Gold marks and markings — what you should know
What markings can you find on gold products?
Gold markings, or gold hallmarks, refer to the permanent markings on gold products that are, for example, stamped, cast or laser-engraved onto the product.
On bars, gold markings often include the fineness, the manufacturer and a serial number. There is no universal requirement for these, so practices vary between different operators: on Voima's 100 g gold bar, for instance, the manufacturer's mark is replaced by Voima's name and logo.
Gold bars and coins often state the fineness of the coin. For example, the Britannia and Vienna Philharmonic coins state a fineness of 999.9 (24 karats), whereas the American Eagle, for instance, does not state a fineness but rather the amount of pure gold.
Gold markings usually express fineness with three or four digits. The table below shows the most common three-digit marks and their corresponding karats and purity percentages.
| Gold mark (fineness) | Karats | Gold purity (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 333 | 8 | 33.3% |
| 375 | 9 | 37.5% |
| 417 | 10 | 41.7% |
| 585 | 14 | 58.5% |
| 750 | 18 | 75.0% |
| 833 | 20 | 83.3% |
| 875 | 21 | 87.5% |
| 916 | 22 | 91.6% |
| 958 | 23 | 95.8% |
| 999 | 24 | 99.9% |
| 999.9 | 24 | 99.99% |
Most coins also carry the year of minting, the country of the mint and the mint's own abbreviation (such as the "P" standing on the reverse of the Kangaroo coin — Perth Mint). Classic American coins in particular also include mottos: the reverse of the American Buffalo, for example, bears the United States' Latin motto "E pluribus unum" (literally "out of many, one") and "In God we trust."
Non-investment gold products, such as gold jewellery, often also carry the gold hallmarks required by law, such as assay marks. They may also feature optional markings, such as the chemical symbol for gold, "Au."
Which markings are mandatory on investment gold products?
In Finland, the Government Decree on precious metal products specifies that statutory hallmarking requirements do not apply to investment gold products. In practice, this means that mandatory gold markings do not apply to investment gold products: they do not require an assay office mark, for example.
All products sold in the Voima Store are investment gold, and so a one-ounce Krugerrand coin, for instance, has no separate fineness mark; instead, the reverse of the coin bears the inscription "FYNGOUD 1 OZ FINE GOLD" — one ounce of pure gold.
Gold markings when making a purchase decision
In general, it is worth checking the gold purity of the product you are buying: if you want pure gold, you should buy products whose markings or separate product details state the purity of the gold. Today, in addition to serial numbers, coins also feature various anti-counterfeiting mechanisms, such as the laser-etched security feature on the reverse of the Maple Leaf.
Because there are, however, no absolute criteria for the markings on gold items that apply in every case, no strictly universal guidelines can be given on their basis. The best advice, then, is to buy your gold products from a reliable operator.
You can assess an operator's reliability, for example, by how much they communicate about their own operations: does the party use external inspection services, and is there reliable documentation of these? It is also worth confirming who manufactured the products. You can also check what kind of feedback the party has received from users and customers.
In Voima's case, you can rest assured that the manufacturers of the products are of a high standard and that Voima has transparent documentation regarding third-party inspections. Voima Supply offers a selection of high-quality investment gold products made by either LBMA refineries or national mints. On the Voima Supply product pages, you will always find product-specific details including the following: metal, weight, purity, karats, size and manufacturer. Voima also keeps the inspection documents related to its service publicly available.