Why can't a person buy gold coins at a regular bank?

Since the price of gold fluctuates minute by minute, a coin dealer is taking a risk when buying a gold coin. He's paid for taking that risk, a risk that banks just don't want to take. Besides, when it comes to gold coins, a one ounce gold coin is now worth about $800. Unless you're buying a car or a house, it might be difficult to spend.

You can find the minute-by-minute price of gold at Kitco.com. If you look closely, there's always two prices given, the "bid" and the "ask" price. They buy at less than they sell it for, otherwise there wouldn't be a profit. Without a profit there wouldn't be any point in getting it out of the ground, would there? There's always some sort of spread or premium when buying real gold. Coins used to be made out of gold, but nowadays there's simply too many coins out there and not enough gold. Even a one ounce silver coin is worth $15, kind of difficult to spend at McDonald's. And again, the price of silver is always fluctuating.

The good thing is there's always a coin dealer around somewhere where you can buy real gold, or you can buy online for delivery.