Real gold lovers also want to hold a really big gold bar in their hands once in a while - and what is more earthy than a genuine cast bar? Even though it makes no difference in principle as far as the value of a bar is concerned whether it is cast or minted, a cast bar is more in keeping with the general image of a real gold bar.
Precious metal ingots are produced by two methods - the more costly stamping and embossing and the less expensive, casting.
Thanks to ever-improving minting techniques, the minting process has become increasingly popular in the production of small and very small bars in recent decades. For gold bars between 1g and 100g, blanks are first punched out of a sheet of gold and then the inscriptions are stamped in in the same way as coins. These bars, which are intended for small investors, are then usually delivered in blister packs.
Larger bars, on the other hand, are still produced in the classic casting process. These are usually 400oz, which are the large LBMA bars in the sizes as they are traded among banks, but also 1000g, 500g and 250g and from some manufacturers even with 100g.
What are the characteristics of cast bars?
Cast bars are easy to distinguish from minting bars, even for the layman. While minting bars, like coins, have a perfectly smooth, often highly polished surface, casting bars correspond more to the cliché of gold bars.
Cast ingots are made by pouring liquid gold into a mold called an ingot. In order for the surface to look beautiful at the end, this is done under intense heating and flame. As it cools, the so-called solidification lines then appear, lines running concentrically from the inside to the outside. These are never polished away and are considered a natural feature of the appearance of a cast ingot.
Laterally, a natural cast ingot has a scarred, sometimes porous appearance unique to each ingot, which is excellent for identifying tampering, as this pattern is difficult to reconstruct.
Cast ingots are usually also unpackaged and slight storage marks also do not mean any impairment for a resale. However, severe dents or underweight also make bars into melt goods.
How to recognize a real cast ingot?
Some manufacturers also issue a certificate of authenticity with the bar, without which the bars are considered incomplete and are only repurchased at the gold value, but not for resale. Cast bars of the Austrian Mint, for example, do not have a certificate, but are still "Good Delivery".
Some bars (such as newer gold bars from the Austrian Mint) are stamped with a knurl on the side, similar to a coin - to make tampering difficult, as this would destroy the pattern.
Gold bar counterfeiting attempts
With the enormous value that even smaller cast bars have, it happens again and again that fraudsters try to sell fake or manipulated bars.
There are two types of counterfeit bars: clumsy counterfeit attempts only mimic the size and appearance of a real gold bar and are usually easy to spot, as these bars made of inferior metals simply weigh too little.
The second type of fake gold bars is much more perfidious - instead of expensive gold, the cheaper metal tungsten, which has almost the same density as gold, is used. This gray metal is either drilled into the bar, poured into it, or mixed into the liquid gold in powder form during casting.
Such professionally forged objects can then only be recognized by the well-trained eye of experts. However, a precise examination of a suspicious bar using modern physical methods can quickly bring clarity. With magnetic scales, ultrasonic device to check the sound propagation time, and the examination of the electrical conductivity of a bar can convict even very well counterfeited bars.
At Gold & Co, we specialize in unmasking such counterfeits and are equipped with state-of-the-art detection technology in this regard. Every repurchased investment product, whether coin or bar, goes through a control process through which we can guarantee our customers authenticity and integrity of the products.
