This is a long shot but do we have any gold bar collectors here? Just recently bought some gold and for the most part I’m not worried about its authenticity, I made sure to buy the more high-priced/high-weighted bars at jmbullion and apmex. The collector in me really enjoyed the dragon art that pamp and the australian coin series came out with but unfortunately I’m too far in the future from when they distributed the pamp gold bars so I ended up trying to find them on ebay. Two of the coins luckily re-stocked on apmex but the bar is from 2012 so they’re very far and few between to stumble upon. Not even a sign of the 100g version anywhere. I recently bid on a reasonably priced 1 oz bar because the other two on ebay are going for almost $1k over current gold prices. The printing of the serial number on the bar itself as well as the assay card look different than stock photos I’ve seen. Does anyone have any bars like this to compare? Again a long shot but I’d prefer not to bust this out of the assay if possible to verify its gold content but I’ll probably have to just for peace of mind. I was reading about fake assay cards and fake pamp bars during this era so my knowledge on this subject is limited. Thanks if anyone can help.
100% with over 1000 reviews which is why I was semi-comfortable bidding even after seeing the pictures and doing a little research. But he deals mostly in silver and old poker chips. His only two gold sold listings were mine and another 1 ounce bar from a different mint with only one bidder, which was a little odd. I even messaged him with my concerns before buying but there’s not much you could really do outside of an actual receipt from the distributor because he also bought this on the secondary market so I don’t hold it against him. He did provide more pictures when I asked because fakes will have the same length and width but not the same thickness from what I’ve read, hence the the last two pics just in case someone does own one of these lunar series bars on the forum, hopefully to compare.
Small bars are easy to verify via density and just “feel” once you’ve gotten experience with known real gold (and silver). The bigger bars is where embedded tungsten can theoretically be a problem to identify but not too many people are dealing with the 400 ozt bars too often.
Yeah was just hoping there was a way to verify from the thickness/packaging/how the serial numbers look without having to remove from the assay to do the normal gold tests
make sure you are looking up photos of the right year.
i know pamp moved the serial on 1gram bars from the bottom to the middle or vice-versa at least once since 2010, so you have to find the right bar to compare it to.
Wow thanks for the great info! The long shot paid off, nice bar selection. Have you been buying gold for a while? It seems like you bought yours when they were released. The font on the stock photo looks slightly different from the one I have and also the assay numbers look extra dark/bold on mine but maybe that’s from aging/where it was stored. There’s another listing on ebay where the assay font is different and the printing looks lighter/thinner on the bar itself so I dunno. This could’ve been maybe the 2013 run?
I got both on apmex last year they hit randomly sometimes. only 1-2 bars at a time tho lol.
they just announced year of the ox . I may have to get another 5g of that .
I think everyone should have some gold!
I plan to buy my first oz bar soon. pamp lady fortuna or pamp year or the ox?! the oxes will sell out and be on eBay for $1k over like you said about the dragons . they all seem to lol.
look at mene.com too they have 24k trinkets and jewelry . there’s a premium for the ‘art’ but they are the only company doing what they do you’ll see the transparency.
Both solid options, the back and the front of the year of the ox looks INSANE you should get it if you’re choosing between the two! That’s so much detail they put into that bar. Also hoping for another dragon in 2024, not sure what their plans are for this series. Huge coincidence but apmex just listed only one 100g version of the pamp dragon that I was just talking about not being able to find anywhere so I bought it instantly, no way they sell fakes. Someone probably cashed in their investment and made me a happy dude. Now I don’t have much worries about opening up this 1 oz from its assay to test since I’ll have one trusted in an assay for sure. Happy find
Nice Gary! Financially I should be getting those but I can’t help but pay a little premium for a dragon on a few of mine. Do you prefer the easy storage of the rounds over the larger weighted bars? I paid less of a premium the higher I went up on weight which seemed like a nice discount but the re-sale I’ve noticed also accounts for that so I don’t know how that works out whenever I choose to liquidate.
Edit:Also are those square coin holders a tight fit on the coins or are they encapsulated inside the case? Was thinking about getting something along those lines because the coins I bought from apmex kinda rattle inside their circular capsules. Those might even be sleeves I can’t tell lol
