Bullion

What counts as bullion

Bullion is bought for weight and purity. Three features set it apart from jewellery and collector coins: high fineness (usually 99.9% or 99.99%), a standard weight in troy ounces, grams or kilograms, and a price that tracks the spot price closely. Canadian tax law uses similar tests: gold and platinum of at least 99.5% and silver of at least 99.9%, in bar, ingot, coin or wafer form, are generally sold without GST/HST.

Canadian bullion coins

The Royal Canadian Mint is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada. Its Ottawa facility houses the gold and silver refineries and makes bullion and collector coins; the Winnipeg facility makes circulation coins.

• Gold Maple Leaf: launched in 1979 at 99.9% purity, when the 22 karat Krugerrand was the standard, and raised to 99.99% three years later. The 1 oz coin weighs 31.11 g, measures 30 mm and carries a face value of 50 dollars. See the 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf.
• Silver Maple Leaf: introduced in 1988. The 1 oz coin is 99.99% silver, 38 mm across, with a face value of 5 dollars. See the 1 oz Silver Maple Leaf.
• Platinum and Palladium Maple Leafs: added by the Mint after the silver coin.

Imported coins are widely stocked too, such as the silver Britannia, the American Silver Eagle and the silver Krugerrand.

Bars or coins?

Worked example: a 1 kg gold bar holds 32.15 troy oz. To buy the same gold in 1 oz coins you would need 32 coins plus change, each carrying its own minting cost. Bars spread that cost over more metal, which is why their premium over spot is usually smaller. Small bars work the other way: a 1 g gold bar costs far more per gram than a 10 g bar. Coins win on flexibility: you can sell one at a time. For silver, compare the 1 kg silver bar with the cheapest silver coins, and for gold see the cheapest gold coins in Canada.

Proof and coloured versions of the same designs are collector items, not bullion; see numismatic coins.