Are Krugerrand gold coins used in commerce in South Africa?

Nope. But you can purchase them there.

Thank you

If you haven't been and have time, go to the SA Mint. They have some beautiful coin collections there.

http://www.samint.co.za/

Will do if time permits.
I was thinking it might be a nice gesture to tip with Krugerrands but it sounds like too much hassle to buy them.

The staff wouldn't know what to do with them and the PH cannot pay the staff with them. Best to keep them in your safe for a rainy day here...

You can buy Krugerrands in the US, so why bother bringing them through Customs? Their value is in the gold, an international commodity, so they're not likely to be much, if at all, cheaper in S. Africa.

In fact, there is no doubt that Krands can be bought cheaper here if you know how or where to buy them.

In addition, it's your money but all of those "collector" sets are just tourist money traps and as soon as you buy them have no more value than melt, more or less.

Don't EVER consider buying bullion type coins at more than 10% over melt, and 1 to 3% is the usual range wholesale.

Your heart's in the right place, Lawdog, but these guys are right.

Anyway, you give one of those trackers a KRand and he'll sell it for ten bucks or something. Most of those guys are awfully unsophisticated, if I may state it that way without sounding racist.

Actually the SA Mint is not a tourist trap but the national mint where they are struck. There is no markup. Unless someone is selling you gold below the spot price, then you won't get them much cheaper. And you do not have to declare them when entering the US.

Now in regards to whether gold is a good investment vehicle at the moment, well that's another story...

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
Actually the SA Mint is not a tourist trap but the national mint where they are struck. There is no markup. Unless someone is selling you gold below the spot price, then you won't get them much cheaper. And you do not have to declare them when entering the US.

Now in regards to whether gold is a good investment vehicle at the moment, well that's another story...

From the SA Mint site, current promotions:

quote:

Buy the Kruger 2014 Prestige set at R40 365.00 together with the Natura 2014 Prestige set at R40
615 and receive the 2014 Kruger 1/2 oz proof coin which normally sells for R 11 400.00 free with
your purchase.

Total sale costs in R, R80,980. Total Au wt received 4.20 oz, including your "FREE" 1/2 Krand. Current Au price in Rand, approx. R15,400/oz (approx $1130/oz). I'll leave it to those who care to figure it exactly to see if the gold is sold at spot. Hint: NOT

Your money, spend it how you want, but buying Au coins in SA is NOT a smart way to buy gold IMO and that includes thinking you're buying krands at spot, you ain't. Finally, the SA Mint does sell directly to the public at the mint, but also sells the coins to dealers who then resell them to the public. Currently those dealers are getting anywhere from about $45/oz over spot to $90/oz over spot. The $45 "deal" is for purchases of 20 coins or more. That price, which is about 4% over spot is really not bad for a public offering but it ain't wholesale either.

Finally, I'm not trying to get in a pissing contest here but I've bought and sold more gold over the years than most non-dealers and AFAIK there is NO MINT ANYWHERE that sells their products for spot value. Otherwise, factoring the manufacturing costs they would be losing money on every coin, just like the US does on pennies, as an example.

In past years, the Krand became unpopular at one point, mostly due to liberal political views held by the public, and you could buy them in the aftermarket for less than spot. I bought quite a few of them, because I could buy them and melt them for a fraction more than they cost at that time and I felt that the discount would correct at some point in the future. Eventually, like all market imbalances, the scales came back to more or less equilibrium and the discount disappeared.

Just for general information, if you sell 25 or more Krugerrand, Maple Leaf or Mexican Gold Onza in the US it IS a reportable event and the buying dealer MUST file a form with your info on it. Same holds true for kilo bars. If you are interested in buying a serious quantity of gold as an investment or hedge, I would recommend avoiding the above items. I would also suggest that one would PROBABLY (depending on price) be better off buying pure gold "coins" as opposed to lesser gold content coins, such as the Krand. Personally for a while I was able to buy Mex 50 pesos for spot or less and I liked the deal, but while it is a beautiful coin, containing 1.2 oz pure, I would not recommend them for the average buyer.

