White Gold
Cladiator
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There are three main compositions for White Gold in the jewelry industry, see below for alloy breakdowns. I have never seen a piece of White Gold bullion but I think it would be interesting stuff. I'd likely buy some if it were available. I don't see much advantage to White Gold bullion alloys with Platinum included as the platinum would not lower the price of the bar/round to below that of traditional pure Yellow Gold bullion in the same size. However, White Gold bullion alloy with the Iron & Copper would significantly lower the price.
If 1oz of 999 pure Gold bullion is selling for $1000
then 1oz of White Gold (with Iron/Copper as the other metals - .750 pure Gold) is selling for $750
Silver is so cheap, per ounce, that to have a good amount of it requires large physical amounts to be stored and can be inconvenient. Gold is so expensive that to invest in it with modest amounts of money you are left with physically miniscule amounts of the metal. White Gold looks like it would be an ok medium between fine Silver and fine Gold. You would be able to invest modestly and it would have a moderate physical signature that would be small enough to make it easy to store and not so small you could lose it.
I suppose Palladium already fills this roll as a medium between fine Silver and fine Gold as far as the numbers go. The problem with Palladium is no one knows anything about it. With the exception of bullion nuts, jewelers and the manufacturing/scientific community Palladium is a relatively unknown metal. Stop your average Joe on the street and ask him what Palladium is and you'll likely get a plank stare in return.
White gold does not suffer from the public knowledge issue that Palladium does and could possibly prove to be more liquid. At the very worst it would be equally as liquid.
Of course you can get Gold alloys from the 50%-90% pure range in your various numismatic coins made for circulation. The problem with these is nearly all of them carry a significant numismatic premium and you end up paying way too much if bullion investment is your only goal.
18K White gold #1: Gold 75%, Platinum or Palladium 25%
18K White gold #2: Gold 75%, Palladium 10%, Nickel 10%, Zinc 5%
18K White gold #3: Gold 75%, Iron 17%, Copper 8%
Maybe I'll go the Gecko route and start melting & forming my own stamped White Gold bars.
If 1oz of 999 pure Gold bullion is selling for $1000
then 1oz of White Gold (with Iron/Copper as the other metals - .750 pure Gold) is selling for $750
Silver is so cheap, per ounce, that to have a good amount of it requires large physical amounts to be stored and can be inconvenient. Gold is so expensive that to invest in it with modest amounts of money you are left with physically miniscule amounts of the metal. White Gold looks like it would be an ok medium between fine Silver and fine Gold. You would be able to invest modestly and it would have a moderate physical signature that would be small enough to make it easy to store and not so small you could lose it.
I suppose Palladium already fills this roll as a medium between fine Silver and fine Gold as far as the numbers go. The problem with Palladium is no one knows anything about it. With the exception of bullion nuts, jewelers and the manufacturing/scientific community Palladium is a relatively unknown metal. Stop your average Joe on the street and ask him what Palladium is and you'll likely get a plank stare in return.
White gold does not suffer from the public knowledge issue that Palladium does and could possibly prove to be more liquid. At the very worst it would be equally as liquid.
Of course you can get Gold alloys from the 50%-90% pure range in your various numismatic coins made for circulation. The problem with these is nearly all of them carry a significant numismatic premium and you end up paying way too much if bullion investment is your only goal.
18K White gold #1: Gold 75%, Platinum or Palladium 25%
18K White gold #2: Gold 75%, Palladium 10%, Nickel 10%, Zinc 5%
18K White gold #3: Gold 75%, Iron 17%, Copper 8%
Maybe I'll go the Gecko route and start melting & forming my own stamped White Gold bars.
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Comments
So essentially you'd be getting 3/4 ounce of gold that would be physically bigger than a 3/4 ounce bar of pure 999 gold. Plus it would have a white metal appearance because of the other metals in the alloy.
How about a .999 Silver bar with a .9999 Gold plug in it .... like bi-metal coins ...
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Silver is the mortar that binds the bricks of loyalty.