Is gold an acceptable means of currency exchange?

1/30/2012 10:23:13 PM

I am not aware of any country where gold is an acceptable currency. Banks typically don’t buy gold from strangers. They require that you have a checking account with them.

Jewellery stores, pawn shops and thelike will probably take your gold for cash, but it’s a gamble: They’ll guess the value and make an offer based on how much they value your coin. Maybe more importantly, you might not find such a shop when you need them.

The risk of a credit/debit card getting blocked is real. However, carrying two cards or one card and cash / traveller’s cheques should be fairly save.

EURos are good all over Western and Central Europe. In Eastern Europe, Russia, and Asia, USD is popular. Changing cash is no longer the ripoff, it used to be; often cheaper than credit card transactions, certainly cheaper than selling gold.

11/11/2013 4:29:58 PM

Although gold is at a high value now, it’s not easy to convert into cash. A lot of places are doing “cash for gold” in shops for people to sell their old jewlery etc. However they pay maybe one tenth the price per troy ounce. I know this is the case in numerous European countries. So you’ll have to buy it at 100%, and sell it at 10%, meaning a 90% drop in value. Gold is a terrible way to convert your cash when travelling around Europe.

You’d be much better bringing Euro or US Dollars.

6/18/2014 3:12:44 PM

It is certainly not true that “most European countries take gold”. You cannot pay for goods in a shop with gold. Nor can you walk into a high street bank with gold and walk out with currency – you would need to do it through a specialist dealer.

There are places where you can sell gold jewellery, but you will get very poor prices.

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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