A pawn shop can also sell gold. Keep in mind the spot price of gold (the price per ounce right now on the market) as you buy, so you can make a fair deal. Mutual funds and ETFs are generally the easiest and safest ways to invest in gold. Each share of these securities represents a fixed amount of gold, and you can easily buy or sell these funds in your brokerage or retirement account.
Alternatively, you may want to consider starting a Gold IRA, which is a retirement account that allows you to invest in physical gold and other precious metals. Mutual funds and gold ETFs are a good option for beginning investors because of their low cost and low minimum investment requirements. Like gold coins, gold bars can be expensive to store and secure properly. The buying process is also similar. You can buy gold bars at dealerships depending on your budget and how much you want to invest.
You can also expect to pay the dealer a premium higher than the real price of gold, although it's usually not as high as with coins.
