How can I buy gold bars and coins? Where are the brokers?

I buy my Krugerrands from a local coin dealer. You can also buy from the government mint or kitco.

First, I would not get in to gold bars. For the average investor, it's too much money. There are two ways: First, you've probably seen those commercials for the US Mint. Those coins are fine. They have a website that you can look at. The better way is by investing in a gold etf. Almost all of the big name investors that I know invest in GLD. The price of gold is a little high right now so I would wait for it to drop but GLD is your best bet.

Good luck!

Tim

seems like a silly notion to me.

the moment you take possession of either bar or coin, they will have to be safeguarded at your expense and later assayed to determine value before you can sell.

Get a list of the ETFs [electronicaly traded funds] from your sotck broker and see if there's one that owns only gold bullion. if there is, the trustee for it hanldes all the safekeeping and certifying value so your costs are minimal. Normal buy and sell fees for stocks would apply, which can be quite low at some discount brokers.

Try Ebay!