PS: in the above examples I am talking about bars & coins of 99.99% purity.....

Thanks Flying...good explanation and I'll check out that link.

Think it was around 6000 when the missus managed to pry my fist open and start buying gold so I guess over the years it is an investment.

8000 Baht when I started loosening up. Despite the opinion of some on this forum - listening to our Thai wiveson the wisdom of investing in "Thai gold" whilst in Thailand may be a good idea every now and then.

I still get complaints as to why I did not buy some for her birthday a couple of years ago when the price had dropped to 12,900. However, I guess the other gold which she has averaged out at around 7,000 to 9,000 when purchased so at the current rate it is a good investment. In the late 70s gold spiked up to around $800 but then dropped to around $300 several years later. It then meandered in the 300 to 500 range until the early 2000s & apart from a big dip a couple of years ago it has continued to climb. I feel it will drop again but have no idea when.