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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;superc, post: 1720910, member: 44079&quot;]About 35 years ago in NYC I was lucky enough to handle lots of different types of bullion bars, loading and unloading them into the back of an armored truck all summer long.&nbsp; Many were of the London Good Delivery type (400 ounce bars).&nbsp; Others were 1 Kilo or more.&nbsp; One of the things that struck me back then was the many different types of stamps different bullion bars from different places had.&nbsp; Holographic images and computer tracking were decades away, so one of the ploys the refiners used was increasingly more complex stamps.&nbsp; Some of the stamps were intricate enough so they could be considered art in and of themselves.&nbsp; Others (especially the older ingots) weren&#039;t as labor intensive to create.&nbsp; Sadly pocket digital cameras hadn&#039;t been invented yet or I would have photographed most of them.&nbsp; That was then.&nbsp; I would assume many of the older bars have been melted down and restruck as countries and refiners changed boundaries and names.&nbsp; Alternatively, some of you may still have one sitting in an attic or a safety box somewhere.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Back then, some coins, bars and ingots from certain lands and authorities, if they looked right and the paperwork was good, were accepted without hesitation.&nbsp; Others, even if the paperwork was right, sometimes had to make a pit stop and be assayed or re-assayed.&nbsp; I look around today and see little mention of the hundreds of refiner&#039;s stamps or artful designs I used to see.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sometimes, such as when doing Embassy or Consulate pickup/deliveries, I saw bars and hunks of bullion that had weight markings not of the Troy ounce, grain or gram variety.&nbsp; In those pre-Internet days it took me years to learn what some of them meant.</p><p><br /></p><p>Large cast bars are often soft and 24 carat.&nbsp; Old ones often have dents and dings in them because they are stored in stacks.&nbsp; Also in trucks, sometimes when we hit bumps the stacks tumble and abrade.&nbsp; There was no such thing as shrink wrapped in the 70s.&nbsp; Just crates and straps.&nbsp; Bullion was usually uncrated when I saw it.&nbsp; 3 ingots to this location, 3 to that one, pick up 2, then 5 to that location.&nbsp; Sometimes fork lifts on wooden skids.&nbsp; Sometimes the bars fell off the forklift and dinged that way.&nbsp; Sometimes designs changed over the years.&nbsp; Sometimes Mints in different locations, even when under the same authority (as in Denver vs. San Francisco) had totally different appearing stamps, such as London&#039;s stamps vs. Perth, Australia&#039;s.&nbsp; Bars that are small enough to be stamped out often have more intricate&nbsp; stamps.&nbsp; Many small bars (and coins) are made of the harder 22 carat&nbsp; gold to resist abrasion and wear.&nbsp; The size of the bar sometimes&nbsp; necessitates a larger or smaller stamp.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Tael, Talo and Tahil.&nbsp; Would you consider accepting a bar identified as 4 Talo?&nbsp; 1/3 of the planet population prefers those terms.&nbsp; You should learn them if you haven&#039;t already.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Below are some terms I learned over the years, and also some gold bullion stamp samples looked up and submit for your viewing.&nbsp; Hopefully new images will continue to be added.</p><p><br /></p><p>_______________________________________________________</p><p><br /></p><p>A sovereign is usually about .235 Troy ounces (or 113 grains) of 22K gold. Sovereigns weigh less than gold guineas, but both are considered more or less equal to an English pound.</p><p><br /></p><p>A Tael or Tahil is usually about 1.2 ounces Troy or 37.8 grams.&nbsp; In different countries and in different regions of the same countries the weight had variance locally in different years, hence the &#039;about.&#039;&nbsp; It is a unit of weight, so it can be found in many metal forms.&nbsp; Gold and silver are only two.&nbsp; Brass is not uncommon.&nbsp; It is used or encountered in Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and China.&nbsp; A 5 Tael &#039;Biscuit&#039; bar weighs about 6 ounces and 187 grains.&nbsp; Their name (biscuit) is self-explanatory when you see one.&nbsp;&nbsp; A cast hunk the size of a biscuit.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Tola, an unit of measurement found in India and surrounding countries.&nbsp; It is now accepted to be 3/8 of one Troy ounce or 180 grains.&nbsp; Except that it was also used in Aden &amp; Zanzibar where it was decreed to be equal to only 175.0 grains.&nbsp; Historically prior to the arrival of the English with their weight system the weight of a Tola had been the weight of 100 seeds of the Ratti plant, hence the local variations.&nbsp; Silver Rupees minted by the British East India Company (1833) had a weight of 180 grains, or one Tola, which allowed the Tola to become a currency term.&nbsp; It became the standard measurement in India for gold and silver bullion.&nbsp; Nepal still mints Tola sized gold coins.&nbsp; In addition to central Asia the term is often encountered in mid-east bazaars where gold and silver can be traded.&nbsp; It should be noted that Tola bullion is often intentionally cast with rounded edges to aid in smuggling the bullion across borders by secreting it inside a body cavity.&nbsp; A Ten Tola gold bar weighs about 3.75 ounces.</p><p>&nbsp; </p><p>British Crown coin, 1 ounce of Sterling silver.&nbsp; Obsolete coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>English Crown coin silver, about 1 ounce of 92.5 (sterling) silver, reduced in 1920 to 50%, then no silver after 1947 (copper/nickel composition), except for special 92.5% sterling Proof coins.&nbsp; A copper-nickel Crown in 1951 became 5 Shillings,&nbsp; and in 1971 became worth 25 Pence (pennies).&nbsp; Crowns made after 1990 are worth 5 pounds.&nbsp; Very confusing.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Gold Guinea, about 129.4 grains of 11/12 (fine) gold.&nbsp; In 1717, Great Britain adopted the gold standard, at a rate of one guinea to 129.438 grains (8.38 g) of crown gold, which was 22 carat gold.&nbsp; Guineas more or less equate to 21 shillings or 1.05 decimal pounds when describing the size of a transaction.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>English Crown gold, about 1 ounce of 22 carat gold</p><p>.</p><p>London Good Delivery bar is permitted to contain a weight, ranging between 350 oz and 430 oz Troy of fine gold (equivalent to about 10.9 kg to 13.4 kg of fine gold).&nbsp; That is the current Russian Federation size definition.&nbsp; Most countries try for a more narrow weight range with 400 ounces being the target.&nbsp; London Good Delivery bullion bars, by international agreement, tend to become valueless when stored outside a recognized and approved bullion vault&nbsp;&nbsp; In order to meet the definition of being a London Good Delivery bar ALL of the following conditions are required.&nbsp; (i) must be at least 99.5% pure, (ii) must come in bars of a standard shape weighing about 400 oz (iii) must have been accurately assayed so that the exact gold content of the bar is known (weight and purity are stamped on the bar) (iv) must have been manufactured by one of a listed group of refiners, and (iv) in almost all cases are only accepted from one of a very small number of accredited bullion vaults/couriers.&nbsp; If a 400 ounce bar ever leaves (except while in transit by an approved courier (such as Brinks) an approved bullion depository it must be re-assayed with the new asay value and authentication authority stamped on the bar before it can be again placed in an approved bullion depository.&nbsp; 400 ounce bars cost about $558,000 apiece (June 2013), but you can&#039;t (usually) take it home and should leave it in the vault you bought it in or pay someone to transfer it to a different vault.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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