Precious Metals Glossary: Terms Around Gold, Silver and Spargold

In allocated storage your precious metals are physically and namely assigned to you — you own a specific bar with a serial number, not just a claim to a quantity. This is the opposite of unallocated storage, where you only hold a receivable against the storage operator. In case of insolvency, allocated holdings are not part of the operator's balance sheet and remain your property. Spargold precious metals are stored 100% allocated in “The Reserve”.

The Gold American Eagle is made of 22-carat gold (916.7 fine); the alloy makes the coin more durable. As with the Krugerrand, the one-ounce version still contains a full troy ounce of gold and is therefore slightly heavier. It is legal tender in the US and is also sold in smaller sizes and as a silver coin.

The German Money Laundering Act requires precious-metal dealers to identify and record customers in cash transactions of €2,000 or more. Splitting a larger purchase into several smaller ones to stay under this limit is not allowed. With non-cash payments, such as bank transfers or in-app purchases, the customer is identified through their account anyway.

An assay is a test of a metal's content. Many refiners sell small bars sealed in a card that shows the assay details, while larger bars come with separate certificates or bar lists. An intact sealed card can make reselling easier, but it is no substitute for independent testing if there is any doubt about authenticity.

In an audit, external inspectors reconcile vault holdings with the records, count bars and coins, and check serial numbers and weights. Such checks are carried out by specialist firms, for example inspection companies such as Bureau Veritas. Regular external audits are an important quality mark for custody; “The Reserve” in Singapore is also audited externally several times a year.

Precious metals always have two prices: you can sell to a dealer at the bid and buy from them at the higher ask. The gap between the two is the spread. When comparing prices, always check whether a quoted figure is the buying or the selling price.

At the 1944 conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, countries agreed on a system of fixed exchange rates: other currencies were pegged to the US dollar, which central banks could in turn exchange for gold at US$35 per troy ounce. In 1971 the US suspended this convertibility, effectively ending the system. Since then the gold price has been set freely by the market.

The Britannia is Britain's best-known bullion coin and is issued by the Royal Mint. Earlier gold Britannias were made of 22-carat gold; since 2013 the coin has been produced in 999.9 fine gold. It is also available as a silver coin and in various sizes.

Bullion coins are struck in large quantities by government mints, carry a face value as legal tender and contain a precisely defined amount of gold. Well-known examples include the Krugerrand, Maple Leaf, Vienna Philharmonic, Britannia, American Eagle and Kangaroo. Their premium is usually higher than for a bar of the same weight, but they are recognised worldwide and easy to resell. Collector coins with numismatic value follow their own pricing.

The carat system divides an alloy into 24 parts, and the carat number says how many of those parts are gold. Common equivalents are 24 carat ≈ 999.9, 22 carat = 916.7, 18 carat = 750, 14 carat = 585 and 8 carat = 333 parts per thousand. You will mostly see carats on jewellery and some bullion coins, whereas bars usually state their fineness directly. The carat used to weigh gemstones is a different unit.

Central banks hold gold to diversify their reserves and support confidence in their currency. Their holdings are stored partly at home and partly at international trading centres such as London or New York. Central bank buying and selling is considered an important driver of supply and demand in the gold market; the World Gold Council is among those publishing data on it.

COMEX lists standardised futures contracts on gold, silver and other metals. Together with London's over-the-counter market, it is one of the most important venues for setting precious-metal prices. Most contracts are closed out before expiry, and only a small share leads to physical delivery from exchange-approved vaults.

The cost-average effect (also dollar-cost averaging) describes how a savings plan with a fixed contribution automatically buys more units when prices are low and fewer when prices are high. Over time this smooths your average buy-in price and reduces timing risk compared to a single lump-sum purchase. With Spargold this is the default mode for precious-metals savings plans from 5 € per month.

Divisible bars combine the weight of a mid-sized bar with the flexibility of small units: each segment carries its own weight and fineness markings. The best-known version is the CombiBar from the Swiss refiner Valcambi. Their premium usually sits between that of one large bar and that of many separate small bars.

A duty-free warehouse (also free-trade zone or bonded warehouse) is a customs-segregated zone in which goods can be stored without immediate VAT or import duty. Spargold stores all customer precious metals in the duty-free vault “The Reserve” in Singapore. This means: no VAT applies to your silver or platinum either, as long as the metal stays in the vault. Import VAT would only become due if the metal were physically delivered into the EU.

