Thursday, December 29, 2005

Buy Gold Bars

When it comes to buy gold bars, all gold bars come in a range of sizes from 50 grams, 100 grams, 1 kilogramm, 1 ounce, 10 ounces, 100 ounces and 400 ounces, to give a broad indication. The thinner gold bars are often referred to as gold biscuits or gold wafers.

Of course the very wealthy can purchase the 400 ounce bars and these are usually stored in banks, but it is mostly countries and large businesses that would use gold in such quantities as a means of storing their wealth this way. For us ordinary mortals it is usually the 1 gram up to perhaps 50 or 100 ounce bars that we can afford.

There are many bars available in the market imported from all over the world. Some of the more well-known refineries of gold bars are Credit Suisse, Johnson Matthey, PAMP Suisse, Perth Mint, UBS and Rand Refinery to name but a few.

How Much do Gold Bars Cost?

Firstly it is very useful to have a comparison of the weights of gold. 100 grams equals 3.2151 oz Troy ounces and 31.1035 grams equals 1 troy ounce

Gold always sells at the current market value with a margin from the dealer.

The margin can be high or low depending on the dealer, packaging, any sales tax and freight. For tiny 1 gram bars the margin is going to be considerable, perhaps even the cost of the gold again, so this would not be a very viable purchase. Purchasing a 100 gram or 50 ounce bar would give you a drop in the margin and, as you are getting more into the professional markets and less into the 'consumer' market, packaging becomes less of an issue. After all you want to buy a gold bar, not some plastic and printed cardboard with it.

The Fineness you often see, refers to the purity of the gold. Gold purity is expressed in parts per thousand. So 995 is 995/1000 or 99.5% pure. Today, it is possible to produce gold up to 99.9999% purity and referred to as 999.

This explains why you have two bars of identical weight going for different rates. The variation would be the fineness of the gold. It would be referred to as either 995 or 999. The 999 being more expensive since it is better refined.

Where to Buy Gold Bars

Most gold and coin dealers online and in shops sell small gold bars. Sometimes one can purchases them from governmental outlets such as Post Offices. Also from Mints, such as the Perth Mint in Western Australia, for example.

Check out what is on offer and how it is packaged. Check the prevailing value of gold and how much you want to spend.

Gold make an excellent long term investment and storage of assets. You could do a lot worse than buy gold bars!

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