Does the refiner on a gold bar change what you pay or what you get back?

Big Bullion · Published 15 September 2026 · Updated 15 September 2026 · 6 min read

Reviewed by the Big Bullion team, 15 September 2026

The gold inside two 999.9 bars of the same weight is the same gold, whoever made them. What the refiner's name changes is whether the world recognises the bar without testing it, and that shows up in what you pay for it and in how easily you sell it again.

Start with what it does not change

A 100 g bar of 999.9 gold holds 100 g of 999.9 gold whether the stamp says Argor-Heraeus, Heraeus or PAMP Suisse. The metal is not better from one refiner than another, and nobody buying your bar later will pay you more for the gold in it because of the name on the front. So if you ever see a bar sold on the story of its maker, that is a story, and the gold is the gold.

What it does change

• Whether the bar is accepted without argument. A bar from a recognised refiner is priced anywhere in the world on sight of its hallmark.
• Whether it carries no GST here, because the exemption depends on who refined it.
• The format and the finish. A refiner's minted bars arrive sealed in a card with an assay certificate, and its cast bars do not.
• Sometimes the premium, because a more elaborate bar costs more to make. That is the format doing the work rather than the name.

The test is a public list, not a reputation

There is a formal answer to which refiners count, and it is not a matter of opinion.

For gold and silver the reference is the Good Delivery List published by the London Bullion Market Association, and we check any refiner whose bars we stock against it. Read 15 September 2026.

Singapore's tax rules point at the same list. Paragraph 3.2(b) of the IRAS e-Tax Guide GST: Guide on Exemption of Investment Precious Metals (IPM), Twentieth Edition, requires a refiner on the current or former Good Delivery list, or one endorsed by Enterprise Singapore. Read 15 September 2026.

The words current or former are the ones to notice. A bar made by a refiner that was accredited at the time does not stop qualifying later because the list has moved on. That is deliberate, and it is what stops a drawer full of older bars turning into a tax problem.

A bank's name on a bar

This is the question we get asked most, and usually about Credit Suisse. The bank is gone, so people assume the bars are orphans. They are not.

A bank-branded bar was never refined by the bank. It was made by an accredited refiner and stamped with the bank's name, and the IRAS guide says so in as many words, naming Credit Suisse, UBS, Commerzbank and Scotiabank as examples and confirming that such bars qualify when an accredited refiner produced them. Put that beside the current or former rule above and the answer is straightforward. The bar is still exempt, it is still recognised, and we still buy it back.

Does the brand change what we pay you?

Do not take a general answer to that, from us or anyone. We publish a buy-back rate for each product on our sell page, live, so look up the exact bar you are holding and read the figure. That is the only reliable answer, and it is available before you come in.

What is true in general is that we buy investment-grade bars wherever you bought them and whoever refined them, and that everything goes through the same tests at the counter regardless of the name on it.

What to check on any bar you are offered

• The refiner's name or hallmark on the face of the bar.
• The fineness, which on an investment gold bar reads 999.9.
• The metal and the weight, stated on the bar rather than only on the packet.
• The serial number and the assay card, if it is a minted bar that came with one.

If any of the first three is missing, that is the point to stop and ask rather than the point to haggle.

We sell physical gold and silver. Nothing on this page is financial advice.