Silver: American Eagle
A gold bar is a gold ingot which may be produced in many different types, weights and categories. more...
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Types
Gold bars are classified into two different classes — cast and minted — based on their method of manufacturing . Cast bars are made by pouring molten gold into an ingot mold to help the gold to take a form. Minted bars are made from gold blanks that have been hand cut to the required dimensions from a flat piece of gold. Markings are almost always applied by presses.
Value
Before 1968 gold traded at a fixed price of $35 U.S. per ounce under the gold standard. However following the decision of the USA to close the "gold window" and abandon the gold standard in 1970, gold rose over the next 20 years peaking at $850 in 1980. Gold then fell and 20 years later, by 2000 it was down to $279 an ounce. In recent years gold has been rising on the back of increased printing of money and large US budget deficits. By September 2006 the price stood at around $600 an ounce.
Weights and values
One troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams. Thus if gold was at $600 U.S. an ounce, a gram would be worth $19.29.
Note where gold is measured in ounces, these are troy ounces, not the much more common avoirdupois ounce which is used for measuring weights in food etc. An avoirdupois ounce is lighter than a troy ounce. One avoirdupois ounce = 28.349523125 grams. There are 16 avoirdupois ounces in a pound.
One kilogram = 1000 grams = 32.15074656 troy ounces (value $19,290.44).;
One tonne = 1000 kilograms = 32,150.746 troy ounces (value $19.29 million).;
One tael = 50 grams (value $964.50).;
Beware, this is the official rate of taels in mainland China since the country went metric. However, historically a tael's weight could be as little as 36.7 grams depending on the customs of the province. In Taiwan and Hong Kong today a tael is equivalent to 37.429g.
The current value of gold places a price of approximately $241,000 on a 12.5 kg (400 troy ounces) London Good Delivery bar of gold.
Gold is very dense (19.3 g/cm³), to the extent that one million U.S. dollars worth occupies less than one cubic foot.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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