Most individuals only see gold bars on movies or on television. This is unfortunate as, the more precious metals are in the hands of individual citizens, the more power those citizens enjoy over their financial futures. Gold, silver and other precious metals are among the most stable investments on the market.
While popular culture may have created the impression that only wealthy investors, international super-villains and national treasuries own gold bars, this is not at all the case. Many
Bars, coins and other ingots are made out of gold bullion. Bullion is simply metal of a known purity. In the case of gold, .999 fine is commonly-seen stamped on bars and coins. This level of purity means that the gold can be traded in any market and that it carries the highest value possible for the metal. There are other purities available and some gold coins are alloys, which are valued on the basis of their percentage weight in gold. In the case of coins, the bullion is sometimes alloyed to protect the gold. Gold is soft. In fact, the reason that people in old cartoons oftentimes bite into a coin is because the bullion content in coins of the time made them soft enough to dent.