very possible that its purity or weight may slightly increase or decrease. That difference is in milligrams. Higher the weight tolerance mentioned, the more chance it has of higher or lower weight and quality. This “Weight Tolerance” is mentioned on top of the product’s packaging or the certi card.
Let’s say you bought a 1g gold coin from MMTC PAMP with weight tolerance nil (0) – it means the weight and purity is exactly 1g, 24 karat with 999.9 fineness. Now let’s say you bought a 1g gold coin from Augmont with weight tolerance 50mg – it means the weight could be 50mg more or 50mg less than 1g.
Certification
There are 100+ brands in India selling physical gold and silver, but not all of them are certified by national or international organizations. Basically, these brands are certified to sell bullion products on the basis of different parameters like how well they refine the products, quality, brand value, history etc.
If we take the last example of MMTC PAMP and Augmont. MMTC is certified by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and their labs are certified by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). Augmont is also certified by both BIS and NABL, but not LBMA.
Buy Back
The term explains itself. Many brands buy back their own products. So let’s say if brand A has a buyback program it means if you buy a gold or silver coin from brand A and later want to sell it, then easily you can sell that to brand A itself and they will take it back from you in exchange of India Tokens, I mean Rupee (₹)
If we take the example of brands like MMTC PAMP and Kundan. MMTC does gold buyback but doesn’t do silver. Kundan does both gold & silver buyback.
BIS Hallmark
Indian government has made hallmark mandatory on jewelry but not coins or bars. Some brands dose it and some don’t, both are absolutely legal. So don’t worry much about hallmark if you are buying coins or bars.
In case of MMTC, you won’t get hallmark in coins or bars but Augmont does provide hallmark.
How to Buy Physical Online?
Many people still think that the only way to buy is from your nearest jewelry shop. No, that is a big NO. In the world of eCommerce, you can easily buy that same gold or silver coin online and it will be directly delivered to your home.
Some of my favourite websites to buy physical gold or silver:
Amazon
Flipkart
AJIO
When you buy, just see that the brand that is selling on one of these platforms is a trusted one. (I mention some trusted brand names below)
How to Buy Physical Offline?
This is the good old way. You can easily buy it from your nearest jewelry shop or an Indian retail chain like Tanishq (Titan).
If you buy offline, always ask the jeweler to measure the weight in front of you on their weighing machine. Just to be extra sure.
How to Get Discount?
This is only available on eCommerce platforms. They often do sale and give cashback offers, almost at the spot price or even lower.
But how to know where discount is going on? Either you have to keep an eye on some of these platforms I mentioned above or buy gold during some festival seasons like Dhanteras or Diwali. You can follow my X account (@InvestRepeat) where I share these discounts whenever I notice one.
Best Indian Gold & Silver Brands
Most of these brands will be only available online as they are situated in different states. Some you may get from your local jeweler too:
Ananth Jewels
Augmont (Goldella)
Bangalore Refinery (BRPL)
Candere By Kalyan Jewellers
Gujarat Gold Centre (GGC)
Gujjadi Swarna Jewellers
IBJA Gold
Jindal Bullion
JPearls
Kundan
Malabar Gold & Diamonds
MMTC-PAMP
Muthoot
Narrondass Manordass
PC Jeweller
Riddhi Siddhi Bullions Limited (RSBL)
Senco Gold & Diamond
Tanishq
There are many others that are equally popular, but I only have these brands in my stack and can say that they are really good. If you don’t get these brands, it is totally okay but as per my experience these are the best ones.
Conclusion
Personally, I hold 60% in digital and 40% in physical form. For this physical part, I always buy 24 karat with 999.9 fineness gold coins and sometimes bars. And I generally prefer to buy it from a local jeweler due to privacy reasons. In offline buying, I can pay in cash without leaving much of my digital footprint. Also I believe, building a relationship with a jeweler is very important. If there is some emergency and I want to sell my gold, I can easily sell it to him. But if I get a discount, I of course prefer to buy from online sites too.
Another important point that people misunderstand about physical gold or silver is that they think the spot price i.e. the price which shows up on exchanges is gold’s current price. But that is not true. Market price and spot price are different. Market Price = Spot Price + Premium. Spot Price is of fake gold like Gold ETFs and Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) and Market Price is of real gold i.e. physical. So when you buy physical – you pay the market price, not the spot price.
With that said, please don’t take this as investment advice; I am in no way an investment advisor. This is just a one-to-one talk about helping and motivating you to start your gold stacking journey as fast as possible.
Never forget our life mantra: Save Invest Repeat. And if you have any questions, please post them at – @InvestRepeat. Also, you can join my private Telegram channel (Username: InvestRepeat).
Your man,
SIR
