The size of $500 worth of gold - about 3.5g - is a small coin or a thin gold ring.
Regular people definitelly buy gold in physical form because it’s such a concentrated form of storing wealth, though in the West this was a lot more common in the old days and currently is a lot more common in countries like China and India.
Oh, and if you buy certificates and the certificate issuer goes bankrupt (like so many companies go during Economic Crashes and Depressions), then in the eyes of the law you’re just another creditor of the assets of that company and can forget all about getting most of the value of that gold back, so you might want to reconsider gold certificates for value safe-keeping outside of the dollar in case of a major economic crash in the US.
The size of $500 worth of gold - about 3.5g - is a small coin or a thin gold ring.
Regular people definitelly buy gold in physical form because it’s such a concentrated form of storing wealth, though in the West this was a lot more common in the old days and currently is a lot more common in countries like China and India.
Oh, and if you buy certificates and the certificate issuer goes bankrupt (like so many companies go during Economic Crashes and Depressions), then in the eyes of the law you’re just another creditor of the assets of that company and can forget all about getting most of the value of that gold back, so you might want to reconsider gold certificates for value safe-keeping outside of the dollar in case of a major economic crash in the US.