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Why .999?

carscars Posts: 1,904
in Precious Metals
I'm sure there is a simple answer for this question but I was wondering why is most bullion either .995-.99999? Why not 100% pure? No such thing? I guess if you were to handle the bullion it would contaminate it a bit therefore making it not 100% pure.
Its all relative

Comments

  • Coll3ctorColl3ctor Posts: 3,333 ✭✭✭
    Cost factor. It has to cost more for purity.
  • secondrepublicsecondrepublic Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭
    My hunch is that the cost of refining out the remaining .001 or .0001 is quite high, which is why it's not done.

    It's probably the same reason why, when there's an environmental cleanup of an old industrial site, they usually don't try to eliminate 100.000% of the contaminant. They go after the relatively "easy" 99.9% which happens to pose the most substantial risk to human health. Eliminating that final .001 is extremely expensive (relatively much more expensive than the first 99.9%) and produces very little, if any, benefit.

    Long way of saying, my guess it's the same with silver/gold refining.

    With Palladium bars, the refining is usually 999.5%.
    "Men who had never shown any ability to make or increase fortunes for themselves abounded in brilliant plans for creating and increasing wealth for the country at large." Fiat Money Inflation in France, Andrew Dickson White (1912)
  • carscars Posts: 1,904
    That makes a lot of since. I was more curious as to if it could be done. I Guess it wouldn't be cost effective to squeeze out that little extra when .999 is more than acceptible.

    I have only 1 gold bar which is .995 (Goldas), Most are .9999 and some are simply .999.

    Most silver is .999, .999+ which I take as .9995 and I have 1 10 oz bar marked .9999. Care to guess who made that 99.99% fine bar?

    I haven't paid much attn to my Palladium, I'll have to check that out.
    Its all relative
  • tincuptincup Posts: 5,110 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Because it is impossible to make anything 100% pure from a theoretical standpoint. If there are only one or two atoms of anything else in the bar or round, it is not 100%.

    No one wants to be sued for misrepresentation.
    ----- kj
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think this is mostly convention. Once something becomes the standard, the inertia keeps it in place. It also might have something to do with value or perceived value. At $15 per ounce, that 1/1000th purity just doesn't = $$. Maybe at $50 or $100 an ounce it would have greater significance.

    But 9999 silver is what I suggested for my theoretical universal demand 1-oz silver pieces. It clearly can be done.

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    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
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  • Norseman88Norseman88 Posts: 962


    << <i>Because it is impossible to make anything 100% pure from a theoretical standpoint. If there are only one or two atoms of anything else in the bar or round, it is not 100%.

    No one wants to be sued for misrepresentation. >>



    Tincup hit the nail on the head, there's always going to be a few impurities not refined out therefore it is impossible to label bullion 1.000
  • MJPHELANMJPHELAN Posts: 780 ✭✭✭
    I don't see a big demand for the 0.99999 fine gold bullion the Canadian mint puts out. I think cost will keep gold at 0.9999 as the standard.
    Mark
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,085 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I don't see a big demand for the 0.99999 fine gold bullion the Canadian mint puts out. I think cost will keep gold at 0.9999 as the standard. >>



    Is the Canadian .99999 more expensive than the .9999? The five 9's gold sounds like some kind of gimic to me.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Recent sales on eBay seem to indicate no real premium for the .99999 maple leaf.



    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • cinman14cinman14 Posts: 2,489 ✭


    << <i>The level of purity varies from issue to issue. 99.9% purity is common. The purest mass-produced bullion coins are in the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf series, which go up to 99.999% purity. Note that a 100% pure bullion is not possible, as absolute purity in extracted and refined metals can only be asymptotically approached. >>



    linky
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