As Investors Bought Gold, a New Question: Where to Put It?

Then come two pat-downs and passes with metal-detecting wands. No phones, keys, pens, watches, bracelets, or wallets are allowed. And certainly no cameras.

Inside the vault, the gold is neatly stacked on plain metal shelves. A 100-ounce bar the size of an iPhone is worth about $140,000. A 400-oz. bar—that’s 25 pounds of at least 99.5 percent pure gold—is worth more than half a million. Although the vault’s been in operation for years, its shelves had room to spare until the financial crisis. As people saw their wealth collapse, they sought security in something tangible. Gold was an obvious choice. Not paper gold—exchange-traded funds or futures contracts—but the real thing. Investors wanted coins and bars they could touch and hide away someplace safe, surrounded by concrete and steel and guarded by men with guns.

Read More: www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-12/as-investors-bought-gold-a-new-question-where-to-put-it