The launch of new bullion coins that feature King Charles III for the first time has also coincided with the price of gold leaping 7.5% since the start of the year.

Precious metals merchant MyGold told BusinessDesk on Tuesday that the gold price hit more than NZ$3,000 an ounce last Friday and then again on Monday and Tuesday this week. 

MyGold’s general manager, Chris Howard, said several factors had helped the gold price surge since the beginning of the year, but it was mainly due to a change in market sentiment – particularly in the US as investors worry over what the US Federal Reserve will do next.

“Monday was a nine-month high for gold, but there's been a sharp rise since the beginning of the year,” Howard said. “It’s pretty high at the moment and there's pent-up demand.”

The surge in both the price of gold and the increased interest in precious metals has coincided with the launch of the Royal Mint’s first Britannia coins featuring the new effigy of King Charles III.

MyGold was one of the first gold dealers in the world to launch the new coins, due to the southern hemisphere time zone.

Howard said MyGold was also the only distributor in NZ that worked directly with the UK Royal Mint.

“If we’re going to be the leaders in the market here, we need to deal directly,” Howard told BusinessDesk. “Because we're dealing with the origin, we're able to get those products straight in and work really closely with them.”

At the end of the rainbow

MyGold was expecting demand for both gold and silver to continue in the coming months. Howard said the interest in the new Britannia coins would be high.

“It’s one of the main investment coins in the world in precious metals, and I see it as a piece of history being made.

“I know the Queen died back in September, but this is something that hasn’t happened in 71 years. It marks that era of change.”

MyGold’s silver and gold Britannia coins were among some of the precious metals merchant’s coins most popular investment coins.

The company had more than enough stock of the King Charles III bullion coins to “fulfil” expectations and were expecting to see all of them sell, Howard said.

Will the price keep going up?

So, where’s the price of gold going from here?

“That's a difficult one because there's so much happening,” Howard said.

Factors included the US Federal Reserve meeting in the next few weeks to discuss the rate cycle, which has been making investors nervous, the war in Ukraine and the general inflationary woes economies everywhere are struggling with.

“There's a lot of worry and concern about that, which has pushed the gold price up. 

“We clearly see that the US dollar is going to go down in value and we expect to see the gold price rise. How much it rises is in unknown territory.”