I got it! I got it!
Biggirl, you should melt it down and make a cross out of it.
They have Gold shows in gold country.California,Georgia etc
maybe you could ask someone there.
Also the Gold Prospectors Assn of America has a web site and an email address.http://www.goldprospectors.org/
I’ll bet someone there will be able to tell you.
Actually I thought it was illegal to posess a large amount of gold.
You’ve raised an interesting point. When we had the gold standard, you could take gold that you had mined, or ‘found’, or whatever, to your nearest U.S. Mint, where they would process it into coins and give those coins, less a processing fee, back to you. Theoretically at least, although I presume they had stocks of coins on hand which
they could give you immediately rather than having you wait until your gold was minted.
But now the Treasury does produce gold bullion coins, so
one would think they need to buy the gold for this somewhere. So maybe they do have a buying window.
I sell metals a lot.
First of all, if it’s a real ingot on the top it would have some marks or stamps, what are they?
Second before you sell it, call a store & ask for the spread. The spread is the price they would buy it & the price they would sell it. Go with the smallest spread of course.
I take mine to a guy who charges 60 cents per oz. but gives the daily market rate. So if Au is 2.00, he would give me 1.40, but often gives more.
As I said, it must have a stamp on the top. If it says 1 lb of pure Au, it’s not.
Have you considered doing a water displacement test to determine if the ingot is actually gold?
Far as I know Au is not sold by the pound, but by the troy oz, in increments of : 1 oz, 5 oz, 10 oz
There were very severe restrictions on gold ownership by individuals in the U.S. from 1934 until 1975. Those days are gone.
I don’t know how common it is to sell ingots by the troy ounce any more. It was my understanding that the common sizes are now in metric units: 100, 500, and 1,000 grams.
99% of all the gold bars we sell in our coin store are 1 ounce. We do carry smaller bars which are mainly used for jewelry, which come in denominations such as 1 gram, 2.5 grams 5 grams, etc. But people who come in to buy gold as an investment usually purchase the one ounce size as it is bought and sold at a fairly low markup, not to mention the ease of figuring the price per unit they just paid.
This is just me speaking for dealing in gold in the US. YMMV.
handy said
you lost me there.
Sell it as “Old Gold” to Auric Enterprises. I hear he pays well.
Props to whoever catches the ref.
–Tim
Jeez, Homer, you’re no Bricker, but we still love ya, anyway.
Goldfinger.
But, one who dispenses gold ingots…lucky Biggirl!
samclem, you should know what a spread is. That was a spread, buy at $1.40, sell at $2.60…
If you really want to get the market price, you can find in big cities Metal purifying comp’s that pay closer to market price. I forgot exactly what they are called since it’s been years since I looked for one.
You lost us when you appear to give as your example gold costing $2 per ounce. The current price of gold is about $275 per troy ounce. Gold has never cost less than $20 per troy ounce, over the entire history of the U.S. dollar. When you pick an example it should be one that approximates reality.
“Are they going to ask me where I got it from?”
No, but you’ll have to produce a drivers license for ID.
Biggirl if you live on Manhattan, take it downtown to someone like MTB(Manfra, Tordella, Brooks). Or call a few diff. coin dealers from the yellow pages. Describe how the ingot is marked, and ask them their buy(making sure you get all quotes on the same day). If spot gold is $275/ounce on the COMEX, you should get quoted no worse than $265/ounce. This is fair. They might even pay more. Let us know what happens.
handy Assuming spot gold is $275/ounce, I doubt that anyone, even a refinery, will pay you $274.40/ounce and sell back to you at $275.60/ounce. They just don’t work that cheap. Certainly not on a measly one pound bar.
sam, I really don’t have an ingot of gold. And I am still in possesion of all my limbs. A group of friends and I were discussing what we would do if we found a big suitcase full of money and the conversation wandered into finding other things of value.
Cajun Man, as my answer I almost put “I fixed Sqrl up with Ed Asner” but I was afraid my little joke would be misconstrued.
So, while we’re on the subject:
I have a little bit of gold jewelry that I don’t want. I have a few single earrings and gold chains with broken clasps, etc. I’m sure it’s not worth anything as jewelry, but it is solid gold. I feel a bit embarrassed walking in anyplace trying to sell it, since it is such a small amount. What would be the best way to get cash for my stash?
A coin dealer. The larger the dealer, the better they will pay you. You should get about $5-6/pennyweight for 14K gold and $4 or so for 10K gold. We pay $8/pennyweight for 18K gold. In a small town, you may not get this. Call a few coin dealers from your yellow pages and ask what they pay for 10K, 14K, and 18K gold scrap.
Pawn dealers, in general will not pay as much. This is not meant to disparage pawn shop owners. I wouldn’t want their bizness. A hard life.
This is a bit off of the subject, but it remined me of an old ‘fact’ I had heard a while ago. Is it true that in Arabian countries they sell gold jewlery by the weight, with no regard for the quality of the craftsmanship?
Well, I have been to many wholesale gem shows, and many indian/paki jewelry dealers sell used silver jewelry by the gram- irregardless of the workmanship.