Can someone advise me on:
Where do you buy gold?
How do you know it’s real?
How do you know the price is right?
Is it always in coin form?
What’s the smallest “denomination”?
APMEX is reliable, they sell coins and bars.
Ditto on APMEX.com. I am satisfied with all of my purchases.
Camino Coin Company. You won't overpay; they sell a lot of gold and silver for only about 1-2% above spot price. (Basically, only about a 1-2% "markup").
How do you know it’s real?
Reputable dealer, Coins of traceable origin. The known fraud in the Gold Market has been Tungsten-cored 400-Ounce gold bars (400 troy ounces is standard for a "London Good Delvery" gold bar), not little 1-oz or 1/10-oz coins. (For obvious reasons -- if you're going to the trouble to smelt counterfeit bullion, you make 400 times as much by counterfeiting a big fat London Good Delivery gold bar, as you would a little 1-oz Krugerrand).
How do you know the price is right?
Compare your cost-per-ounce to the Spot Price quoted at Kitco. If you're only being charged about a 1 to 5% markup, you're doing fine.
Is it always in coin form?
No, but if you can afford to plunk down $500,000 for a 400-oz Bullion Bar, you should probably split it open to see if it's real. If you're just buying small coins, that's far less of a concern.
What’s the smallest “denomination”?
1-ounce coins are about $1,200 or $1,250 right now.
1/10-ounce coins would be around $125 or so.
But, if I may ask... why Gold?
You can buy 90%-pure Junk Silver (pre-1965 90%-silver US coinage) for about $17 or so per ounce right now. Each 90%-silver pre-1965 dime is now worth a little over $1.30 in silver content, and it's all Real; nobody bothers to counterfeit silver coinage, the price isn't high enough. (Yet).
There is only about 6 times as much silver above ground as there is gold, but gold costs 66 times as much. Don't get me wrong; I love both, and I trade both (you can trade GLD and SLV right in your online brokerage account, though I also suggest owning some actual physical coinage in your own secret hidey-hole); but if I could only choose one -- I'd buy Silver, not Gold.
JMHO and I hope that was helpful.
You might check with these guys
https://online.kitco.com/