A trip to the vending machine is about to become a much more costly affair in Germany, where a company has announced plans for a machine dispensing bars of gold.
Spurred on by the economic downturn, TG-Gold-Super-Markt hopes to install 500 vending machines dispensing the precious metal across the country.
Interest in gold has risen during the financial crisis, as people turn away from riskier investment options.
A prototype machine, called Gold to Go, has been installed at Frankfurt Airport allowing customers to purchase everything from a 1g wafer of gold for about 30 euros ($52), to gold coins.
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Gold prices are updated every few minutes, and the vending machine has a camera to monitor purchases.
"German investors have always preferred to hold a lot of personal wealth in gold, for historical reasons," according to Thomas Geissler, who owns the company behind the idea.
"They have twice lost everything.
"Gold is a good thing to have in your pocket in uncertain times."
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