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Gold News Report
June 29 , 2010, By: GoldTraderAsia.com

Gold is an investment that’s both tangible and liquid. You can hold it in your hands and buy or sell gold with ease.

People often think that buying gold shares (gold mining shares) are shares of gold itself, but if you buy and sell shares, you’re actually buying and selling shares in a gold mining company as opposed to selling gold.

Gold shares are the shares of gold mining companies, companies that explore for and produce gold.

There are several forms of gold which can be taken as an investment. Gold bullion bars, gold coins, even certificates of ownership. The standard gold price is set twice daily by the Gold Fixing of London. You can refer to: Gold Fixing Daily Price.

This is a very treacherous time for gold investing, and you must weigh all options and seek as much professional advice as possible in order to emerge on top. It is easy for you to sell gold right now, but should you hold on for a bit longer? Will the demand rise even higher? Gold investing, like all other forms, is complicated and filled with debate.

The ease with which you can sell gold will depend largely on how easily the content of the pure gold can be determined in the bar or gold coin in your possession. This is one reason why gold bullion has become so popular for gold investing. People are able to sell gold better as coins because the quality and quantity of pure gold coins is guaranteed. This guarantee makes it easy to sell gold to gold dealers like us. We are familiar with the current value of gold.

Gold Bars Weights & Purities

Gold bars are normally classified into two broad categories of weight. Large bars weigh more than 1000 gram and small bars weigh 1000 gram or less.

Gold bars are manufactured in different millesimal gold purities (or fineness), mostly range between 965 and 999.9 in purity.

GOLD BARS UNITS OF WEIGHT

Around the world, gold bars can be denominated or traded in different units of weight to accommodate the preferences of regions or countries. The most prominent units are measured in gram, troy ounce, tola, tael, baht, chi (or cay or luong), don and mesghal.

Although the London Good Delivery 400 oz bar is the world’s most important large bar, it is traded in troy ounces on the London Bullion Market, and the international gold price is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce. There is a worldwide trend for small cast and minted gold bars denominated in grams.

LARGE GOLD BARS
There are three prominent large gold bars:

400 oz: Approximate weight. London Good Delivery, if manufactured by a LBMA-accredited refiner.

100 oz: Approximate weight. COMEX Good Delivery, if the brand is accredited to COMEX.

3000 g: Shanghai Gold Exchange Good Delivery, if manufactured by a SGE-accredited refiner.

Some refiners advise that other large bars are also occasionally made to precise or approximate weights. For example, in ounces (250 oz and 50 oz) and in grams (2 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg).

SMALL GOLD BARS
Among surveyed manufacturers, small gold bars around the world are available in a diverse range of more than 50 different cast or minted weights.

However, by far the most important small gold bar, widely used by fabricators and investors around the world, is the cast kilobar (1000 gram).

cast kilobars

Before you decided to sell your gold jewelry, gold bullion bars or any gold items, you need to provide the weight and purity of your gold item you intend to sell.

How To Determine Gold Purities?

Gold Jewelry Purities

Karats (Carats outside of the United States, ) in gold jewelry refers to the amount of gold that is present in the jewelry piece. Europe describes the karatage of gold jewelry in ‘fineness’, which is the gold content expressed in parts per thousand.

The purer the gold content in a piece of jewelry, the more valuable it is. Gold is mixed with alloys, metals added to strengthen the gold to create more durable jewelry, particularly in gold rings and gold bracelets.

The different grades of karats are:

24 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 24 of the 24 parts are gold, 99.99% fine gold.
22 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 22 of the 24 parts are gold and 2 parts are one or more additional metals, making it 91.7% gold.
18 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 18 of the 24 parts are gold and 6 parts are one or more additional metals, making it 75% gold.
14 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 14 of the 24 parts are gold and 10 parts are one or more additional metals, making it 58.3% gold.
12 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 12 of the 24 parts are gold and 12 parts are one or more additional metals, making it 50% gold.
10 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 10 of the 24 parts are gold and 14 parts are one or more additional metals, making it 41.7% gold.

10 Karat gold is the minimum karat that can be called “gold” in the United States. Some other countries, such as Australia, sell 9 Karat gold jewelry as “gold” jewelry

9 Karat Gold Jewelry, where 9 of the 24 parts are gold and 15 parts are one or more additional metals, making it 37.5% gold.

