Why You Should Choose High-Purity Bars

For investors looking to add physical precious metals to their portfolio, high-purity bars offer compelling benefits over traditional coins and rounds. Minted to four nines (99.99%) and five nines (99.999%) purity, these bars provide an ultimate concentrated value.

In this article, we’ll study the benefits of selecting high-purity bars for your precious metals investment.

What Are High-Purity Bars?

High-purity bars are precious metal ingots of 99.99% or 99.999% pure gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. Major mints and refineries produce these bars to meet the highest quality, purity, and precision standards.

While many investors purchase metals like gold and silver in coins or rounds, high-purity bars offer the ultimate precision and value. The four-nine and five-nine purity levels minimize the number of base metals, ensuring the bar contains virtually pure gold, silver, platinum, or palladium.

Why Purity Matters

When investing in precious metals, purity matters. Higher purity means more intrinsic value comes from the special metal content and less from base metal alloys. Higher purity also carries a premium when you go to liquidate your holdings.

Additionally, many institutional investors and industrial purposes require bars with .9999 or .99999 purity. This further increases the desirability and marketability of high-purity bars. By choosing bars refined to higher purities, you know you’re getting maximum precious metal value for your investment dollar.

Check this interesting article: Silver Prices - An Investor’s Guide

9 Usefulness of High-Purity Bars

Now that we’ve covered the basics of high-purity bars, let’s take a look at some of their primary benefits:

1. Greater Value Density

One of the most compelling benefits of high-purity bars is greater value density. Simply put, you can fit more monetary value into a smaller space than lower-purity coins and rounds.

One 10 oz high-purity gold bar holds substantially more value than ten 1 oz gold coins, making storing high-purity bars more efficient.

2. Lower Premiums

On a percentage basis, high-purity bars carry lower premiums over the underlying spot price of the metal. Part of this comes from efficiency and economies of scale in production.

But it also relates to the metal content – less base metal means more value from pure gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. This advantage is especially apparent compared to numismatic coins, which carry large collectable premiums.

3. Easier to Store & Transport

The concentrated value of high-purity bars also makes them easier to store and transport. Rather than securely storing and transporting a large quantity of gold or silver coins, a few small bars can hold the same metal value. This advantage makes high-purity bars popular with institutional investors who need to store substantial monetary value in a small space.

4. Higher Resale Value

As mentioned earlier, the high purity of these bars makes them highly desirable to many buyers. If you need to liquidate your holdings, four-nine and five-nine bars will be in greater demand than lower purity rounds and fetch higher resale values. This advantage is magnified in smaller bars, which sell for higher premiums over the spot.

5. Lower Risk of Counterfeits

Unfortunately, counterfeiting plagues some less expensive silver and gold coins. But counterfeiting high-purity bars is extremely difficult, requiring sophisticated equipment and processes to replicate their precision and purity. For investors concerned about fakes, high-purity bars offer peace of mind. Their precision and markings are tough for counterfeiters to replicate.

6. Ideal for Large Investments

High-purity bars offer an efficient vehicle for large investors or institutions looking to allocate substantial capital to metals. Rather than tying up capital in numerous coins or rounds, high-value bars allow you to build a core position quickly. Once your core holdings of bars are established, diversification into other products can follow.

7. Network Effect of Recognition

Certain high-purity bars and brands, like the Credit Suisse Gold Bar and PAMP Suisse Silver bars, have worldwide recognition and acceptance. Their reputation and anti-counterfeiting features provide further assurances to investors. Well-known bars also tend to enjoy secondary solid market activity.

8. Low Paperwork & Reporting Requirements

In some jurisdictions, purchasing silver or gold coins requires paperwork and reporting to tax authorities. However, these requirements often have higher thresholds for bars - or don’t apply at all. For investors who prefer keeping a lower profile, high-purity bars may offer advantages.

9. Prestige & Pride of Ownership

While it may not be critical, investors often take pride in owning high-purity bars from elite mints and refineries. Given the precision and care required to produce .9999 or .99999 bars, they convey a sense of prestige. The “wow factor” of a gleaming gold or silver bar adds to investor enjoyment.

Give this article a read: Evolution of Commodity Markets

Sourcing & Selecting High-Purity Bars

Now that you know the many benefits, where and how do you source high-purity bars? Here are some tips:

• Stick with well-known mints and refineries like PAMP, Credit Suisse, Johnson Matthey, Sunshine Minting, Metalor, Valcambi, and others with proven reputations.
• Review packaging carefully and look for anti-counterfeiting features like holograms and serial numbers. Reputable manufacturers take steps to thwart fakes.
• Compare prices across dealers and look for competitive premiums over the spot metal value. Spread helps maximize value.
• For greater affordability, consider smaller sizes like 1 oz gold or 10 oz silver. You can always add larger bars later as your portfolio grows.
• Diversify across metals, including platinum and palladium bars and gold and silver.

Storing High Purity Bars Securely

Once purchased, be sure to store high-purity bars safely and securely. Precious metals in concentrated, portable forms require heightened security measures:

• Keep details about your holdings private and confidential rather than boasting or posting on social media.
• Use a durable, fireproof safe that is carefully anchored and exceeds recommended weight and gauge specifications for valuable storage.
• Only inform trusted family members or partners about your holdings and the location details.
• Consider private safety deposit boxes at secure vaults to mitigate risks at your residence.

Following prudent security practices helps protect against theft or loss of your investment.

You might also like to read: Types of Commodities and Their Role in a Diversified Portfolio

In a Nutshell

High-purity precious metal bars offer investors a compact, efficient way to invest in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Understanding the benefits and working with reputable sellers can provide substantial advantages over coins and rounds.

With high-purity bars, you can maximize the intrinsic metal value in your portfolio.

If you don’t want to invest in physical bars, you may trade them through a contract for differences (CFDs). In this type of trading, you will be speculating the asset’s price instantly without owning the bars, which means less stress in handling and storage.

Discover the benefits of trading with markets.com.

“When considering “CFDs” for trading and price predictions, remember that trading CFDs involves a significant risk and could result in capital loss. Past performance is not indicative of any future results. This information is provided for informative purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.”