The following is an edited version of an article by Peter Macfarlane and a special offer that was published this weekend in our free weekly newsletter, Q Bytes. If you would like to receive Q Bytes every week (no obligation, and of course you can unsubscribe at any time) be sure to sign up here.

Yesterday I had a very interesting meeting with a personal consulting client at which we discussed physical gold and silver, the dollar and the euro. Particularly, how to buy physical gold and silver offshore. I think it will be very relevant to Q Wealth readers, so I’m going to tell you a bit about this meeting, and then offer you an ‘insider’ recommendation on physical precious metals free of charge.

This client, we’ll call him Jim, was in a great mood and treated me to a nice lunch. We talked about a recommendation we made in a Q Bytes free conference call earlier this year with Q Wealth Expert Linda Dixon, to get into silver: not only did Jim follow this advice and buy silver at around the $17.00 spot mark, but when he did so, he bought it at a 20% discount direct from the mining company. Now, with silver well above $23.00, he’s about to start taking physical delivery, something he’s keenly looking forward to. The best part is that all this was done without involving the banking system at all.

Buying silver and gold direct from the mine is something we’ve certainly heard about before, but Jim told me Q Wealth was the only place he had received the practical instructions and direct contact information necessary to make the purchase. In fact, this particular silver deal was a relatively small affair designed to test the system. I don’t quite know how much Jim put in, but the minimum was only $10,000. So this is really accessible to almost every reader.

But the story gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective.) Jim also told me about one of his buddies, Fred, an ultra high net worth investor who deals in millions and billions, who had tried contacted larger mining companies trying to buy gold direct – rather than through middlemen. He had been told that yes, they would be happy to sell him some of their production…. but he would have to join the line, behind the big buyers like JP Morgan and HSBC.

The same day, a new article by Jeff Clark of Casey Research arrived in my inbox, touching on the very same subject. “We’ve got it easy right now,” comments Jeff. “Click or call, and you can quickly and conveniently own a gold coin or bar. But if global concerns cause another panic or the dollar breaks down, you could find yourself standing in a line at the local coin shop or getting a busy signal. Simply … you may find it very difficult to get your hands on physical gold when that time comes.”

Don’t believe it could happen? Back in the 1980s it did. There were no precious metal ETFs in 1980, and the demand for physical gold was so great that you literally had to wait in line at a coin shop to buy, with plenty of occasions when you would have been turned away due to lack of inventory. And it happened again in 2008… you may recall we saw serious shortages, unexpected delays, and soaring premiums on gold coins towards the end of that year.

Jeff asks a simple question: “Given the fragile state of global affairs and the waiting-in-the-wings crisis for the U.S. dollar, I’ll be surprised if we don’t see another panic into physical gold. And the question is, will there be enough metal to go around when the public – 95% of which own none – wakes up and wants to buy it? Answer: No.” I do recommend you read Jeff’s full analysis here. And just skip ahead now if you want to get something we’ve never offered before – a copy of a presentation about physical gold and ETFs given to our delegates at the recent Q Wealth event in Ireland.

First, however, I should comment on the euro. Probably if you’re reading this, you are not surprised that gold is hitting new records and silver is shooting up even faster. What might have surprised you, though, is the Euro’s strength over recent days. Conventional wisdom, especially on US-based libertarian websites, is that the euro is doomed. So why is it getting stronger?

Here’s something else I learned in Cork. This is not analysis – it’s practical, on the ground experience. There we heard a presentation by real estate millionaire Thomas Bolther, who started investing into the German real estate market in 2006. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is doing just great according to Thomas. Property prices have increased, interest rates are low, and there’s plenty of money floating around in the banking system.

An American delegate at our conference later commented to me that he was shocked. Shocked to hear that banks in Germany were financing 80-90% LTV on multi-family real estate units. Shocked to hear that the Euro zone was doing well, despite the dismal picture portrayed in the media that focuses on Greece and Ireland – two bankrupt economies that are tiny even by European standards.

The US dollar, however, continues to devalue. Some people say it will hold its value until after the 2012 elections. Personally I doubt that. The US continues to meddle in world currency markets and support quantitative easing – ie, printing more money. The opposition to this is growing in the rest of the world, most recently in the BRIC countries. (See for example BusinessWeek: Russia’s Kudrin Says ‘Too Early’ for World Currency Decision)

Now I’m not saying you should rush to put your money in the euro. Far from it. Paradoxically, the reason German real estate is doing so well is that Germans don’t want to keep their money in the euro. They too are worried it will collapse. Real estate in good locations in big cities is a safe haven for them. So, of course, is gold. Demand for both has skyrocketed in Germany.

In fact I’m not going to give you any advice here. I just wanted to present a few nuggets of information, based on personal experience of the last few weeks, that you probably won’t hear elsewhere.

