UBS has this site for quotes on bid/ask on gold coins and bars:

https://quotes-public1.ubs.com/app/C...kbench/wb/home

It's not a direct link. You have to select country and use the menu on the
left hand side to select gold coins/bars.

I poked around Credit Suisse and I can't seem to find a similar web site.
CS sells gold coins and bars right? I would like to see their spread for
comparison purposes.

Somebody also mentioned this site: http://www.proaurum.ch/ Their spread
is very close to UBS.

Thanks

https://marketdataresearch.credit-su...&selectedtab=0

Thanks, but that site has quotes for the gold/silver futures contracts not the
price of the physical gold. Futures contract prices are available everywhere.

If you look at the UBS site it lists all the different kinds of bars and coins they
have for sale. American Gold Eagle, Canadian Maple leaf, South African
Krugs, etc and their bid/ask.

You are right. My bad. I can't find anything either.

I asked someone I know who works for CS, but apparently there appears to be only an internal page showing the buy/ sell rates for branches and for clients. So I imagine you have to call CS and ask.

I couldn't edit the previous post again.

I've since been told the CS buy/ sell spread is about 1% for 500g and 1kg, and as the weight of the pieces you buy goes down, the spread is about 20% for 1g pieces.

Not comfortable carrying around that much currency, does anybody know if they will take a wire transfer, travelers cheque or anything along those lines?

I understand the transaction may not be immediate, time is not the concern once the purchase price has been locked in.

Thanks.

Well if your taking delivery of the gold, it's not really any different to carrying cash.

From the Telegraph "Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Thailand central banks spent a collective $1.52bn (£942m) this year buying 26.7 tons of gold"

SNB also released their quarterly results today. Gained 5bn on revaluation of their gold holdings which helped to offset some of their FX losses. Just think how much they would have benefited by not selling it off so cheaply a few years ago...

Until they sell, those gains don't make any difference , when gold drops below 800 everybody will ask why they did not sell at 1900

20:20 hindsight is a wonderful thing!

It is not clear what they spent supporting the CHF in the last quarter so far as I could see from the reports?

Gold appears to be climbing again and I still say it will pass the US$2,000 in mid 2012.

So you can all mock me with statements "Commodities are going to go down", "You can't eat it" ; the price we paid for the Gold was US$1,330 in January 2011.
US$1,731 today; but I actually prefer to look at it against the Swiss Franc Hard Cash as that was the alternative investment consideration but physical space and crossing borders was an aspect...............LOL

A few of years ago before retiring I once worked out how much the SNB had lost. Because few people understand number like millions, billions etc. to rub the fact in for my Swiss colleagues in the office, I was able to tell them that with its gold sales Switzerland had lost the full estimated cost of the NEAT (Neue Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale) or New Railway Link through the Alps NRLA in English.
Since today's gold prices are somewhat higher the losses are even greater and calculated at today's gold price Switzerland has lost more than 2 (two) complete NEATs.

Can somebody take physical gold out of Switzerland legally? The customs website has no provisions on this issue.

its legal if its declared - it all depends where you are taking it to.

There is no obligations to declare gold or cash exiting or entering. No amount/quantity limits as well. If they check you then you just proof the legality of funds or metals.

The devil is in details. If your flight is not direct then there can be a trouble in EU.

Of course there is a MWST refund (or payment) matter on silver, platinum and palladium, but not gold. So no one asks - nothing to declare.

P.S. banking gold, 999 hallmarked or coins, not a nigerian gold dust.

I mean importing. For refining all docs must be in order and custom forms filled.

There is a restriction on the amount of gold one may import into the UK.
It's on the UK customs internet site somewhere - I remember a figure of €10,000 but if need be you should check it out.

By the way; for those that mocked me about owning real hard gold as opposed to paper and ETFs; you might like to read this about Global MF that went into administration a couple of weeks ago.
To summarise when it went into administration it was discovered that the traders had taken monies from client accounts to trade for its self.

Celente’s MF Global Gold Account ‘Looted’
"I have an account with Lind-Waldock, and I have been trading gold since 1978, and I have a very simple strategy. As you well know, I’ve been very bullish on gold for many years… So I was building up my account to take delivery on a contract, and I got a call on Monday, and they said I needed to have a margin call. And I said, what are you talking about, I’ve got a ton of money in my account. They responded, oh no you don’t, that money’s with a trustee now.” He said that MF Global “have cleaned out and ruined a lot of people."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/euro-g...ooted%E2%80%99

This is just the start !!

__________________
I do not have friends..........I have contingent liabilities

yup. i would buy gold only as insurance which means it only makes sense to hold physical gold (or possibly through an arrangement like buillionvault.com).

I don't think I would trust bits of paper from Bullion Vault either.
It might not even be an issue of Bullion Vault going bust (though I would not trust them) but a government intervention of some kind.

The safest thing for the time being is a safe deposit box in Switzerland with gold bars in it and even with the loss of interest and cost of the safe deposit box will still perform better even with the price of gold at the moment.