In addition, unlike what is posted above, you do have to declare gold bullion purchases when you re-enter the US but they are not taxable. In particular, be aware that if the Au value totals more than $10,000 then you have to fill out another form as well.

One after thought, if you or someone you know is thinking of selling some gold jewelry that they don't want, inherited, is bent or broken, DON'T sell it without checking with me, I will ALWAYS pay substantially more than you will receive at pawn shops, "We Buy Gold" joints, or almost anywhere else. I don't want to deal with values much under $500, which would currently equate to about 35 grams of 10K, 25g 14K, or 20g of 18k. I work on very thin margins and that is about the least amounts that pay me for doing the deal. I do it to make money, of course, but mostly to keep people from getting ripped off by the typical gold buyer and because I am a long term bull on gold (although right now, because of the gold/silver ratio I would convert gold to silver) and usually hold my purchases in the bank safety box, hoping for higher prices. If it is in good shape and you can sell it for jewelry to someone then I HIGHLY recommend that route as, if you know the value of what you've got, it should always bring more than selling it for scrap.

And, I'm done with my gold 101 class in AR Free Univ.

I have been to the SA Mint several times and have purchased both the prestige collectors sets as well as the standard Krugerrand. The collectors sets do have a premium over the standard Krands.

In regards to whether one should be buying gold for investment purposes, I would suggest that is it only valuable as a hedge. But gold is largely manipulated by the main players - US, Germany, IMF, Italy, France, China, etc. Trying to bet what is going to happen to gold in the long terms is a crap shoot.

quote:

I have been to the SA Mint several times and have purchased both the prestige collectors sets as well as the standard Krugerrand. The collectors sets do have a premium over the standard Krands.

You are right about the mint selling directly to the public. My bad and I changed my post above to correct my error. However, you ain't buying at spot.

I do not follow gold as closely as I did but if you were to buy, where would you be a buyer?

I would think it would start to get attractive again in the $1050 - $1000 range. If Janet would give us our 25 basis points, I would imagine we will see it there quickly. But I would still cringe as most of my holdings are in the $385 - $450 range.

i am not a gold bug.

Why not just buy GLD easier to transact and you get taxed as a financial instrument and not a collectable.

World could end and GLD could break away from the underlying gold it owns ect. But owning sizable physical gold you have the added risk of theft in storing it and in selling it.

Also gold gets heavy - $1 mil. of gold is 55.5 pounds at todays price.

Mike

Yep! I have not seen too many outside of the "world is ending" crowd that is bullish on owning gold.

quote:

Also gold gets heavy - $1 mil. of gold is 55.5 pounds at todays price.

Actually it is about 74 pounds Troy or just over 60 pounds avoirdupois.

There are a few good reasons to have physical gold instead of GLD. Try trading or selling GLD for cash, guns, or whatever and see how far you get. There are no reporting requirements on small sales of gold for cash. In addition one can use certain types of gold in 1031 exchanges.

I'm not a gold bug either. I guess if I had to be a "bug", I'd be a silver/platinum/palladium "bug" right not, especially silver. However, like the random walk theory of stock values, I find that if I can buy any precious metal at below melt values by 5% or so, that it is usually a good idea to do so, and I usually do. There are many items that sell on ebay for less than melt from time to time. I don't try to track them but if I run up on one I'll buy it. There are and were many people who figure it too close for me but every now and then they miss an item.

However, I traded all the physical silver I had a year or two back for some rare coins at about $31/oz. I keep saying I'll buy it back at these levels, but I stay too broke buying land to do so YET. Now you talk about storage problems, physical silver takes up room and wt.
100 oz bars are about the size of a video tape holder, but weigh 6.8 pounds av. Current value roughly $1500.

I like those ads telling us to buy gold because the dollar is going to be worthless but these same dealers will gladly take our worthless cash for their gold!