No. You can usually buy physical at spot + 1 or 2% max. In the UK, coins like Sovereigns or Britannias are capital gains tax free, so you typically pay a bit more for them, like 4 or 5% above spot. But then you won't have the headache of remembering what you bought them for when you sell them (aside from the pleasure of saving CGT-free).
I wouldn't say zero! Also, moving forward things like planetary resources could challenge the stability of gold, but it's still pretty good and fairly liquid. For me, it proved more liquid than bitcoin; Exchanging bitcoin took 3 days coinbase + ACH; I liquidated a gold piece in an afternoon, could have gotten cash, but mailed a check into my bank and had the funds in 2 days (still faster than bitcoin, even with the USPS in the way)
let's say the trade commission was a horrifying 50%, and in the best case scenario for the other direction the treasury exchanged those bills exactly one for one. Would you rather have $1000 or gold from 50 years ago valued at $500 from 50 years ago? Even if you think gold is in a bubble, and, say worth $200/oz instead of $1600/oz, you would have far more than 5 oz worth from 500 1963 dollars.
