YOU COULD BUY SHARES IN GOLD INSTEAD

BUYING a gold coin is not the only way to invest in the precious metal. Other options include:

A GOLD BAR: A traditional bar – like the one you might find in a bank vault held by Goldfinger, the James Bond villain – is 400 troy ounces and worth about £600,000. But you can also buy shares in such bars, or individual pieces weighing as little as one gram (0.03 troy ounce) for about £50. A bullion trader can store your gold – including coins – for a typical fee of 0.2 per cent of its value every year. This includes insurance against loss or theft.

EXCHANGED TRADED FUNDS:

These are funds that track the price of gold and can be bought online via wealth managers such as AJ Bell and Interactive Investor. Funds include iShares Physical Gold, Invesco Physical Gold and

WisdomTree Physical Gold. Fees are typically 0.4 per cent a year or less.

ACTIVELY MANAGED GOLD FUND: These invest in firms involved in gold mining. Consider sider BlackRock Gold & General, JPM PM Natural Resources and Ninety One Global Gold. Investment trusts include BlackRock Energy and Resources Income. Fees are about 1 per cent a year.