Sell Gold ETF, Buy $460,000 Gold Bar

LONDON (TheStreet) -- Burn the bills and pass the bullion: We're going to Harrods.

There was a time when hoarding gold bars was a pastime left to the moneyed gentry, tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy-minded cabin dweller and Y2K shelter suppliers. When the global economy melted down faster than Ed McMahon's retirement watch in a Cash4Gold blast furnace (too soon?), good ol' AU became a shimmering oasis on a scorched financial landscape. As gold prices approached $1,100 an ounce this week, London retailer Harrods' decision to sell gold coins and bars was only somewhat less surprising than its delay in doing so.

Why not just invest in gold futures, the SPDR Gold Shares ETF(GLD) or gold-based IRAs? It's a matter of trust, or lack thereof. Before Bernie Madoff, Allen Stanford and company duped well-educated and perfectly reasonable people into believing a bedpan was a pot of gold, accepting certificates and assurances may have been the way to go. Today, however, those same reasonable people can be excused for wanting a more tangible investment.

Harrods allows bargain shoppers to fill their pockets with Eagles, Britannias and Krugerrands at little more than $1,000 apiece, but also offers Fort Knox-style 12.5-kilogram gold bars worth more than $460,000. Those who don't want to lug their newfound treasure on to the Tube can have it delivered through the shop's high-security export service or stored in a Harrods safe deposit box for $400 or more a month. The shop will even buy the gold back at market value if an owner decides to sell.