As demand for gold sovereigns surges, some fall victim to fraud

With the price of gold recently surging above $2,500 per ounce, many owners of gold sovereigns are selling them.

But this higher supply still cannot match demand: In Greece, gold sovereign acquisitions from January to July topped 40,000, double the sales. This is the highest number of sales since the start of the financial crisis, in 2010, when gold was much cheaper.

With the increased demand, cases of fraud have gone up: In the city of Patra, a man spent €45,000 on gold sovereigns that proved to be fake. Experts counsel to only buy the coins from the Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank, the two authorized institutions.