Dhanteras 2021: Gold coin vs jewellery vs biscuit - Which is the best option?

Dhanteras or Dhanatrayodashi is the first day that marks the festival of Diwali. Worshippers of Goddess Lakshmi believe that investing in precious metals like gold on Dhanteras brings good luck, wealth, and prosperity. 

No doubt, many of us are familiar with gold as an investment option, but we rarely evaluate the pros and cons of investing in gold coins, jewellery and biscuits. Here is the complete guide to this. 

Investing in gold jewellery 

For many, purchasing jewellery is the favourite form of investing in gold. The ornamental use is the major benefit of this investment type, bringing pride and satisfaction to the investor, personal finance experts don’t consider it as an efficient form of investment since making charges and wastage charges (in addition to the standard taxes) are involved in the final price of the jewellery.  

Other factors like – safety and security, and susceptibility to wear and tear are the other major drawbacks of jewellery. Moreover, jewellery designs keep changing with time and whenever one exchanges old jewellery with new jewellery one should cough up an additional amount as new jewellery involves making and wastage charges. 

Investing in gold coins 

Unlike jewellery, gold coins do not attract making or wastage charges. So, it saves a lot of money for investors. The availability of gold coins in denominations as small as 1 gram makes it accessible even for a small investor. Besides, the exchange of gold coins with jewellery is an easy process than the conversion of jewellery into gold coins or biscuits. 

On the flip side, gold coins may not provide the same satisfaction to a customer/investor, which one gets from wearing jewellery as gold coins lie in lockers and don’t have ornamental value.  

Investing in gold biscuits 

Gold biscuits, which are also known as gold bars when in large size, cost less to investors in comparison to gold coins and jewellery. Generally, gold biscuits or bars are meant for rich investors – hence, affordability is limited to a certain category of investors only. 

As mentioned, low price (per unit of gold) compared to other investment options is a major plus for investors in gold biscuits, limited buyers restrict the ‘liquidity’ of this commodity. Besides, if the gold biscuits are of large size, it is difficult to melt and reshape them and entails additional expenses.