Physical gold – whether that’s a stack of gold bars, a trove of gold coins, or any other form of gold bullion – is one of the most evocative images when we come to talking about wealth.
That’s with good reason. Gold has been one of the most effective stores of wealth in human history.
There are many ways to invest in gold, from gold ETFs to gold funds, but the most direct way is to buy gold bullion, or physical gold, outright.
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The price of gold hit an all-time high of $5,600 in January 2026, following on from the best calendar year for gold price increases since 1979 in 2025.
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The outbreak of conflict in the Middle East prompted a selloff in gold, though, with prices falling 11% between 27 February and 31 March.
“Precious metals have experienced an unusually sharp and rapid sell‑off in recent weeks, catching many investors off guard,” said Patrick Farrell, chief investment officer at wealth manager Charles Stanley. “Gold, in particular, has seen one of its steepest pullbacks in years, despite the kind of geopolitical uncertainty that would typically push prices higher.”
But these price moves appear to be a response to the need for liquidity, rather than a fundamental shift in the long-term wealth-preserving powers of gold.
“This sell‑off in precious metals looks less like a fundamental shift and more like a positioning reset driven by liquidity needs and crowded trades,” said Farrell. “The underlying drivers of long‑term demand for gold remain intact.”
The benefit of owning physical gold (in the form of gold bars or coins – known as gold bullion) is that you can keep it close to hand in the event of a crisis, if you are concerned about a financial or societal breakdown, for example.
Not so long ago the idea of such a breakdown would seem far-fetched. But then we had the 2008 global financial crisis. And in more recent times, Brexit, a global pandemic, and now wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East – so it seems a little more likely these days than it did not so long ago.
So if you want to buy gold bullion, what’s the best way to go about it?
How to buy gold bullion
You can buy gold bullion in two main forms: gold coins or gold bars (sometimes called ingots). The advantage of gold coins over gold bars is that they allow you to be more flexible. After all, it's easier to sell 20% of your gold if you own ten gold coins than if your whole investment is in one gold bar. By the same token, given this flexibility, you'll probably find that coins are more liquid (easy to sell) than big bars.
But if you want to buy in bulk, then gold bars are a more cost-effective option.
This is because it is more expensive to produce several smaller gold coins or bars than one large one, even if the amount of gold used is the same.
According to the World Gold Council, the most cost-effective approach is to buy fractions of large gold bars that are stored professionally.
This means, though, that you don’t have the gold to hand, and if you’re buying it for peace of mind against a crisis, you might want to have it at home. But remember, this comes with risk and you will need insurance to cover against theft.
Where can you buy gold bullion?
The best option for most UK investors who want to buy and store physical gold is to buy from large, established British dealers. They will deliver it straight to your house, through trackable insured couriers. It's better to go with a well-known, large firm with a good record.
It’s important to ensure that you are buying and selling gold bullion with a reputable dealer. Be especially careful if you have been approached via email or online adverts: consider the risk of scams by searching for the name of the company online before engaging with them.
The World Gold Council recommends ensuring that the provider has a physical office and support staff you can contact via phone or email, and to check if the gold products you are considering buying qualify as regulated investment services and are covered by a compensation scheme in cases such as fraud or financial error.
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) lists the following UK-based dealers as full members, meaning that they adhere to its high standards of quality and ethics:
- Amalgamated Metal Trading
- Baird & Co
- BASF Metal Limited
- BullionVault
- Chards Coin and Bullion Dealer
- Jewellery Quarter Bullion (including BullionByPost and Gold.co.uk)
- Marex Financial
- Merrill Lynch International
- Mitsubishi Corporation
- Sharps Pixley
- Sucden Financial
- Triland Metals
You can also buy gold bullion directly from the Royal Mint.
Do you have to pay tax on gold bullion?
One of the advantages of buying gold bullion coins from the Royal Mint is that they are exempt from capital gains tax (CGT), because they are technically legal tender.
All coins minted by the Royal Mint are exempt from CGT, with the following exceptions:
- Some coin sets (potentially because there's value in the curation of the set);
- Some older coins (anything demonetised, such as Halfpennies, and Sovereigns minted before 1837);
- Any coins that are not UK coins (such as Alderney, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Gibraltar).
Gold coins produced by any other organisation are not considered legal tender, and you could therefore be subject to a tax bill if you sell them at a profit. Additionally, all gold bars are subject to CGT.
This is another advantage of buying smaller quantities of bullion, or owning fractions of remotely-stored gold; you can sell smaller amounts each year using your £3,000 annual CGT allowance, rather than selling the whole lot in one go and triggering a tax bill.
Another way to avoid paying CGT on your physical gold is to buy it through a
self-invested personal pension (Sipp)
. You can request your Sipp administrator to open an account with a gold bullion dealer, and you can then buy gold into your Sipp.
The gold will be stored remotely, which has some advantages and disadvantages compared to keeping your gold at home.
Physical gold storage: should you store gold at home or buy gold online?
A problem with taking physical delivery of gold is that you will need to store it securely. A home safe, or a bank safety deposit box, is the most obvious option for storing your physical gold close by.
If you do plan to store your gold bullion at home, you will need to tell your insurer. Depending on how much gold you have this could significantly bump up your premium.
An alternative is to buy your gold through a firm that offers remote storage. The trouble with that – depending on why you're buying your gold – is that you don’t have physical possession of it and you must have utmost trust that whoever is holding your gold is holding it securely. And indeed, that it does actually hold the gold that it says it does.
Firms like BullionVault, Chards and Sharps Pixley all offer remote gold storage services.
