Private Mints of Precious Metal Bars
This page lists short overviews of the four leading private minting institutions PAMP Suisse, Credit Suisse, Valcambi Suisse and Sunshine Minting. Additional private mints will be added to this page in the future. All the minting institutions that are listed on this page are privately owned. Due to this status as private enterprises, these mints can produce bullion bars and rounds but not coins. Rounds look like coins but don't have an official face value since they are not backed by any government. The Sunshine Mint does indeed produce some precious metal rounds but its precious metal bullion bars are far more popular. PAMP Suisse and Valcambi Suisse are also very famous for their production of bullion bars. Both mints even produce divisible bars that can be broken down into smaller segments. Credit Suisse's bullion bars are more popular with banking institutions than with private investors though.
When you click on any mint's name in the headlines below, you will come to the respective profile page that will give you information about the mint's history, accreditation, minting facilities and special features as well as a short clickable introduction of the mint's precious metal bullion bars. These up to four separate linked pages then respectively inform about the company's gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion bars. You will also find a price comparison table on these pages in addition to more detailed information about these precious metal bullion bars.
Sunshine Minting
The Sunshine Mint is an American private mint that, though especially well known for its silver bullion, produces highly valued gold bars and rounds with a guaranteed fineness of 99.99%. Gold bullion bars are available in sizes ranging from 1 gram up to 1 kg. Almost all Sunshine Mint products feature a soaring eagle in their design, making them easily identifiable. Sunshine Minting Inc. (SMI) also processes other precious metals besides gold and silver, supplies precious metal blanks to government mints and financial institutions, produces medallions and offers custom minting services to corporations and individuals alike. The Sunshine Mint places special emphasis on the security and authenticity of their products and has been a pioneer in the development of unique solutions to this end.
The Sunshine Mint profile page gives you information about the company's history, accreditation, minting facilities, special features and a short clickable introduction of the mint's precious metal bullion bars.
Valcambi Suisse
The Valcambi Suisse Mint is a private mint that is especially well known for its gold and silver bars that are available in a multitude of different sizes. However, Valcambi Suisse refines and mints platinum and palladium as well. The CombiBar is the company's most popular product. CombiBars are single thin bars of precious metal with 99.99% purity that can be divided up into smaller bars. Valcambi Suisse Gold CombiBars are produced in sizes of 50 gram (50 x 1 gram), 100 gram (100 x 1 gram), 1 oz (10 x 1/10 oz), 20 gram (20 x 1 gram) and even 5 gram (5 x 1 gram). The latter 5 gram Gold CombiBar is shaped like a star and more like a gift product (that few shops sell) than a real investment product. Valcambi Suisse also produces collectible ingots, coins, medals and metal grains (for example for the fine watch industry).
The Valcambi Suisse Mint profile page gives you information about the company's history, accreditation, minting facilities, special features and a short clickable introduction of the mint's precious metal bullion bars.
PAMP Suisse
The PAMP Suisse Mint is a private company that is world renowned for the quality and design of its products. PAMP stands for "Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux" (artistic precious metal products) and the company refines and mints gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Its gold and silver bars (most of them decorated with beautiful designs) are especially popular with investors and are produced in a large variety of sizes. PAMP SA dominates the world's gold bar market for small gold bars (100 grams or less) with a market share of more than 50 percent. It also produces precious metal blanks for coins and medals that are used by many other mints and banking institutions and it provides the fine watch and jewelry industries with gold alloys for their production.
The PAMP Suisse Mint profile page gives you information about the company's history, accreditation, minting facilities, special features and a short clickable introduction of the mint's precious metal bullion bars.
Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse is known and respected worldwide as a leading financial institution. However, it is also involved in the refining of precious metals and commissions the production of gold, silver, platinum and palladium bars. The bullion products of Credit Suisse are often a bit more affordable than those of other leading brands but they are only available in a limited number of different sizes and not all dealers carry them in their inventories. Investors who want to buy their precious metals with the lowest possible premium over the spot price often choose Credit Suisse over other brands. So it is no surprise that Credit Suisse bars are often traded between banks. Private investors can source the bars more easily from the secondary market. The bars are usually without fancy designs with the exception of the Liberty bars, which bear the likeness of the Statue of Liberty on their reverse side.
The Credit Suisse profile page gives you information about the company's history, accreditation, minting facilities, special features and a short clickable introduction of the mint's precious metal bullion bars.
Additional private mint producers of gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion bars will be added in the future.