- Assay
- Testing and certification of a metal’s weight and purity. Minted bars often ship in sealed assay packaging (an “assay card”).
- Bullion
- Refined precious metal valued by weight and purity rather than rarity — produced as coins, bars, and rounds.
- Buyback
- A dealer’s program for purchasing metal back from customers; pricing and process vary by dealer and product.
- Face value
- The nominal legal-tender value stamped on a sovereign coin — typically far below its metal value.
- Fineness
- Metal purity expressed as a decimal — .999 (“three nines”) or .9999 are common investment grades.
- Fractional
- Bullion in sub-ounce sizes (½, ¼, 1/10 oz). More flexible; higher premium per ounce.
- Legal tender
- Currency status conferred by a sovereign issuer. Distinguishes coins from rounds.
- Liquidity
- How quickly and fairly an asset can be sold. Recognizable products in common sizes are most liquid.
- Market-loss policy
- Dealer terms holding a buyer responsible for price movement if a confirmed order is cancelled.
- Mint
- A facility that manufactures coins (sovereign mints) or bars and rounds (private mints and refineries).
- Numismatic
- Coins valued for rarity, condition, and collector demand rather than metal content. Not bullion.
- The amount a bullion product costs above the spot value of its metal content.
- Round
- A coin-shaped bullion product from a private mint, with no legal-tender status.
- Sovereign coin
- Legal-tender bullion issued by a national mint under government authority.
- Spot price
- The global benchmark price for immediate delivery of one troy ounce of a metal.
- Spread
- The gap between what you pay a dealer (retail) and what a dealer pays you (buyback) — the round-trip cost of ownership.
- Troy ounce
- The standard weight for precious metals: 31.1035 g, about 10% heavier than a standard ounce.
Definitions
The Bullion Glossary
Every term used on this site, defined plainly. Definitions are stable facts, reviewed annually.