What is “bullion”?
Bullion is a term used to describe any product produced from a precious metal whose value is determined almost entirely by its precious metal content. Bullion is traded as a commodity and has a market for trading in quantities, both on delivery and for future trades (otherwise known as “futures”).
Bullion is simply high grade, almost pure gold, silver and platinum in mass in the form of coins and bars. We often hear from first-time gold buyers: “I want to buy gold, but I don’t want to pay the expense of buying gold coins. How do I buy just plain gold bullion?” This is a misunderstanding of what gold bullion is. The common perception is that gold bars are the most cost effective, and perhaps the only available form of gold bullion. The same thinking has it that coins are not really gold bullion. There’s a common misconception that all coins are limited in supply, expensive, and indeed collectors’ items. Bullion is a recognised weight and fineness of precious metal that you can purchase for the current spot price of the metal, plus the small percentage costs incurred in refining, fabricating, and shipping that bullion to you. Bullion is simply a refined and stamped weight of precious metal in mass form.
Bullion refers to any precious metal in a form in which its primary value comes from the worth of the metal, not from an artificial currency value. Bullion is most often traded in the form of coins minted by national governments, or in bulk ingots. While government issued coins have a nominal value assigned to them upon minting, this value is virtually always overshadowed by the commodity value of the metal itself. As an example, most government issued gold coins have a currency value of between US$10 and US$100, but usually contain at least one troy ounce of gold. Given that the exchange rate of gold consistently rises, and from the beginning of the twenty-first century on was worth at least US$350 a troy ounce, one can see that the government-assigned currency value of a bullion coin is essentially meaningless. The value of bullion is affected by three factors: metal, weight and purity. The metal the bullion consists of is obviously important in determining its overall value: gold is
Bullion (bul yen) synonym. precious metals n. precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium manufactured in an acceptable form for trading, investing, or monetary purposes. The form generally being bars, ingots, or coins. such as American Eagles, Canadian Maples, Johnson-Matthey ingots, etc.
What is “bullion”?