IS GOLD BARS TRACEABLE IN THE WORLD
Recently, clients have asked gold buyers Melbourne if gold bars are traceable and if anyone can determine who owns a gold bar. After all, you want your wealth to be kept outside the financial system, right? You do not want the government to know about your stash of gold. So, can you trace gold bars?
The short answer is no. Your gold bar is not traceable even if it has serial numbers. However, no one can use these numbers to determine its location or proof of ownership. Like the USA, the rest of the world must report gold purchases exceeding the $10,000 cash mark.
Still, there is more to it than the eye sees, leading us to the next question do all gold bars have serial numbers? According to gold dealers in Melbourne, most gold bars have serial numbers. Yet, it depends on the mint which made the bar.
You may find that some mints only put numbers on the gold bars with one-ounce weight, while others use serial numbers on all their gold bar production. So, if you look at a one-gram bar wrapped in plastic with an info card, it has a serial number.
The reason is that placing a serial number on such a small gold bar is difficult. Still, in some cases, the info card and the bar have the number. Hence, any gold bar created by a renowned international mint has serial numbers. In contrast, your less known private mints can vary on using numbers.
Now, that leads us to the following questions asked by customers when investing in gold bars are those serial numbers universal? According to gold buyers Melbourne, the serial number found on a gold bar is unique to the mint that created them.
Hence, you have no gold bar registry holding information on the bars available on the market. Yet, that made us think if you could request information about a specific gold bar if you know which mint created it.
Well, we decided to email the UK Royal Mint to make an inquiry. The reply is that they do not hold any records of those serial numbers; hence no information is stored based on serial numbers. So we then tried another mint to see if this is a unique thing to only the Royal Mint. So we sent another mail but to the US mint.
According to them, they wish they could help, but the mint does not do authentication of gold bars. So, you would assume that if the mint adds serial numbers to gold bars, it serves as some form of identification. Yet, it remains reassuring to answer customers’ questions that their transactions remain anonymous.
So, can a serial number on a gold bar prove ownership? Unfortunately, the answer is no, as there is no gold bar registry. Hence, having the serial number could help with the investigation if gold gets stolen. So, according to gold dealers, they recommend you take photos of your gold bars to keep a registry of the serial numbers.
The other concern is that the gold can get melted down, and there is no way to tell to whom it belonged. Thus recovering gold bars when stolen is hard. Furthermore, the government does not know if you own gold bars but still depends on the country you live.
Why? Some countries like Australia need to notify authorities when buying gold way above the threshold. Hence, your purchase remains anonymous if you buy gold with cash below the threshold value. Neither does it need to be reported for tax purposes.
Lastly, can that serial number prove your gold bar is not fake? Of course, the serial number proves that your gold bar is pure. But even phoney gold buyers can add serial numbers to the bar. But trustworthy gold dealers do use different gold tests to determine this.
That is why we recommend you deal with trustworthy dealers by visiting them personally at their shop. While they do not have all the gold bars available in the showroom, you know they are legit compared to just dealing with anyone online.