Or : 121 583,19€/kg 1113,06 € 0,92%
Argent : 1849,95€/kg 43,40 € 2,4%
Or : 121 583,19€/kg 1113,06 € 0,92%
Argent : 1849,95€/kg 43,40 € 2,4%
Published on 21 August 2026 by Gold ReserveThe right gold bar is not the largest your budget allows, it is the one that lets you sell the exact quantity you need, on the day you need it. In practice: below 10,000 euros, the 5 to 50 gram minted bar; between 10,000 and 60,000 euros, the 100 or the 250 gram; above that, the 500 gram or the kilo, which offer the best price per gram but are bought and sold in one block. It all follows from two parameters that pull in opposite directions: the premium, which falls as the weight rises, and divisibility, which does exactly the opposite. A well-built holding of gold plays on both.
The two words refer to the same product and the same metal. Trade usage reserves the term bar for formats from 100 grams upwards and speaks of a minted bar below that, but no regulation fixes the boundary. So you will find a “100 g minted bar” at one dealer and a “50 g bar” at another without the slightest difference in quality. What counts, and what is identical across every format in our catalogue, is the fineness: 999.9 fine, that is, pure gold. A 5 gram minted bar contains exactly the same metal, at the same purity, as a one kilo bar. There is no lower grade of gold in the small formats.
Our catalogue covers nine weights, all 999.9 fine: 5, 10, 20, 31.1, 50, 100, 250, 500 grams and 1,000 grams. That range matches the budget steps buyers actually run into.
The 5 gram minted bar is the smallest format we offer. It is the classic way in: a ticket of a few hundred euros, an object that fits in the hand, and above all the chance to build a position gradually, one minted bar at a time, rather than waiting until you have gathered the price of a large bar. The 10 gram and the 20 gram answer the same logic with a slightly softer premium. If your aim is to place 2,000 or 3,000 euros, three 10 gram minted bars let you sell in thirds, where a single 31.1 gram minted bar forces you to sell the lot at once. As for the one gram bar, which many people look for, we do not list it: its premium is such that gold has to rise a long way before you simply get your money back.
The 50 gram bar and the 100 gram bar are the two formats we sell most, and that is no accident. At that level the premium is already markedly lower than on the small minted bars, while keeping a manageable unit for selling: selling 100 grams means mobilising a fraction of your holding, not moving all of it. It is the format we recommend by default to someone placing a significant sum in one go, with no identified need for cash in the short term.
The 250 gram, the 500 gram and the 1 kilo bar are the formats where the price per gram comes closest to the pure market price. It is arithmetic: the costs of casting, sealing, certification and handling are much the same for a 20 gram minted bar as for a one kilo bar, but they are spread over fifty times more metal. The trade-off is real: a one kilo bar cannot be cut. The day you need the equivalent of 100 grams, you sell the whole kilo and buy back afterwards, paying twice the gap between the price a dealer sells at and the price they buy back at. That is why a large holding is rarely kept in a single bar.
The difference between the price you pay and the value of the metal contained is called the premium. It pays for turning metal into a certified, sealed and sellable product: refining, weighing, casting, packing, checking and logistics. That work has an almost fixed cost per bar, largely independent of weight. The direct consequence is that the premium per gram falls as the weight rises, quickly up to 100 grams and then much more slowly beyond. That is why the jump from 20 to 100 grams changes a lot about your cost price, whereas the one from 500 grams to 1 kilo changes very little. Be careful, though, not to conclude that the large bar always wins: the premium paid on purchase is partly recovered when you sell, since the market applies the same logic of format. What is never recovered is the cost of having had to sell a kilo for a need of 100 grams.
The 31.1 gram minted bar deserves a mention, because that weight is anything but arbitrary: it corresponds to the troy ounce, the unit in which gold is quoted on international markets. When you read a gold price in dollars, it is the price of one ounce, so of the exact quantity contained in this minted bar. You have no calculation to make to know where you stand, and it is the most universally recognised format, in France as abroad. The CombiBar, for its part, resolves the dilemma between premium and divisibility. It is a Swiss plate of 50 grams at 999.9 fine, pre-cut into fifty one-gram squares that detach by hand, with no tool, no loss of metal and without the remaining squares losing their certification. You buy at the rate of a 50 gram product, with the corresponding premium, and you keep the ability to mobilise one gram at a time. For anyone who wants gold usable in small quantities rather than a block to be sold in one go, it is the best compromise in the catalogue.