An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a stock-exchange-listed investment fund that must hold several assets to satisfy diversification rules — pure gold ETFs are therefore not permitted in Germany. They are replaced by Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs): collateralised bearer debt securities under which the issuer owes you gold, typically stored at a bank. This is not the same as physical ownership: if the issuer or storage operator goes bankrupt, losses can occur — with Spargold you own the metal directly and allocated to you.

Unlike an allowance, this threshold works on an all-or-nothing basis: if your total gain for the year reaches or exceeds it, the entire gain is taxable, not just the part above the limit. For private sales under § 23 of the German Income Tax Act, such as selling gold within the holding period, the threshold has been €1,000 since 2024 (previously €600). This is general information, not tax advice.

Fine gold is gold with virtually no other metals mixed in. Investment bars and many modern bullion coins are made of 999.9 fine gold. The term is also used for the pure gold content of a product: a Krugerrand, for example, contains one ounce of fine gold even though it weighs more in total.

Fineness tells you how much pure gold, silver or platinum a bar, coin or piece of jewellery contains. It is stated in parts per thousand, such as 999.9 for high-purity gold or 916.7 for 22-carat coin gold. Combined with the total weight, it gives the fine weight — the amount of pure metal that determines the material value.

Gold and silver futures are used mainly by producers, industry, banks and speculators to hedge price risk or bet on price moves. Only a margin deposit is required, which creates leverage and means losses can grow quickly. Holding a futures contract does not mean owning physical metal — it is a contractual position, and most contracts are closed out before expiry.

Gold bars range from a few grams up to the roughly 12.4 kg Good Delivery bar. Cast bars are made by pouring molten gold into a mould; they often have slightly uneven surfaces and are common in larger sizes. Minted bars are cut from rolled gold strip and struck, giving them a smooth, precise finish typical of smaller sizes. As a rule, the bigger the bar, the lower the premium per gram.

With gold mining shares you own part of a mining company, not the gold itself. Their price often reacts more strongly than the gold price, but is also driven by production costs, management, debt and political risk in the mining countries. Unlike physical gold, companies can pay dividends — but they can also go bankrupt.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries many countries pegged their currencies to gold, which created fixed exchange rates between them. The gold standard limited the money supply but also restricted what central banks could do in a crisis. It was gradually abandoned after the world wars and the Great Depression, and today no major currency is linked to gold.

The gold-to-silver ratio is calculated by dividing the price of one troy ounce of gold by the price of one troy ounce of silver. It varies widely over time, because silver is not only a store of value but also depends heavily on industrial demand. Some investors watch the ratio to put the relative prices of the two metals in context; it does not reliably predict future prices.

Good Delivery bars meet the LBMA's rules on weight, fineness, shape and markings. Gold bars weigh between 350 and 430 troy ounces (typically about 400 oz ≈ 12.4 kg) with a minimum fineness of 995.0; silver bars weigh 750 to 1,100 ounces at a minimum of 999.0. Only refiners on the LBMA Good Delivery List may produce them. Because the premium per ounce is low on such large bars, they are well suited to storing large quantities on behalf of many owners.

The fineness stamp shows how many thousandths of an item are precious metal: 585, for example, means 58.5% gold, roughly 14 carat. On jewellery it is often combined with a maker's mark. A stamp is a useful clue but not proof of authenticity; only testing can confirm the actual content if in doubt.

For tax purposes, physical gold in Germany is treated as a private asset rather than a capital investment subject to the flat-rate withholding tax. If you sell after holding it for more than a year, the gain is free of income tax. If you sell within a year, the gain is taxed at your personal rate — unless your total gains from private sales in that calendar year stay below the €1,000 exemption threshold. This is general information, not tax advice.

With inflation, the same amount of money buys less over time. It is usually measured using consumer price indices. Gold is often seen as a long-term store of value because its supply is limited and cannot be expanded at will; in the short term, however, the gold price does not necessarily move in step with inflation.

If precious metals belong to you and a service provider only keeps them for you, they are in principle kept separate from the custodian's own assets. Under German law, owners can reclaim such items in an insolvency (a right known as Aussonderung). This depends on ownership being clearly provable, for example through allocated storage with serial numbers. How strong the protection is in a given case depends on the contract and the applicable law; this explanation is not legal advice.

Investment gold covers bars and wafers of at least 995 parts per thousand, as well as gold coins of at least 900 parts per thousand that were minted after 1800, are or were legal tender in their country of origin, and are normally sold close to their gold value. No VAT is charged when you buy such products in the EU. Silver, platinum and palladium, by contrast, do not enjoy this exemption. This is general information, not tax advice.