Here’s something else you might be interested in too…

Our Q Wealth events are strictly ‘closed door.’ As a matter of policy, we don’t sell CDs and videos. We don’t even allow recording devices into the room. This is so our experts can speak freely. However, we’ve decided to make a single exception…

Frank Suess of Global Gold gave a very important presentation in Cork, explaining not just the benefits of his physical precious metals program (besides gold, they also handle physical silver, palladium, and platinum) In a specially prepared presentation, Frank also explained exactly why investing in Gold ETFs is an extremely bad idea, although he mentioned one, ZGLD, that is the best of the bunch.

I believe that Global Gold represents the single best way you can get into physical precious metals today.

After talking to Frank, we agreed that this is important information that we should get out to all Q Wealth members. Good honest people are being misled by Wall Street into investing in products like GLD, where the weight of the evidence suggests that the gold doesn’t exist at all. These structured products are brought to you by the very same financiers who brought you sub-prime mortgage securities a few years back. Now they are cashing in on folks seeking the safe haven on gold, by offering virtual gold – a numbers game.

Therefore, Frank has agreed to let us send you a copy of his presentation, converted to pdf format. You will be able to read through this presentation in about 20 minutes. After reading it, tell me if you still want to invest in gold ETFs!

If you are a Q Wealth member, you’ll find that we have just uploaded it to the Members Section. If you are not yet a member, I am so keen that you should see this that we are offering you an additional incentive – an extra $10 off membership if you sign up over this weekend (by Monday night). Just enter the discount code OCT10 in the box on the Q Wealth signup form here.

Some investors are so worried about the prospect of economic collapse that they are buying gold and having it delivered to them, rather than holding the precious metal in the form of futures contracts or other securities. That’s the conclusion of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Perhaps more interesting, however, was the informed discussion that followed on the WSJ’s site, in the “Comments” section.

“Why place your trust in paper that is printed by the government?” asks reader Linda Hawkins. “Gold has been serving as money much longer than governments have been printing fiat currency. The risk is that the government may print so much of it, that we end up like Germany in the 1930s, or Zimbabwe right now.”

Gold, as commenter Avery Goodman went on to explain, “is not bought for “end of the world” planning. It is bought for preserving wealth when the financial system is working incorrectly … People are buying gold to have a thing of value that has no counter-parties, and, in that manner, protect themselves from a collapsing financial system, and a probable depression and/or hyperinflation.”

I particularly liked that point about gold having no counter-parties. That is, of course, assuming we are talking about real physical gold bullion, not about paper or virtual gold like ETFs. I have blogged over on my personal site before about the dangers of investing in GLD ETF, and – for that matter – other commodity ETFs. Journal reader Alex Vasilyevich points out: “I personally believe that the gold short trades on COMEX are not backed by any physical delivery capability. If there is a sudden spike in the deliveries demanded by buyers, the game will be exposed, just like what happened with Madoff and Stanford.”

Of course, regular Q Wealth readers will see nothing new in this discussion, but sometimes it is reassuring to know that even the mainstream financial press reports and respects our views, and that onshore Gold dealers in places like London and New York City are doing a roaring trade. It follows on from the article in January in London’s Daily Telegraph about Why the Rich are Running to Gold Bullion.

We do take matters one step further, however, by suggesting international diversification for your gold bullion holdings. Why? For example, there have been many rumors that the US might once again prohibit private ownership of gold, and confiscate – or, purchase at an artificial exchange rate – existing gold bullion held by individuals onshore. The same applies to many European governments, some of which only legalized private gold ownership in the last decade or two.

There’s also the important matter of how to buy gold bullion. Most gold sales go through a cartel of international bankers and precious metal traders. It is however, possible to go direct to the source and buy pure gold direct from the producers.

All these aspects of buying gold offshore and more are covered – together with step-by-step practical instructions and contact details – in the new Gold Report – otherwise known as How to Buy and Hide Gold Bullion Offshore. Of course we must stress what we are suggesting is a perfectly legal form of offshore asset protection. Unlike bank accounts, or ETFs held through brokerage accounts, real gold bullion is not subject to reporting requirements. If you want to keep it secret you can – legally. That personal and financial privacy aspect is just one more reason why we are so bullish on gold bullion right now. It is a secure, private store of wealth management with a view not just to asset protection but to really creating wealth in a secure, offshore environment. And that is what The Q Wealth Report is all about.

Would you like to obtain your copy of The Gold Report while the unique information in it is fresh and bang up to date? Well the good news is – it’s FREE. It’s available for download right now in our Members’ Area. The bad news, of course, is that you have to be a member to access it. But a membership still costs just $87 per year and brings numerous other benefits. What are you waiting for? Join Q Wealth today!