Fine Gold (999)
Also: 999 gold, 24 carat, .999 fine gold, 9999 gold
Fine gold refers to gold with a fineness of at least 999 parts per thousand (999), i.e. a purity of 99.9 percent or higher.
Fine gold is the purest commercially traded form of gold and forms the basis of all price quotations on the world market. The gold price is always stated in US dollars per troy ounce of fine gold - regardless of whether an investor acquires bars, coins or a security. Anyone wishing to determine the actual material value of a gold object first needs the fineness and can then use it in the melt value calculator.
What does "999" mean as a fineness?
The four-digit hallmark 999 (or also 999.9) stands for parts per thousand of pure gold in the total weight:
Fine weight = gross weight x (fineness / 1000)
Example: 31.103 g (1 troy ounce) x (999 / 1000) = 31.072 g pure gold
In practice, the market distinguishes two grades:
| Hallmark | Purity | Designation | Typical products |
|---|---|---|---|
| 999 | >= 99.9% | Triple nine / Fine gold | Standard bars, many bullion coins |
| 999.9 | >= 99.99% | Quadruple nine / Four nines | Investment coins (Maple Leaf, Philharmonic), kilo bars |
| 999.99 | >= 99.999% | Five nines | Special bars for laboratories and the semiconductor industry |
The LBMA Good Delivery standard for wholesale bars (400-ounce bars on the London market) requires at least 995 - fine gold clearly exceeds this requirement.
Why is fine gold so soft?
Pure gold is one of the most ductile metals of all: one gram can be drawn into a wire about two kilometres long or beaten into a sheet of roughly one square metre. The Mohs hardness is only 2.5 - a fingernail (Mohs hardness ~2.5) already leaves scratches. In jewellery making, gold is therefore almost never used as fine gold, but alloyed with copper, silver or palladium (see 585 gold, 750 gold). For investment products, the softness is not a disadvantage, provided the coins or bars are stored properly.
Investment gold: special tax status
In Malta - and across the EU - fine gold in the form of investment gold enjoys a VAT exemption under Directive 2006/112/EC (the EU VAT Directive). The conditions:
- Gold bars or wafers with a fineness of at least 995
- A weight of at least 1 gram
- Coins with a fineness >= 900, minted after 1800 and which are or were legal tender
Since fine gold (999) far exceeds these thresholds, all common investment bars and bullion coins made of fine gold are VAT-exempt. Note: this is not tax advice; for individual questions please consult a tax advisor.
Typical fine gold products
Bars are the classic form: the range extends from 1-gram credit-card bars to the 12.5-kilogram wholesale bar. Cast bars (recognisable by their rough surface) and minted bars (mirror-smooth surfaces, sharper edges) both achieve 999.9. Leading refineries such as Heraeus, Umicore, PAMP Suisse and Valcambi provide their products with an assay certificate and a serial number.
Coins made of fine gold have established themselves as an important form of investment since the 1970s:
- Maple Leaf (Canada, since 1979): 999.9, special edition 99999 (five nines)
- Vienna Philharmonic (Austria, since 1989): 999.9, Europe's best-selling gold coin
- American Buffalo (USA, since 2006): 999.9, the first US fine gold coin
- Kangaroo/Nugget (Australia, since 1986): 999.9, changing motif each year
The Krugerrand (South Africa, since 1967), by contrast, contains 91.67% gold (916.7 = 22 carat) - it is not fine gold, but it contains - despite a higher gross weight of around 33.93 g - exactly 1 troy ounce of pure gold.
Testing and authenticity
Fine gold can be verified in various ways:
- Hallmark check: punch mark 999 or 9999, possibly combined with the manufacturer's logo and a serial number
- Density measurement by Archimedes: fine gold has 19.32 g/cm3 - tungsten is close at 19.25 g/cm3, but can be reliably distinguished by ultrasonic testing or X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF)
- Magnet test: gold is diamagnetic and is not attracted by a magnet; if a piece reacts to magnets, it contains foreign substances
- Ping test (sound test): genuine fine gold coins produce a clear, long-lasting tone
With the gold calculator you can quickly check whether the dealer price demanded matches the current spot price.
Fineness vs. carat: the conversion
The carat value (gold jewellery) and the per-mille hallmark (bars/coins) describe the same thing in different systems:
| Carat | Fineness | Purity % |
|---|---|---|
| 24 ct | 999 - 999.9 | 99.9 - 99.99 |
| 22 ct | 916.7 | 91.67 |
| 18 ct | 750 | 75.00 |
| 14 ct | 585 | 58.50 |
| 8 ct | 333 | 33.30 |
Fine gold therefore always corresponds to 24 carat - theoretically 24 carat could also mean 999.999, since carat is a fractional representation (24/24). In trading practice, 24 carat = 999 or better.
In brief
Fine gold (999) is the purest regularly traded gold, forms the basis of all world market prices and enjoys VAT exemption in Malta as investment gold. Anyone buying or selling bars or coins made of fine gold should always keep the current gold price and the melt value calculator at hand to assess premiums realistically.