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Gold bar

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For the U.S. city, see Gold Bar, Washington.
"Gold brick" redirects here. For other uses, see gold brick (disambiguation).

A gold bar is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping.[1] Larger gold bars that are produced by pouring the molten metal into molds are called ingots. Smaller bars may be manufactured by minting or stamping from appropriately rolled gold sheets.

The standard gold bar held as gold reserves by central banks and traded among bullion dealer is the 400-troy-ounce (12.4 kg or 438.9 ounces) Good Delivery gold bar.

Types

Gold bars are classified into two different types, casted and minted, based on their method of manufacturing.[1] Cast bars are made by pouring molten gold into an ingot mold to shape the gold product. Minted bars are made from gold blanks that have been hand cut to the required dimensions from a flat piece of gold. Markings are almost always applied by presses. ChipGold is a relatively new form of gold bar consisting of a small ingot (1-20 grams) in a sealed and certified package the size of a credit card.

Standard bar weights

Gold is measured in troy ounces, often simply referred to as ounce when the reference to gold is evident. One troy ounce is equivalent to 31.1034768 grams.

The much more commonly used avoirdupois ounce is used for measuring weights in most situation in daily life in countries using imperial measures, an avoirdupois ounce is lighter than a troy ounce; One avoirdupois ounce = 28.349523125 grams.

The standard gold bar held and traded internationally by central banks and bullion dealers is the Good Delivery bar with a 400 oz. nominal weight. However, its precise gold content is permitted to vary between 350 oz and 430 oz. The minimum purity required is 99.5% gold. These bars must be stored in recognized and secure gold bullion vaults to maintain their quality status of Good Delivery. The recorded provenance of this bar assures integrity and maximum resale value.[2]

  • One tonne = 1000 kilograms = 32,150.746 troy ounces.
  • One kilogram = 1000 grams = 32.15074656 troy ounces.
  • One tola = 11.6638038 grams.
  • One tael = 37.429 grams.[notes 1]
  • TT (Ten Tola) = 117 grams (3.75 oz)[3]

Tola is a traditional Indian measure for the weight of gold and prevalent to this day. Many international gold manufacturers supply tola bars of 999.96 purity.

Largest gold bar

The world's largest gold bar at the Toi gold mine.

The world's largest gold bar stands at 250 kg (551 lb), measuring 45.5 cm × 22.5 cm × 17 cm. It was manufactured by the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi. It went on display at the Toi gold mine on July 11, 2005. It was valued in 2005 at 400 million yen (approximately $3,684,000 USD at the time[4]).[5][6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This is the official rate of taels in mainland China since the country implemented the metric system. In Taiwan and Hong Kong a tael is equivalent to 37.429g.

References

  1. ^ "The International Gold Bars Collection". May 14, 1998. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  2. ^ "Gold bar reference". BullionVault.com. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  3. ^ "Bar Types, Weights and Purities". World Gold Council. Retrieved 2005-12-24.
  4. ^ "Historical Exchange Rates". OANDA Services. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
  5. ^ "Three Diamonds Cast Gold-Medal Gold Bar". The Japan Journal. November 2005. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  6. ^ "Mitsubishi makes record-size gold bar". Japan Times. June 17, 2005. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
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