999 Gold (24 Karat) — Price per Gram Today

A fineness of 999 means 999 parts of gold in 1,000 parts of alloy. Colloquially that is 24 karat, although 24 karat would arithmetically be 1,000/1,000 — an absolute purity that cannot be achieved industrially. The remaining 0.1 % is residual silver or copper from the refining process.

In practice you will see two markings: 999 (three nines) and 999.9 (four nines). The difference is 0.09 % of intrinsic value and is irrelevant to price. Both count fully as investment gold. Modern coins such as the Maple Leaf, Philharmonic and Britannia are struck in 999.9; older bar stock is often 999.

Physically, fine gold is soft and extremely ductile: density 19.32 g/cm³, melting point 1,064 °C, Vickers hardness only 25–30 HV. A fingernail leaves marks. That is precisely why fine gold is almost never made into rings or chains worn daily — it is an investment and industrial metal, not a jewellery material.

Bars. The standard route into physical gold. Common sizes run from 1 g through 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 250 g up to the 1 kg bar. German and Swiss refiners — Heraeus, C. Hafner, Umicore, Degussa, Argor-Heraeus, Valcambi — dominate. Small bars up to 100 g normally come in a sealed blister card with a printed serial number and assay certificate.

Bullion coins. Maple Leaf (Canada), Vienna Philharmonic (Austria), Britannia (UK) and Kangaroo (Australia) are struck in 999.9. The Krugerrand is the well-known exception: the classic coin is 916 gold, with fine-gold issues added from 2017.

Industry. Bonding wire in semiconductor manufacturing, contact surfaces in connectors and aerospace coatings use fine gold for its corrosion resistance and conductivity. Small in volume, but price-insensitive.

Asian-market jewellery. In India, China and Southeast Asia fine gold is also worn as jewellery, deliberately as wearable savings. Such pieces are noticeably soft and bend easily; in Germany they are handled almost exclusively through scrap gold buyers.

Intrinsic value is identical across every dealer — it follows the spot rate. What differs is the premium: the mark-up for minting, packaging, logistics and margin. It falls sharply with unit size. Rough German market bands: 1 g bar 8–12 %, 10 g around 4–6 %, 100 g roughly 2–3 %, 1 kg bars often under 1.5 %. Putting €1,000 into ten 1-gram bars instead of one 10-gram bar easily gives away a mid-two-figure euro amount at purchase.

Anonymity threshold. Since 1 January 2020 the ceiling for anonymous cash purchases of precious metals in Germany is €2,000 (previously €10,000). Above that the dealer must verify and record your identity under anti-money-laundering law. The purchase remains legal and unlimited — it is simply no longer anonymous.

Checking a dealer. Look for a price tied live to spot, a written quote showing the premium separately, a physical business address and a named manufacturer. Bars from well-known LBMA-accredited refiners are the easiest to resell at the smallest discount — that is not prestige, it is money at the exit.

Fine gold carries the tightest spread in the entire precious metals trade. For standard bars and bullion coins with certificate, German buyers typically pay 97–99.5 % of intrinsic value. No refining charge applies because the material does not need reprocessing — the buyer resells it unchanged.

What lowers the price: missing original packaging, opened blisters, unknown manufacturers, scratches on bullion coins, or pieces from abroad with no traceable origin. Where fine gold cannot be identified — melted material, or jewellery without a mark — the buyer will require an assay and treats the piece as scrap, with a correspondingly larger 3–8 % discount.

Always compare at least two quotes and insist on a breakdown: the fine gold rate used, weight in grams, discount in percent. A buyer quoting only a lump sum makes comparison impossible — usually by design.

Density test. The most informative method without special equipment. Fine gold is 19.32 g/cm³, a figure almost no substitute material matches. Weigh the piece dry, then suspended in water; the difference gives you the volume. Deviations above 2 % are a serious warning sign. The known edge case: tungsten at 19.25 g/cm³ is nearly identical and is used in faked large bars.

Ultrasound and conductivity. Developed precisely for that tungsten case. Devices such as Sigma Metalytics measure electrical conductivity below the surface and detect a foreign core that density and X-ray miss. Every larger German dealer runs one — ask about it when buying.

X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Determines elemental composition non-destructively in seconds, but reads only the top few micrometres. On its own it cannot defeat a thick gold plating over a base core.

Magnet and visual check. Gold is not magnetic. A strong neodymium magnet exposes crude fakes instantly — but does not rule them out, since tungsten and copper are also non-magnetic. Also check strike sharpness, edge quality and the bar serial number against the manufacturer's database.