Actual Gold Content – The amount of gold that exists in the item with the weight of the alloying metals subtracted.
Ask/Sell – Ask or sell is the price being offered by the seller for the same metal.
Allocated gold – Allocated gold or silver is physical bullion stored in a professional vault which belongs to the owner outright. Allocated metal does not feature on the vault provider’s balance sheet. It isn’t exposed to their financial performance, because it is not an asset of that company. Allocated gold or silver bullion is the owner’s personal property, held under a custody (or ‘safekeeping’) arrangement.
Assay – Official and standardized tests to determine the fineness and weight of a precious metal.
Britannia Silver – An alloy of silver which contains 95.84% silver.
Bullion – Precious metals in the form of bars of at least 99.5% purity.
Bid/Buy – Bid or buy is the price a dealer is willing to pay for a precious metal.
Bullion Coin – A legal tender coin of which the market price is dependent on its gold content, as opposed to its rarity, design or face value.
Certificates (Gold) – Gold certificates are a way of holding gold without taking physical delivery and are issued by individual banks. They confirm an investor’s ownership but the bank retains physical possession of the metal.
CGT Free – Capital Gains Tax Free.
Commemoratives – Legal tender coins or medallions minted to commemorate significant moments or events in history. They can often be extremely desirable items especially for rare or momentous occasions.
Face Value – The legal monetary value printed/written/stamped on the face of a currency.
Field – The open area or background area in a coin’s design.
Fine Gold – Pure gold, 24 karat, or .999 fine gold.
Fine Silver – Pure Silver or 99.9% silver.
Fine Weight – The amount of gold that exists in the item with the weight of the alloying metals subtracted.
Fix – The London gold fixing takes place twice daily and sets a price at which all known orders to buy and sell gold on a spot basis (at the time of the fix) can be settled.
Fineness – Investment gold is measured in fineness. Near-pure 24-carat gold is equal to 995 parts per thousand, known as “995 fine” (also “0.995” and “two-nines-five”). That is the minimum fineness specified by the London wholesale market’s Good Delivery standard.
Gold Fix (London) – A twice-daily setting of the price of gold by five members of The London Gold Market Fixing Ltd, which takes place on the premises of N M Rothschild & Sons. The Gold Fix is officially a price for settling contracts between members of the London bullion market, but it is also used for setting prices of gold bullion and gold-related contracts and products across the world. The fix is used as a benchmark for spot transactions.
Gold Futures – A gold future is a contract to trade a specific amount of gold at a set price decided now, but with a future settlement date.
Gold Standard – A monetary system based on the convertibility of paper money and base coinage into gold. As of 2013 no country uses a gold standard as the basis of its monetary system, with all national currencies now being fiat.
Good Delivery Bars – May also be referred to as large bars, good delivery bars are ingots that conform to London Good Delivery standard. Basic specifications include: a minimum fineness of 995.0 parts per thousand fine gold, bars should carry marks showing serial number, refiner’s hallmark, fineness and year of manufacture; and gold content will be in the 350–430 troy ounces range (11–13 kg)
Grading Service – Numismatic coins are graded for quality, with PCGS and NGC being the two major grading services in the United States. Coins are graded using letters and numbers to reflect overall quality, the worst being BS-1 (or Basal State 1) and the best MS-70 (Mint State 70). Graded coins are usually encapsulated in protective plastic, with a certificate, a procedure known as slabbing.
Grain – The earliest known weight unit for gold. Since the international yard and pound agreement of 1 July 1959, the grain or troy grain measure has been precisely defined in the International System of Units as being 64.79891 milligrams. One troy ounce contains 480 grains.
Gram – A basic unit of weight of the metric system. 31.1035 grams are equal to one troy ounce. One gram is 0.0353 oz. There are 1000g in a kilogram (kg) and 1000kg in a metric ton.
Hallmark – Marks which are struck on items made of precious metals. A UK hallmark will indicate; the type of metal, its fineness, commonly the maker/sponsor, and the year it was hallmarked.
Ingot – Any volume of metal cast into a convenient shape for stacking, storage and transportation may be referred to as an ingot. In the precious metals industry, the words ingot and bar may be used interchangeably although ingots are usually larger bars.
