mercador

I have a fairly large-ish stash of physical gold in the form of coins (Krugers, Eagles, Pandas, etc.) When I move to Australia I'll probably want to take them with me, as it is very unlikely that I will want to liquidate the entire position at that time. As they are all legal tender they are not dutiable but I can imagine that customs may wonder why Madame Mercador is waltzing through the green channel with 50+ ounces of gold bullion in her knickers. The last thing I want after a 20+ hour flight is to be accused of being a gangster or a money launderer.

Has anybody got any experience of hand carrying gold coins/bullion into Australia?

Gollywobbler

Not personally, no. I am not rich enough, sadly. However, poverty seems to buy brains, Sunshine! If you plan to do something that looks suspiciously like money-laundering in any jurisdiction short of the moon, do you really think that bragging about your bullion-wealth to the entire planet is the Brainiest Idea you've ever had?

Now then. You could ask whoever controls BE to delete this thread. If they were to comply, it would tar them with the same brush of suspicion as you, in my view.

The Australian Government is rumoured to read this website. According to you, you have no illicit intentions. Therefore you have nothing to fear from the Australian authorities either, have you? Instead of asking a bunch of commercially gormless Joe Soaps like me what to do with all this gold you say you are dripping with, why don't you give the Australian Tax Office a howl and explain your alleged problem to them? If your ideas are lawful, they will undoubtedly explain what to do.

Go to it.

Good luck

Gollywobbler

scrubbedexpat020

Had to do the sums - AUD37k for anybody interested.

Is it >AUD10k you have to declare at customs? I guess you say I'm a collector, show your receipts/certificates and waltz through.

Ian

Centurion

Very harsh response there Gollywobbler!!! Some might say your thread makes it appear you have a chip on your shoulder about money...

I suspect what the original poster needed to know was that if you bring in A$10,000 or more in money (including coins) then you must report it at departure and arrival. You should contact the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre Call: 1800 021 037 (Australia only) +61 2 9950 0055 (Outside Australia)

No doubt they can advise.

And no - I dont have a briefcase full of gold bullion since I prefer money in a bank, but I am able to google search

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4443

seang

A few gold coins? Geez. Try shifting £53 million.................

(any ideas let us know)

DagBoy

But since Gold Krugerrand are legal tender, a full krugerrrand (1 oz of gold), whilst it is worth about $730 only has a face value of 10 rand (about $2.20) so what value do you use to calculate your $10,000 limit?

I have no idea - but I wish it were my problem

mercador

This is the problem, the total face value of the coins (ie Chinese Panda has a face value of 500 yuan - Aus$84) is far less then Aus$10,000. All I am doing is bringing in a few thousand dollars in cash. So, in theory no declaration is necessary but I do think that pitching up at SYD with a large-ish quantity of physical gold is a fairly rare event hence my enquiry if anybody here has done it.

GW, please re-read my original post carefully, what I am doing is not illegal. Perhaps your response was intended to be jocular, but it comes across as unnecessarily strident and contrary to the customarily helpful spirit of these forums.

kiwichild

No but I strongly recommend you declare it upon your arrival or else you run the risk of having it forfeited.

Check out www.customs.gov.au

and try to get a current valuation of it in OZ dollars (a certificate of valuation perhaps?)

paulf

Jeez tell me about it!! last time I use Brinks Mat.

Sir Les Patterson

hi i also collect coins bullion gold and silver plus diamonds would be interested in all answers to this

Gollywobbler

I don't have the slightest intention of being "harsh" to anybody and my own money is tied up in land, because that is an asset which I - personally - understand.

I have been indundated with offers involving alleged bullon deals. Apparently there wiill be all sorts of elaborate Bank Guarantees and the Gold will pitch up from South Africa or somewhere. Deutchebank get mentioned the whole time. I got so sick of this nonsense that I rang their London HQ and asked for their bullion dealer. He laughed his sox off. He said that every single month, he gets offered more than the world's entire known holdings of gold and that the whole thing is claptrap.

He also warned me to be BLOODY careful with the stuff because - according to him - Banks and other "authorities" are now so neurotic about money-laundering that they get well & truly excited about something like Gold. Seems to me that that notion stacks up. Doesn't mean that it isn't (a) legitimate and (b) do-able.

However, saying anything on the Internet is tantamount to taking a megaphone and describing one's PRIVATE affairs to the entire planet. Not a route I ever choose to take with my own affiars, for a start.

Also, I don't know where the OP is based. Do you? He may be from a jurisdiction where Money Laundering is not the Hot Potato that it seems to have become in the G8 - of which Australia is one.

If you think that being tough with sonebody today for the sake of trying to save them from unnecessary potential strife tomorrow is a Bad Thing, then you and I will just have to agree to differ on this one, I guess. It is, however, a very bad idea to start bandying personal insults to people whom you know nothing about, I suggest,

LOL

Gollywobbler

Mercador

Please see my reply to the geezer who was so rude to me! I'm not trying to be nasty to anyone, but in these days when the authorities viirtually everywhere have become so very jumpy about money, I am convinced that the internet is not a brainy place in which to discuss one's personal and private affairs, especially not on such a public forum as this one.

I don't know where you are based. I am in the UK . Here, gold has a particularly bad reputation because of all the attempted scams going on with the stuff. The bullion dealer from Deutchebank (that spelling isn't right - these is an 's' in it somewhere, but I'm not sure quite where and at nearly midnight in the UK I'm not about to waste time looking it up!) told me CATEGORICALLLY not to put ONE WORD in writing about it. He was so insistent about that that he frightened the wits out of me.

I deal in land. It is a commodity that I understand and it is safe. There are potentially better returns on caital employed elsewhere, obviously. However, land is a fairly consistent all-round performer, plus it saves me a load of headaches trying to figure out commodities like gold about which I do not have a clue.

I was not trying to be horrid to yoiu, buddy. I was merely trying to warn you to be careful about how much you can safely tell the world at large. You do not have to be doing anything illegal in order to make the authorities suspicious of you. They can do that all by themeselves from what I gather!
Just be careful, I suggest.

Gollywobbler