Coins, bars, nuggets and mining stocks attract investors

Interested in joining today's gold rush? Here are some options:

Real Gold: Coins and bars are the easiest way to buy gold and keep it on hand. More than a million ounces of gold a year go into gold coins in the United States, says Philip Newman, of the research firm Thomson Reuters GFMS in London.

The U.S. Mint sells commemorative gold coins, and dealers such as Monex and Kitco sell bars. You can even buy one-ounce gold bars and one-gram gold nuggets from the Gold ATM vending machine in the Golden Nugget downtown.

If you're thinking about keeping your gold at home or in a bank safe-deposit box, be careful. Some banks don't insure safe-deposit contents, and many homeowners' insurance policies limit how much value you can claim in stolen bullion.

ETFs: Gold-backed, exchange-traded funds allow you to buy the precious metal without having to store it yourself. ETFs track stock indexes, and they're as easy to buy and sell through an online brokerage as any stock or mutual fund.

One caveat: Gold ETFs backed by bullion rather than futures can have fairly high storage costs, Newman says. Ask about storage fees before you buy. You can also buy into ETFs that trade in gold futures, and not actual bullion. But futures-based ETFs don't follow the price of gold as closely as bullion-backed funds.

Mining companies: Nevada's biggest gold producers, Barrick and Newmont, are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Newmont is the only gold company in the S&P 500 and the Fortune 500.

Solid business volume is virtually guaranteed for mining companies as long as commodity prices stay high. But stocks can be vulnerable to rising costs and missed production targets, and performance can be volatile.

Barrick's share price closed at $42.38 on Sept. 14, down from $55.20 a year earlier. Newmont's shares closed at $57.20, down from $72.42 in November.