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Budget Friendly Fractional Gold Bars

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Gold is the oldest form of money that is generally recognized everywhere in the world. It is also traded as a futures market commodity and daily trading activity around the world effects the price.

The global trading activity can cause the gold spot price to change every minute around the clock six days per week.

Today’s gold spot price is based on buying a futures contract that contains a 10, 50 or 100 troy ounces of gold. Beyond the price of the metal, there are additional costs that can stack up for fulfillment and delivery.

Some of the gold bars moving out of the COMEX vaults in recent months make their way to both government and private mints for pressing, pouring, machining and casting into smaller and more affordable weight denominations.

Today, there are thousands of available products when shopping for a gold investment. Investors that are considering fractional gold bars have many to choose from.

Fractional gold bars are ones that are minted with a weight of less than 1 troy ounce. In some cases they are measured in fractions of an ounce in increments that are similar to coins, such as 1/10 oz, 1/4 oz and 1/2 oz.

Most of the newly minted gold bullion in the marketplace today are produced by refineries and mints in Europe and Asian where measuring with the metric system is standard. It’s becoming much more common to find gold bars for sale are measured on a gram scale than in fractions of an ounce.

Gold gram bars are an excellent choice to add to your investment stack. They are extremely liquid and easy to convert to fiat if needed. They are also a lot friendly on the wallet than buying a full ounce at time.

And having an assortment of different size gold gram bars may be a practical way to be prepared if you ever need to barter. There are even some options available to buy half gram gold bars from various manufacturers.

When it comes to pricing, smaller gold bars are typically in a price range that is affordable to a wider range of investors. It is also important to remember that smaller bars will frequently have a higher dealer premium than larger sizes.

Less than $100

One Gram Gold Bars

Fractional one gram gold bars are a practical and popular investment option. They are perfect for stacking and can be purchased affordably.

Online bullion dealers offer newly minted 1 gram gold bars in their factory sealed assay card which helps assure that you’re buying an authentic product. Many local coin shops that carry products from Valcambi will often break off gold Combibars into the 1 gram increments. A variety of online dealers do this as well and will sell them as secondary market 1 gram gold bars.

Less than $500

2 Gram Gold Bars & 2.5 gram gold bars

Various refineries manufacture 2 gram bars and 2.5 gram gold bars for investors to capture some savings on the premiums. Both of these sizes are convenient, interesting and unique size denominations.

Sometimes you can find these in the bargain bin at local coin stores as there are only a few refineries making newly minted bars in these sizes.

5 gram gold bars

Five gram gold bars offer a significant savings in premiums over smaller sizes. You will find that premiums will be lower on Random 5 gram gold bar than smaller size fractional gold bars.

Newly minted bars are manufactured by notable private mints such as PAMP Suisse and Valcambi. There are also various 5 gram gold bars that are backed by government mints such as Perth and the Royal Mint.

Less than $1,000

10 gram gold bars

The next option for those with a slightly higher budget is the 10 gram gold bar. These bars contain .3215 troy ounces of gold, just slightly less than 1/3 of an ounce.

The denseness of these bars can be felt in your hand. Newly minted bar will come sealed in a sealed plastic assay card holder, while secondary market 10 gram gold bars will most likely be shipped in a plastic coin flip.

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Two More Wall St Traders Sentenced In Precious Metals Price Manipulation

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This week, the Department of Justice announced the sentences of two additional Wall St traders in a decades long price fixing scheme to manipulate the price of precious metals.

According to court documents, the defendants, Edward Bases, 61, of New Canaan, Connecticut, a former senior trader who worked at both Deutsche Bank and Bank of America in New York and the second trader, John Pacilio, 59, of New York, who worked as a senior trader at Bank of America and Morgan Stanley in New York, were both sentenced to one year plus one day in prison.

Both traders manipulated precious metals market prices up or down by placing large “spoof” orders in the precious metals futures markets that they never intended to fill. The convictions show that they intentionally manipulate prices for their own gain and for the banks’ gain.

The men defrauded other traders on both the Commodity Exchange Inc. (COMEX) and the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (NYMEX), both of which are operated by the CME Group Inc.