Every bar is delivered sealed, in a tamper-proof blister, with an engraved serial number and a certificate or assay note stating the weight and the fineness. Together these make up its traceability: they attest that the metal has been checked by an assayer and let any professional buy it back on sight, with no appraisal.An opened blister changes the nature of the transaction.The bar becomes again a piece of metal whose fineness nobody can guarantee without testing it, which means a chargeable check and, often, a discount. The rule is therefore simple and without exception: never open the seal, never separate the bar from its certificate, and keep the purchase invoice for as long as the bar. The invoice is not only proof, it has a direct tax consequence.
We deliberately give no price in euros here: it would be wrong within a month. The method, on the other hand, holds indefinitely. The price of a bar is made up of its metal value, that is, its weight multiplied by the day’s gold price per gram, to which is added the premium tied to the format. For a 100 gram bar, that is a hundred times the price of the gram, with no other subtlety since the fineness is 999.9. You can do that calculation in a few seconds from the gold price per gram, then check the price of the day on the listing for the format you are interested in. Our prices follow the gold price continuously and are recalculated automatically, which is why they change from one visit to the next.
On purchase, investment gold is exempt from VAT. For a bar, the exemption requires a fineness of 995 or above and a weight accepted on the gold markets: our nine formats, at 999.9 fine, are all well above the threshold.While it is held, there is no taxation, since physical gold produces neither income nor dividend.On sale, you have a choice between two regimes, and this is where the invoice regains all its importance. The flat-rate tax comes to 11.5% of the sale amount, applies from the first euro and requires no supporting document: it is the default regime, the one that applies when the origin of the bar cannot be proved. Taxation on the actual gain comes to 36.2% including social levies, but bears only on the gain, with an allowance of 5% for each year held beyond the second, which leads to full exemption after twenty-two years. It does require being able to prove the date and the price of purchase. In other words, a bar held for a long time and bought with a proper invoice can be sold with no tax at all, whereas the same bar with no proof of origin will be taxed at 11.5% of the sale price even if it has gained nothing. Buying from a professional who issues an invoice in your name is not an administrative formality, it is a decision about your assets.
Both have their case, and many holdings contain both. The bar offers the lowest premium, an immediate reading of its value and a compact format: it is best for placing a large sum as close as possible to the market price. Investment coins bring something else, natural divisibility and a recognition that makes them easy to sell anywhere. The Maple Leaf and the Mexican 50 pesos often play the part of minted-bar equivalents in a portfolio, and we set out how the value of the 50 pesos is worked out in a separate article. The simplest way to decide is to start from the use. If you are placing money for fifteen or twenty years with no need in between, favour the large bars. If you want to be able to mobilise slices of it, mix minted bars, CombiBar and coins. The whole range can be seen in the shop.
Three points are enough to identify a serious seller: a price displayed and indexed to the day’s market, an invoice in your name for the tax reason explained above, and an intact original seal with its serial number and certificate. Those three things will make the difference on the day you want to sell your bar to a precious metals dealer. We deliver by insured specialist carrier. For a large amount or a question of format, the most efficient thing is to talk it through directly: contact us.
The 5, 10 or 20 gram minted bar. It lets you come in for a few hundred euros, build a position gradually and sell in small quantities. Its premium per gram is higher than that of the large formats, which is the price of that flexibility.
On the strict price per gram, the one kilo bar, because the fixed costs of manufacture are spread over the most metal. But it cannot be divided: if you may need only part of the sum, several bars of 100 or 250 grams will cost you less overall than a forced sale of a kilo followed by a buy-back.
That format exists on the market but we do not offer it: its premium is too high for it to make sense. The smallest format in our catalogue is the 5 gram minted bar. If your aim is to be able to mobilise one gram at a time, the 50 gram CombiBar, pre-cut into fifty one-gram squares, meets the need with the premium of a 50 gram product.
No. Investment gold is exempt from VAT, which for a bar requires a fineness of at least 995. Our formats are 999.9 fine and are therefore all covered by the exemption.
It should not be. The seal, the serial number and the certificate make up the bar’s traceability and allow any professional to buy it back immediately. An opened blister means the fineness has to be checked before buy-back, generally at a charge, and it often trades at a discount.
Several small ones cost a little more to buy and can be sold in slices; a large one costs less per gram and is sold in one block. The most common arrangement on a substantial holding combines the two: one or two large bars as the base, minted bars and a CombiBar for the part you may need to mobilise.
