Gold purity tells you how much pure gold a bar, coin or piece of jewellery actually contains. It is most often expressed in parts per thousand or in karats.
If gold has a purity of 999.9/1000, it means it contains 99.99% pure gold. This type of gold is commonly referred to as highly pure investment gold or 24-karat gold.
With jewellery, you will often see lower purity levels, for example 585/1000 for 14-karat gold or 750/1000 for 18-karat gold. That does not mean it is bad gold. Jewellery is made from alloys to make it stronger and more durable for everyday wear. With investment gold, the goal is different: the highest possible purity, clear origin and good tradability.
You can recognise high-quality physical gold mainly by several factors:
- High purity.
- With investment bars, people usually look for the highest possible purity, typically 999.9/1000. The higher the purity, the larger part of the bar’s value is made up of gold itself.
- A trusted manufacturer.
- With physical gold, it matters who produced the bar. Gold from a well-known and recognised manufacturer is easier to verify, sell and buy back.
- Clear origin.
- High-quality investment gold should have a traceable origin. This helps confirm that the gold comes from a reliable source and meets the required standards.
- Certification and standards.
- Professionally traded gold is often assessed by whether it comes from manufacturers on the Good Delivery list. This is an internationally recognised quality standard for gold traded on the professional market.
- Good tradability.
- High-quality gold should be easy to sell in the future. That is why the combination of high purity, a trusted manufacturer and clear origin is so important.
- Transparent price.
- The price of physical gold is based on the market price of gold, but the price of a specific bar also includes production, packaging, transport and the size of the bar. In general, smaller bars tend to have a higher price per gram than larger bars, because the production and packaging costs are similar, but they are spread over a smaller amount of gold.
In the Littlebit app, we work with physical gold with a strong focus on quality, origin and tradability. Gold available for physical withdrawal is always provided in the form of bars from the Swiss refinery Argor-Heraeus with a purity of 999.9/1000 (24 karats). The bars come directly from manufacturers on the Good Delivery list, meaning manufacturers that meet the highest global quality standard for gold.
For users, this means it is not just “some gold”. It is physical investment gold with high purity, clear origin and good future tradability.