The gold Kangaroo is issued by the Perth Mint in Western Australia and is legal tender in Australia. A distinctive feature is its regularly changing design, which has helped make the coin widely known. It comes in many sizes, from fractions of an ounce to much larger formats.

The Krugerrand is made of 22-carat gold (916.7 fine) alloyed with copper, which gives it a reddish tint and makes it more scratch-resistant. The one-ounce coin therefore weighs 33.93 g in total while containing exactly one troy ounce of gold. It was the first modern bullion coin aimed specifically at private investors and is now also available in smaller sizes.

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) is an international precious-metals industry body founded in 1987. Its “Good Delivery” list defines the worldwide quality standard for investment-grade gold and silver bars: purity, weight, form and refinery must meet certified requirements. Spargold's storage partner Silver Bullion is an LBMA member; all stored investment bars come from LBMA-certified refineries.

The LBMA Gold Price replaced the former London Gold Fix. It is determined in an electronic auction among accredited market participants and administered by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA). Central banks, refiners, dealers and financial products use it as a reference for contracts and valuations. Unlike the constantly moving spot price, it is a fixed value at two points in the day.

The LPPM is to platinum and palladium what the LBMA is to gold and silver. It keeps lists of accredited refiners whose bars are accepted as Good Delivery in the wholesale market.

A lump sum fixes the entry point for the whole amount, so the outcome depends heavily on how prices move from that day on. A savings plan spreads purchases across many dates and uses cost averaging, which reduces timing risk. The two approaches can also be combined. At Spargold, both one-off purchases and savings plans start from €5.

The Gold Maple Leaf is one of the most widely traded bullion coins in the world. It is issued by the state-owned Royal Canadian Mint and is legal tender in Canada. Besides gold, the Maple Leaf also comes in silver and platinum and in several sizes.

Under the margin scheme, VAT is charged not on the full selling price but only on the difference between the dealer's purchase and selling price. It can be used when the dealer acquired the goods without separately invoiced input VAT. Because silver is not VAT-exempt in the EU like investment gold, many silver coins are sold this way, which can lower the price compared with standard VAT. This is general information, not tax advice.

Government mints such as the Royal Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Austrian Mint, the Perth Mint and the US Mint strike official bullion coins with a face value. Private mints also exist and mainly produce bars, medals and special editions. The maker's name matters for resale, because well-known products are easier to verify and trade.

The German term Tafelgeschäft refers to the bank counter across which precious metals and cash are exchanged. In an over-the-counter purchase you take the bars or coins with you immediately instead of having them shipped or stored. Above certain amounts, buyers must show ID under anti-money-laundering rules.

Palladium is chemically related to platinum and is often mined together with platinum and nickel, mainly in Russia and South Africa. Because demand depends heavily on the car industry, its price can swing considerably. Like silver and platinum, palladium is not VAT-exempt as an investment metal in the EU.

With a physically backed ETC, the issuer buys gold corresponding to the securities issued and has it held by a custodian. Investors get an easily tradable position that tracks the gold price. Legally, however, it remains a claim against the issuer, and whether and on what terms you can take delivery depends on the product terms. The entry “ETC vs. ETF” explains how this differs from a fund.

Platinum is even rarer than gold and is mined mainly in a handful of countries, above all South Africa. A large share of demand comes from catalytic converters and other industrial uses, so its price can depend heavily on the economic cycle. Platinum investment bars have their own Good Delivery standards set by the LPPM. At Spargold you can buy platinum alongside gold and silver.

Precious metals barely react with air or water, so they keep their lustre and substance over time. They include gold, silver and the platinum-group metals such as platinum and palladium. Their rarity, durability and divisibility have made them stores of value for thousands of years. With Spargold you can buy gold, silver and platinum from as little as €5.

A precious-metals savings plan debits a fixed amount from your account at fixed intervals and automatically buys shares of gold, silver or platinum bars. The plan leverages the cost-average effect, can be paused or cancelled at any time, has no minimum term and is available with Spargold from 5 € per month. The metals you buy are 100% your property and are stored allocated in “The Reserve”.

The premium is the difference between the selling price of a precious-metal product and the value of its metal at the spot price. It reflects minting, transport, insurance and the dealer's margin. Small bars and coins usually carry a much higher premium per gram than large bars. Demand matters too: premiums can rise when demand is high.

Put simply, the real interest rate is the nominal rate minus the inflation rate. If inflation is higher than the interest rate, the real rate is negative and savings lose purchasing power. Because gold pays no interest, real interest rates are often cited as an important factor in how attractive gold is compared with interest-bearing investments.

