Gold, gold, gold
Andrew in San Francisco has come through with some very helpful advice on gold (Lifelines: July 4).
"Gold prices are generally uniform throughout the world. Everybody who deals in gold has the latest up-to-the-minute prices on the world market. Gold can be sold as bullion, coin or jewelry. With coin there is little problem, as with bullion. But jewelry presents a different problem.
"Pure gold is .24 carat. It is usually marked 999. Gold jewelry can be found in .24 carat, which is very soft and easily bent metal. However, .22 carat gold is more common, down to .18 carat. Generally anything below .18 carat is department store quality and not worth much.