Both men were convicted at trial in August 2021 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and multiple counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution. Pacilio was also convicted of commodities fraud.

Each were sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

The fake orders that these traders performed intended to induce other traders to buy or sell at prices, quantities and times that they otherwise would not have traded by creating the false appearance of supply and demand. At times, the traders would place hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of orders that they had no intention of fulfilling.

These convictions stem from a broader, long-lasting investigation by the SEC and FBI into commodities market manipulation practices by Wall Street banks and brokerage trading firms.

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1 oz Gold Bar at Spot Price

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Interest in precious metals continues to spread far and wide as the turmoil in the economy begins to take hold. New investors often have a lot of uncertainty when first learning about precious metals and dealer premiums can raise questions for some.

Many new investors discovered precious metals through spot price deals that were once promoted by numerous dealers prior to the start of the pandemic. Those offers allowed precious metals buyers the chance to buy silver with no dealer markup.

Mining shutdowns, supply chain issue and strong investor demand for silver put an temporary end to those offers until recently.

SD Bullion was the first online bullion dealer to return with a silver at spot price deal earlier this year. New investors can buy one 5 oz silver bar at spot price.

JM Bullion has recently returned with a special offer for those interested in gold.

The Gold Starter Kit from JM Bullion is now available and offers new investors the opportunity to buy a 1 oz gold bar at spot price.

Gold is long considered one of the best investment options when looking for a long term store of value to be a hedge against inflation.

Owning physical gold and silver are one of the few asset options that has no counter-party risk.

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Man Arrested Smuggling 7 kilos of Gold Inside Oxygen Generator

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Customs officials in Delhi announced the discovery of seven kilos in gold bars stashed inside a medical oxygen generator.

The passenger is reportedly a medic from Kenya traveling with a family to India for cardiac surgery for their child.

The 7 gold kilo bars were stashed in the bag carrying the device providing oxygen support for the 4-month old infant he was accompanying.

A video posted by the Asian News International on Twitter shows customs agents demonstrating where they uncovered the stash of kilos.

In a separate incident, two people traveling from Singapore were arrested in Chennai after customs agents searched their luggage and found 6.8kg of undeclared gold.

Crossing most borders with precious metals is perfectly legal. However, if the value of the gold is over a certain amount it must be declared to customs with the proper forms. The threshold amount can vary but typically precious metals valued above $10,000 or equivalent local currency must be declared upon arrival.

A video posted to YouTube three years ago by @SWPCayman provides further details about traveling with precious metals.

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Fallout from Euro Pacific Bank Investigation is a Likely Source of Perth Mint’s Troubles

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The latest revelation to arise from the investigators auditing the Perth Mint accuses the mint of diluting the quality of more than 100 tons of gold bullion dating back to 2018 that had been sold to China.

Several scandals have emerged as reports from the investigators are leaked to various media organizations in Australia.

Investigators have previous attempted to link the closure of Puerto Rico based Euro Pacific Bank with an ongoing money laundering investigation at the Perth Mint’s gold certificates program.

Founder of Euro Pacific Bank, Peter Schiff, fervently denies all of the allegations and claims that the news agency is reporting on false and outdated information.

In July last year, Euro Pacific was shut down by authorities in Puerto Rico for having inadequate capital levels and compliance controls.

The shutdown followed an investigation by HRMC, the Revenue and Customs department for the UK government.

Following the investigation, authorities in the UK sent “nudge” letters to Euro Pacific Bank’s customers suspected of wrong doing asking them to come forward. Some reports suggest that threats of “predawn raids” by armed police were included in letters

Up until recently there had been no arrests linked to the investigation. In February, reports began emerging online that police in the UK raided several homes and businesses and arrested two men in the Liverpool area tied to the investigation. The names of those arrested have not yet been made public.

In another recent news report, a financial crime specialist from Australia suggest that a former Hell’s Angel member who paid cash for a 1 kg gold bar should have been identified as a “high risk.”

Even though the buyer has previous criminal convictions for drug trafficking and other crimes, at no time has he been under scrutiny for money laundering or acquiring the cash from illegal activities.

The biggest complaint from the expert quoted in the news is that “Mr Brajkovich says the Perth Mint only asked him for his driver’s licence.”

