About Gold Bullion Ingots

A gold bullion ingots, or gold bullion bars, are pieces of gold bullion that are produced by a recognized gold bar manufacturer to a specific weight, size and purity. While most gold bullion ingots are rectangular shaped, gold bullion bars issued in foreign countries often comes in fancy shapes such as donuts, square and even boat-shaped. Gold bullion ingots are issued at a low premium on top of the prevailing value of their gold content.

The name of the issuer, weight and purity are marked on the face of the gold bullion ingot. Larger gold ingots are often imprinted with their own unique serial numbers as a mark of authenticity.

While the bulk of gold ingot bars are consumed by jewelry manufacturers and other industrial applications, their low premium also makes them attractive to gold investors looking to take up a small position in the precious metal.

Investing in Gold bullion Ingots (Bars)

Regular gold bullion ingots (bars) are the most cost effective and best value form of gold bullion investment.

Investing advantsges:

• Gold is well known as an inflation hedge.
• The minimum fineness requirements for gold bullion (.995) means that the gold will not tarnish.
• Investing in gold bullion is cheap in terms of broker costs – less expensive than investing in stocks and bonds or gold ETFs.
• Investors can buy or sell gold bullion at all hours, as the market for physical gold is global.
• As an asset diversifier, gold can lower the overall risk of an investment portfolio.
• Unlike other assets, gold ingots value can increase even as the dollar's value decreases.

Where to buy Gold bullion Ingots

You can buy gold bullion ingots at the American Precious Metals Exchange (APMEX) or on the Nucleo Exchange at Bullion Direct. Many people sell gold ingots at online auctions like Ebay. Sometimes these ingots have a final bid that is well below market value.

Types of Gold bullion Ingots (Bars)

Depending on the manufacturing process used, gold bullion ingots can be loosely classified into two types: cast gold ingots and minted gold ingots.

Cast Gold bullion ingots

Most cast gold bulliuon ingots are produced by pouring hot molten gold from a crucible into a ingot mould with the appropriate dimensions. Once cooled, the melted gold will hardened into blocks of solid gold ingot bars.

Minted Gold bullion ingots

To produce minted gold ingots, a cast gold ingot is first rolled into a uniform thickness and then a die is used to cut it to the required dimensions.

Purities

Pure gold is extremely soft and easily damaged. In fact, 100% pure gold is so soft that it can be molded by hand. To increase its hardness, gold is mixed with other metals to form an alloy.

9999 Fineness

Purity: 9999 parts gold in 10000 parts or 99.99%

999 Fineness

Purity: 999 parts gold in 1000 parts or 99.9%

9999 Fineness

Purity: 995 parts gold in 1000 parts or 99.5%

The purity is important as it is used to calculate the amount of fine gold contained in the gold ingots. The purity, or fineness, of the gold bullion ingot is normally declared in parts per 100, 1000 or 10000.

Major gold bullion refiners

The most popular major bullion refiners are Johnson Matthey, Perth Mint, ABC Sydney, Union Bank of Switzerland, Credit Suisse, Bank Lui, Harringtons, Deak International and the Canadian Royal Mint.

Weights & Sizes of Gold bullion Ingots

Gold ingot bars comes in various weights and sizes, ranging from as little as one gram to as large as the "400 troy ounce", brick sized London Good Delivery gold bars.

Gold ingots are generally considered large if it's heavier than 1000g. Put it in another way, if it looks like a brick, it's a large gold bar. If you can hold it in the palm of your hand, it's a small gold bar.

The most common units used to indicate the weight of the gold content are usually grams, kilograms or ounces. Note that when the weight is denoted in ounces, it is troy ounce and not the avoirdupois ounce normally used to weigh food.

One troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams.