Sell gold bars and bullion

Cast or minted: telling the two kinds apart

A cast bar was poured into a mould. The top face is slightly uneven, the edges are rounded and soft, and the marks are stamped into the metal after it has cooled. Larger cast bars often have a pitted or rippled surface where the gold set. They look hand-made because in a sense they are, and that is not a fault.

A minted bar was cut from rolled strip and struck in a press. It is flat, bright and sharp along every edge, and the design and lettering are raised rather than punched. Most minted bars were sold inside a sealed plastic card with a printed assay certificate carrying the same serial number as the bar itself. The two kinds are equally good gold; they are simply made differently.

• The refiner's name or mark, usually the largest thing on the face
• The fineness, written as 999.9, 999, 995 or occasionally as 24ct
• The weight, in grams or in troy ounces
• A serial number, on almost all minted bars and on larger cast bars
• An assayer's signature or stamp on the certificate, where there is one

Why the sealed card stays shut

If the pack was already opened years ago, or the bar was bought loose in the first place, nothing is lost that cannot be recovered by measurement. It is checked the same way and listed the same way. What an intact seal adds is convenience for whoever buys it next, not proof of what the metal is.

How a bar is verified without a mark on it

Gold is remarkably dense, and that is the whole basis of the check. A bar of the right dimensions has to weigh what the refiner says it weighs. Right size but light, or right weight but noticeably thick, is a warning on its own before any instrument comes out of the drawer.

1. Measured against the refiner's figuresLength, width and thickness with calipers, weight on a calibrated balance, both compared with the specification the refiner publishes for that product.
2. Read at the surfaceWhere an analyser is available, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) confirms the surface is gold of the stated fineness and shows up unexpected alloying elements. It reads only the outermost layer, which is exactly why it is not the end of the check.
3. Density, and ultrasound where availableA thick gold shell over another metal passes a surface reading. Tungsten is the one that matters, because its density sits within half a per cent of gold's. Weighing in water narrows it; an ultrasonic reading, where one can be taken, settles it, because sound crosses tungsten far faster than it crosses gold.
4. Marks, serial and strikeThe refiner's mark, fineness and serial number are photographed and compared with the certificate. Font, spacing and edge quality are part of the comparison; counterfeit packaging is usually close rather than right.

Every reading is written down and sent to you. If a bar does not pass, you are told which check it failed and shown the figures, and the bar comes back. No bar is treated as gold on the strength of what is stamped on it. See XRF capabilities and limits for what a surface reading can and cannot establish.

The bars that are not bars

Gold-coloured ingots are sold as ornaments, as advertising and as outright fakes, and they are convincing on a shelf. The tells are mostly about what is missing. A real bar names its refiner and its fineness. A novelty says something vaguer.

“999 fine gold” and nothing else

No refiner, no weight, no serial. Real refiners put their name on their own product; nobody makes an anonymous bar.

“Gold clad”, “gold layered”, “24K plated”

Base metal with a coating. Often sold in a card that copies the look of an assay pack down to the font.

Bars in a wallet with a hologram and no serial

The hologram is decoration. A real minted pack carries a serial that matches the bar underneath it.

Very large bars offered cheaply

A kilo of gold is a serious object and it is never a bargain. If the size and the price do not agree with each other, the metal will not either.

Souvenir “bullion” from a mint set

Gilded silver or base-metal wafers issued with commemorative sets. Usually stamped with a theme rather than a fineness.

None of this is a reason not to send something. A novelty bar in a parcel is identified, named on the list and posted back, and no one minds. The only bad outcome would be discovering at home that you had thrown away something real because it looked like a souvenir.

Sending more than one bar

Small bars are easy to post and easy to lose in a big parcel. Pack each in its own bag or card, with the certificate folded in beside it rather than in a separate envelope. Keep any purchase invoice with the bar if you still have it; it is not required, but it saves questions later where a sale is large.

A holding worth more than one parcel should be covered for is split across several, and that is agreed with you in writing before anything goes near a Post Office. Ask us in writing to hold the first parcel until the rest arrive and they are priced as one lot; otherwise each is a lot of its own (clause 3.3). Tell us roughly what you have before you pack. Security and insurance sets out how a parcel is covered, and payment is by bank transfer rather than cash, for the reasons given on responsible sourcing and AML.

Bullion is also the one part of this catalogue where it is worth asking a bullion dealer about that exact product before you decide anything. A sealed minted bar from a well-known refiner is a retail item somebody can resell as it stands, and that is a different market from ours. We will say so when we think it applies to what you have sent.

What happens to a bar when it arrives

• The parcel is photographed unopened, then opened, and the bars are photographed as they arrived, cards and certificates included, before anything is handled.
• Each bar is measured and weighed, read by XRF where an analyser is available and, where it is called for, checked by density or ultrasound. Every figure is recorded against that serial number.
• Each bar appears on the list on its own line, with its refiner, stated fineness, measured weight and the results of the checks. Bars are never merged into one entry.
• Anything that does not pass is described, photographed and posted back with the readings that failed it.
• One written offer covers the lot, and nothing is sold, melted or moved on until you accept it; offers, returns and payment sets out what happens next.

A bar is the most straightforward thing in this catalogue to describe and the easiest to keep straight, because every stage of it is a measurement against a figure somebody else published. That is why the report you get back is mostly numbers and why none of them is ours alone. The rest of the journey, from label to payment, is on how it works.

What we buy, and what we leave out

Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

• A sealed minted bar from a well-known refiner may be worth more to a bullion dealer who can resell it as it stands, and we say so
• Limited-edition and commemorative minted bars sometimes carry collector interest beyond the metal
• Old cast bars with historic refiner marks are of interest to collectors of bullion history
• For a large holding, a quote from a bullion dealer for that exact product is worth having before you decide anything
• A bar still married to its original certificate is kept as a pair, never separated