According to a video posted to YouTube by Bullion Now, a valid driver’s license is the only requirement for a cash purchase is valid identification.

REALLY INTERESTING VIDEO FROM BULLION NOW, MELBOURNE, DISCUSSING THE ISSUES AT PERTH MINT THAT HAVE HIT THE HEADLINES YESTERDAY & TODAY. from SilverDegenClub
One conspiracy theory that is currently floating around social media concerns that politicians are intending to tarnish the reputation of the Perth Mint as part of a which hunt investigation to expose customer privacy under the guise of fraud investigations.

Perth Mint “Standard Delivery” Bars Fail Shanghai Gold Exchange Specification

The Shanghai Gold Exchange initially uncovered purity discrepancies in 2021. The SGE alleged that two bars contained higher amounts of silver than their specifications allow which triggered an internal investigation by the Mint.

According to the SGE specification, Good Delivery bars labeled as 99.99% pure gold must adhere to strict standards regarding the chemical composition of the remaining 0.01%.

A bar designated as Grade I must have no more than 0.005% Silver (Au) and 0.002% Copper (Cu) with even more minute traces of iron, lead, bismuth and antimony.

Assay tests performed during the investigation found one of the bars contained higher trace amounts of silver than is acceptable for the Exchange.

The reports of the investigation state that the purity of the gold bar was still 99.99%, although the silver content was slightly higher than the specification.

Considering that the gold purity was tested as .9999 pure, at issue is the chemical composition of the 0.01%. If the silver content was higher than 0.005%, then it should follow the logic there were smaller amounts of copper and other trace elements.

The Perth Mint is the largest refiner of newly minted gold in the world. While Good Delivery bars are first sent to commodities exchanges, the 1 kg gold bars are also a frequent purchase for high-net worth investors. The Mint also manufacturers a variety of .9999 fine gold coins such as the 1 oz gold kangaroo.

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CombiBars for Every Budget

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1 ounce Combibar gold bar

The CombiBar from Valcambi is probably the single most most practical bullion investment.

The CombiBar is a unique bullion bar that is designed to be easily divisible into smaller, fractional bars that are simple and easy to break apart with your hands.

These bars are precision manufactured in Switzerland and available in all of the major precious metals categories such as silver, gold, platinum and palladium.

Silver Combibars are available in two variations, both contain 100 grams of .999 fine silver. The 10×10 gram Combibar is easily divisible into up to ten 1/10 oz fraction of an ounce. While the 100×1 gram splits into one hundred one gram fractional bars.

The dealer premiums for silver Combibars are higher than comparable weight generic bullion. However, the overall markup and out-the-door price is generally lower than buying separate fractional pieces of similar weight. On occasion, some dealers have been known to offer discounted premiums on combibars beyond the normally offered quantity savings.

Gold Combibars are minted in a few additional sizes that are ideal for stacking. Each of the various weights in gold combibar series are just slightly thicker than a credit card at only 0.85mm thick and can be stored safely practically anywhere.

The largest gold Combibar contains 100 grams of .9999 fine gold and is designed to be easily divided into one hundred 1 gram gold bars. Premiums for 100 gram gold Combibars are comparable to similar sized sovereign mint solid gold bars.

Each comes encapsulated into a protective case that includes a printed assay card with matching signature. The tamper-proof plastic assay holder is designed to be durable and provides protection through uncertain conditions.

The other sizes that are available are the 50 gram and 20 gram weights.

The newest edition to product lineup is the 1 oz gold combibar. This divisible gold bar is perfect if you prefer measuring with this metric and is easy to split into up to ten fractional gold bars in any tenth of an ounce.

The smallest of the gold Combibars is minted in limited quantities as is uniquely shaped like a 5-point star gold bar.

For PGM investors, the platinum and palladium have all of the same design characteristics are the others in the series.

Valcambi Suisse is a large Swiss-based refinery and private mint offers a one-of-a-kind product line that is tailored to investors preparing for uncertain economic conditions.

It’s safe to say that with the economy heading in the wrong direction buying Combibars of any size makes for a practical investment to help with some financial security for when you need it most.