Preferences When Purchasing Gold ?

I have to add the old proverb here: buy the coin, not the holder. Assay cards and authentications are great if you're a beginner, but you really don't need them at all once you know what to look for.

@Fist: On the flip side, during an emergency on a bank holiday or an economy collapse, gold in your hand is better than money tied up in the bank. It's super rare, but it could always happen. Aviator snips and a scale.

I have stocks that pay dividends. What I don't have is physical gold.

I'd like to avoid those beginners' mistakes. --A lot of helpful posts in this thread, I'd say.

Gold is not an investment, it's an insurance policy against a devaluing currency.

ok so what I have read on line and here
is that small quantities of Gold are better
than large quantities i.e 5g V 500g or 1oz v 5oz
because they are easier to trade

The 1 grams are very popular, but a poor way to invest IMO. I buy 25x1g and sell the 1 grams at shows for +$3 a piece. If I'm buying for myself, I'd buy 1 Oz Gold Eagles.

The same is true of the 1/10th oz Eagles. Very popular because they are cheap, but spreads are large for them, so they are just for flipping for a few bucks.

Small coins are a no-no in my book because you can always make smaller pieces to suit your trading needs. Buy the largest bar you can afford and then chop it up with bolt cutters or aviation snips. It goes without saying that a scale is mandatory for this. 24 karats is the only choice in my opinion. Anything less than that is dead weight.

I do not own "a lot" of gold, but what little I do own is all in coins.

I like gold eagles and minted bars (sunshine mint, bars in assay cards). Watch out for fake Perth Mint bars on ebay. I got to fakes and returned it right away.