Types of Gold Buyers

To understand the “Gold Markets” you need to understand the main buyer types of gold. In order to keep things simple we are going to put them into the following categories: Governments, Institutions, Entities, and Consumers. 

Governments purchase gold to hold on their books to offset or “hedge” against the World Economy and to back their currency and Central Bank. Each government has gold stored and registered in Switzerland and or London to backup their “Books” with the World Bank.

Institutions purchase gold to ensure that they have enough assets on hand to hedge against the economy and to offset their balance sheets with hard assets from the debt or loans that they write. These institutions are generally the mid and lower level banks below the central banks of a country. They also show their Gold Accounts to Switzerland, London and the World Bank.

Entities buy gold to also hedge against the market and to help stabilize their portfolios from projects and loans that they write. These are usually Corporate Trusts, Investment Trusts, Foundations, Hedge Funds, Retirement Account Groups and more.

Consumers are now realizing that they need to protect themselves in the Global Market to hedge against inflation and are buying gold as well.

Because most of the calls we, at Safeguard Consulting, get deal with Mining, Refined Gold and Hallmarked Gold the answers will vary.

The Mining Production discussions are held with the Governments and Institutional Buyers because they are the buyers who can afford to purchase in large quantities and have their own minting process they want followed. With these types of buyers we are handling everything prior to the Minting Process.

The Institutional Buyers and Entities buy the Refined Gold. This is the gold that has been taken from the mine and been refined to “Pure” Gold but does not have a Hallmark on it but is registered by the refinery into the Swiss and/or London Registry. This form of gold is called Unallocated Gold and transfers through the system as Metal Credits.

Hallmarked Gold is Pure Gold that has been refined and has gone through the Minting Process to create what we call “True Currency”. This form of gold is what you will usually see in vaults or sold to Consumers. This is also known as Allocated Gold which means that it is registered and has a hallmark on it which is tied to the Mint or Bullion Maker that pulled it out of the World Gold Pool and certified it as currency with a World Recognized Hallmark. We call this Global Currency.

The Credit Suisse Hallmarked Bullion is the preferred Global Gold Currency for Safeguard Consulting and is offered by Bullion Bling.  If you would like to purchase True Gold Currency with a World Recognized Hallmark, please contact me if you need help determining which type to buy and why!

by Jean Meadows
Safeguard Consulting