European Gold Jewelry

European gold jewelry indicates the gold purity as a 3 digit number.
24 Karat Gold Jewelry is marked 999 to show a 99.9% gold purity.
22 Karat Gold Jewelry is marked 917 to show a 91.7% gold purity.
18 Karat Gold Jewelry is marked 750 to indicate 75% gold purity.
14 Karat Gold Jewelry is marked 585 for 58.5% gold purity.
12 Karat Gold Jewelry is marked 417 for 41.7% gold purity.

Gold Bar Purities

The declared purity (or fineness) of gold bar’s gold content is important as it enables its weight of “fine gold” to be calculated.

The purity is normally marked in parts gold per 100, 1,000 or 10,000 parts.

For example, the same gold purity (99.99% by weight) can be expressed as follows:

9999 9,999 parts gold in 10,000 parts
999.9 999.9 parts gold in 1,000 parts
99.99 99.99 parts gold in 100 parts

Although there is generally a widespread preference for small gold bars with a precise millesimal purity of 995 or 999.9, gold bars are also manufactured in other purities.

How To Determine the Gold Bar Hallmark?

You can determine the Gold bar bearing the “hallmark” (logo) of internationally recognized refiners. Gold bars with hallmark (logo) are the easiest to sell.

These refiners “assay” or test the metal for its purity or fineness. The gold bars are generally stamped .995 (99.5% pure gold) or higher purity, along with the individual bar’s weight. Gold bars can be purchased from selected commercial banks, brokerage houses, and precious metals dealers.

A very popular gold bar for gold investment is the Credit Suisse one ounce with fine gold to 99.99% certified and preserved in a plastic ingot card to protect and preserve your gold bars.

How The Gold Price Perform In The Past

Like other precious metals, gold is measured by troy weight and by grams. When it is alloyed with other metals the term carat or karat is used to indicate the amount of gold present, with 24 carats being pure gold and lower ratings proportionally less. The purity of a gold bar or gold coin can also be expressed as a decimal figure ranging from 0 to 1, known as the millesimal fineness, such as 0.995 being very pure.
The price of gold is determined through trading in the gold and derivatives markets, but a procedure known as the Gold Fixing in London, originating in September 1919, provides a daily benchmark gold price to the industry. The afternoon fixing was introduced in 1968 to provide a price when US markets are open.

Historically gold coinage was widely used as currency; When paper money was introduced, it typically was a receipt redeemable for gold coin or gold bullion. In an economic system known as the gold standard, a certain weight of gold was given the name of a unit of currency. For a long period, the United States government set the value of the US dollar so that one troy ounce of gold was equal to $20.67 ($664.56/kg), but in 1934 the dollar was devalued to $35.00 per troy ounce of gold ($1125.27/kg). By 1961 it was becoming hard to maintain this gold price, and a pool of US and European banks agreed to manipulate the market to prevent further currency devaluation against increased gold demand.

On March 17, 1968, economic circumstances caused the collapse of the gold pool, and a two-tiered pricing scheme was established whereby gold was still used to settle international accounts at the old $35.00 per troy ounce of gold ($1.13/g) but the price of gold on the private market was allowed to fluctuate; this two-tiered pricing system was abandoned in 1975 when the price of gold was left to find its free-market level. Central banks still hold historical gold reserves as a store of value although the level has generally been declining. The largest gold depository in the world is that of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York, which holds about 3% [citation needed] of the gold ever mined, as does the similarly laden U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.

In 2005 the World Gold Council estimated total global gold supply to be 3,859 tonnes and demand to be 3,754 tonnes, giving a surplus of 105 tonnes.

Since 1968 the price of gold has ranged widely, from a high of $850/oz ($27,300/kg) on January 21, 1980, to a low of $252.90/oz ($8,131/kg) on June 21, 1999 (London Gold Fixing). The period from 1999 to 2001 marked the “Brown Bottom” after a 20-year bear market. Prices increased rapidly from 1991, but the 1980 high was not exceeded until January 3, 2008 when a new maximum of $865.35 per troy ounce was set (a.m. London Gold Fixing). Another record price was set on March 17, 2008 at $1023.50/oz ($32,900/kg)(am. London Gold Fixing). In the fall of 2009, gold markets experience renewed momentum upwards due to increased demand and a weakening US dollar. On December 2nd 2009, Gold passed the important barrier of US$1200 per ounce to close at $1215.

Since April 2001 the gold price has more than tripled in value against the US dollar, prompting speculation that this long secular bear market has ended and a bull market has returned.

How To Check The Current Live Spot Gold Price?

GoldTraderAsia.com offers comprehensive live gold chart which gives you price of gold in real time on your screen.