Refiners separate precious metals from other materials and bring them to a high fineness. Refiners that meet the LBMA's strict requirements on quality and responsible sourcing appear on the Good Delivery List; well-known examples include Heraeus and Valcambi. Only bars from these accredited refiners are accepted as Good Delivery on the London wholesale market.

With a safe deposit box you rent space in the vault, and the bank usually does not know what is inside. The contents are not covered by statutory deposit protection and, depending on the contract, may be insured only partly or not at all, so separate insurance is often worth considering. You can only get to your box during branch opening hours. Annual rent depends on box size and provider.

During economic or political uncertainty, many investors move money into assets they consider less likely to default. Gold is regarded as a safe haven because it is not a payment promise from any issuer, is traded worldwide and has served as a store of value for thousands of years. That does not mean its price never falls; it can drop at times even during a crisis.

Gold is hardly ever used up and can be recycled with almost no loss. Dealers and refiners buy scrap gold by weight and fineness, paying a price based on the current gold price minus testing and refining costs. Alongside mine production, recycled gold is an important source of global supply.

Larger bars and many small bars carry an individual serial number. It lets a bar be traced reliably across vault records, certificates and audit reports. In allocated storage the serial number is essential, because it proves which specific bar belongs to which owner.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange was founded in 2002 and is supervised by China's central bank. Unlike COMEX, it is strongly focused on physical trading and publishes its own benchmark price in yuan. Given China's large demand, it ranks alongside London and New York as one of the key trading centres for gold.

Silver costs far less per ounce than gold and is consumed in large quantities by industry. This dual role generally makes its price more volatile than gold's. Unlike investment gold, silver is normally subject to VAT when bought in the EU; at Spargold it is stored allocated in the duty-free vault “The Reserve” in Singapore.

The spot price is the reference price per troy ounce (31.1035 g) of a precious metal on the world market. It is continuously set on precious-metals exchanges (mainly London and New York) and is the basis on which dealers calculate their markups. When you buy a small coin you typically pay a substantial premium over the spot price; for large bars the premium per ounce is smaller, which is why Spargold buys large bars and sells you shares of them.

The spread (or bid-ask spread) is the difference between the price at which a dealer buys a precious metal and the price at which it sells it. It covers trading cost, storage and margins. At Spargold the spread is structured so that total costs are transparent: in the app you see the exact buy or sell price, with the spread and fee (gold 1% buy / 2% sell, silver and platinum 2% each) already included.

Professional vaults charge for space, insurance, security staff and regular audits. The amount and the way it is calculated vary by provider, location and type of storage. When comparing offers, it pays to look at storage fees together with the spread and purchase fees, since only the total gives you the full picture.

“The Reserve” is one of the largest and most modern high-security precious-metals vaults in the world. It sits in a security zone close to Singapore's Changi Airport, is operated by LBMA member Silver Bullion and holds more than three billion US dollars worth of assets. Multiple yearly external audits, full insurance and allocated storage ensure your precious metals are physically allocated to you, not part of the operator's balance sheet and protected against loss, theft and damage.

Precious-metal prices worldwide are quoted in US dollars per troy ounce. This is 31.1034768 g (rounded to 31.1035 g), not the avoirdupois ounce of about 28.35 g used for groceries in the US and UK. When people say “fine ounce”, they mean the weight of the pure metal only: a coin containing one ounce of fine gold can weigh more in total if it is made from an alloy.

In unallocated storage, metal is held in a single pool without individual bars being assigned to particular customers. Legally, you usually have a claim against the provider rather than ownership of specific metal. This can be cheaper, but it means you are exposed if the provider becomes insolvent. Spargold, by contrast, stores its customers' precious metals 100% allocated in “The Reserve” in Singapore.

The Vienna Philharmonic shows instruments of the famous orchestra and the organ of Vienna's Musikverein concert hall. It is issued by the Austrian Mint (Münze Österreich), has a face value in euros and is legal tender in Austria. It is available in gold, silver and platinum and in several sizes.

Volatility is usually calculated as the statistical spread of price changes over a period of time. Precious-metal prices fluctuate too; silver and platinum are generally considered more volatile than gold because their demand depends more on industry. Saving fixed amounts at regular intervals can reduce the effect of individual price swings on your average purchase price.

The London-based World Gold Council regularly publishes statistics on supply and demand, central bank purchases, jewellery, bars and coins, and gold ETFs. Its reports are among the most widely cited sources on the gold market. As it is funded by the mining industry, it is an industry body, but it also provides extensive, freely available market data.