Intrinsic Value – The value of a coin’s metal content, as opposed to its face value or collector value.
Karat – A measure of the purity of a precious metal. Pure gold is 24 karat and can vary in fineness ranging from a fineness of .9999 (also called four nines) to .990 (two nines), although .995 is the minimum fineness of Good Delivery bars.
Kilo Bar – A bar weighing one kilogram or kg (32.1507 troy ounces).
Legal Tender – Any coin, note or form of currency which a nation’s monetary authority declares to be universally acceptable as a medium of exchange.
London Bullion Market Association – The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) represents the wholesale gold and silver market worldwide. Its members provide the banking, dealing, vaulting and transport services which buyers and sellers need to trade large-bar gold and silver efficiently. To ensure the quality of material, the LBMA issues and maintains on behalf of its members the Good Delivery List of bullion refineries, who are approved to produce the large bars accepted by the London market. These wholesale bars must meet strict standards of fineness, weight, shape and markings.
Medallion – A round piece of metal resembling a coin but not considered Government issued legal tender.
Mint Mark – A letter or symbol stamped on a coin to identify the mint where it was struck.
NGC – Acronym for Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America, one of the two principal coin grading services in the U.S.
Nugget – A nugget can either be a naturally occurring piece of native gold or a gold bullion coin minted by Australia. The coins have been minted in denominations of 1/20 oz, 1/10 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/2 oz, 1 oz, 2 oz, 10 oz, and 1 kg of 24 carat gold and carry legal tender status in Australia.
Numismatic coins – Coins whose prices depend more on their collector value based on rarity, condition, dates, and mint marks than on their intrinsic value, that is their precious metal content.
Obverse – The front of a coin which contains the principal design unique to a particular coin.
PCGS – Acronym for Professional Coin Grading Service, one of two principal coin grading services in the U.S.
Premium – The dollar amount or percentage a coin or bar sells over its intrinsic or spot value. Premiums are made up of dealer profit, mint profit and mining costs.
Proof Coin – High quality detail, sharpness and finish. The dies used to strike proof coins are generally hand finished to ensure that they are of the highest standard. Proof blanks are of a higher quality than BU or Bullion blanks and can be struck up to six times at low speed to ensure a smoother finish with more detail.
Restrike – An officially issued reproduction of a former circulating coin, usually with no numismatic value.
Reserve Currency – A foreign currency held by central banks and major financial institutions. Any large international trade in commodities such as gold, silver and oil and iron ore, can be priced in the reserve currency, with other countries being required to hold reserves of this currency to pay for these goods.
Reverse – The rear side of a coin and opposite of obverse. The reverse will typically show a national leader.
Spot (precious metals) – The price for physical delivery of bullion, based on 100oz bars for gold or platinum and 1,000oz bars of silver – although the spot price is used to calculate value of all precious metal transactions no matter what size.
Spot Market – A commodity market where delivery and payment need to be made within two working days of the transaction date.
Spread – The difference between the buying price and the selling price of an asset, commodity or financial instrument.
Safe Haven – Typically a place of safety or calm harbor for investors during periods of financial uncertainty, economic crisis and currency collapse. Many investors see gold bullion as a safe haven investment as gold prices typically rise when stocks and currencies fall.
Troy Ounce – A unit of weight most commonly used in the field of precious metals. One troy ounce equals 31.1035g, 480 grains, or 1.09711 regular (avoirdupois) oz.
Uncirculated Coin – A coin that has not been in circulation for use.
Unallocated gold – An asset which is still the property of the holding bank, and so carries counter-party risk. Unallocated assets are not protected from the insolvency of the bank, i.e., the owner of the unallocated asset would be an unsecured creditor.
World Gold Council – The World Gold Council is the market-development organisation for the gold industry. Its 23 members comprise the world’s leading gold mining companies, representing approximately 60% of global corporate gold production.
XAU – The ISO code for spot gold.
XAG – The ISO code for spot silver.
Yield – A measure of the annual return on an investment expressed as a percentage.
