Over one in ten Brits have a gold stash worth more than what they have in the bank

Immediately bank-friendly Savings.co.uk tried to poke holes in the gold as savings argument saying gold doesn’t produce an income like interest or dividends, it’s illiquid and if you buy physical gold you’re unlikely to be covered by any financial compensation scheme if things go wrong.

MINING.com reported in July gold vending machines are to be placed in every major city in Britain after the country’s first Gold to Go ATM (pictured) was switched on in a West London shopping centre on Friday. The company behind the machines that vend a 1g bar the size of a cellphone sim card aimed at ordinary shoppers plans to install 50 across Britain over the next few years.

Commodity Online reported on the trend as far back as November 2008 quoting the UK’s BullionVault founder Paul Tustain: “We get people investing from all walks of life, people who wouldn’t normally take the time to trade in any product. They buy gold to hold their wealth because they feel it’s less risky.

Started in 2005 by its last financial year’s end (31 October 2010) privately owned BullionVault had over 20,000 active customers, from 97 countries, holding approximately $1.2 billion in stored bullion. In fact, with more than 20 tonnes of gold, BullionVault’s customers were already holding significantly larger reserves than most of the world’s central banks.