One of the usual ways of investing in gold is through gold bars. Though gold has never been regarded as a form of currency, gold bars can be bought and sold at any major bank in Canada, Argentina, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. You can also get cash for gold at many places as well.
As compared to gold coins, the value of gold bars are usually much lower. Though we may hear or see some large gold bars in the market, there is a great risk that the some are counterfeit, as the market is besieged with charlatans and fakes who can easily produce fake gold bars. For instance, even though it is a large gold bar, it may not be 100% pure gold because a part of it may be filled with tungsten. However, there are some large gold bars which are authentic, and these are referred to as ingots. Smaller bars, on the other hand, are stamped or printed from rolled gold sheets.
Each bank has a standard gold bar which it keeps as a gold reserve. It is known as the Good Delivery gold bar and weighs 438.9 ounces or 12.4 kilograms. We may have also heard of the kilobar, with a mass of 1000 grams, which has been widely used in trading and investments. The largest known gold bar weighs 250 kilograms and was manufacture by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation. It is currently on display at the Toi Gold Mine in Japan.