London Good Delivery Bars

You`ve seen the film. Maybe a bank raid........or the evil den of some secret billionaire. You just never knew what they were called.....Well they are London Good Delivery Bars. Those huge gold bullion ingots which grace the plot of a thousand movies.....and the dreams of gold bugs everywhere!A London Good Delivery Bar is the main size of gold ingot used for trade in the international markets. And here`s the specification: They weigh 350- 430 Troy ounces, or about 12.5 kilograms! This is the form of bar held in most central banks. They occasionally go by the (unsurprising) name of "large bars". These ingots have a minimum fineness of 995, which is about the same as many bullion coins.Worldwide only sixty companies are currently approved to produce these ingots. They are the top drawer of smelters and assayers.However, because ingots are rarely melted back down, many bars still exist bearing the stamp of one of the forty-two firms no longer in operation or whose name has changed. Intrinsic to the specification is that the London Bullion Market Association also defines that the bars must be of "good appearance" and easy to handle and to stack. This emphasis on appearance enables a casual observer to determine that the smelting process is under control & the bar isn`t made up of "layers" nor has surface pits.The ease of handling requires that the bars don`t have sharp corners which might injure workers during loading operations. When you see the "spot" price of gold in the London delivery , it is these bars which it is referring to.Additionally, on the surface of the bar, besides the refiners stamp (sometimes referred to as a "chop"), there is always a serial number, as well as the fineness and the year of manufacture.