Do you need the assay card to sell a gold bar?

What an assay card is

An assay card is the sealed plastic card most small gold and silver bars are sold in. The refiner prints it with the bar's weight, its purity, and usually a serial number that matches the one stamped on the bar. PAMP calls its version CertiPAMP; Valcambi's CombiBars come in a card too. The card is the refiner's statement of what's inside.

Why sealed bars are easier to sell

• It's quicker to check. A sealed card from a known refiner, with matching serial numbers, tells a buyer most of what they need. A loose bar has to be checked on its own: weighed, measured, and tested.
• Fakes are cast to look like loose bars. That's why some buyers pay less for bars out of their cards, or won't buy them at all.
• The card protects the surface. Small gold bars scratch easily, and scratches matter to the next buyer.

Selling a bar without its card

A loose bar is still worth its metal. Expect the buyer to verify it before paying, and tell them up front that it's out of its card. If the card cracked or was opened, keep the card and the bar together; the serial number still links them.

Gold is trading at $3,925 per troy ounce (the Kitco bid). We pay 96% of melt for gold bars from any recognized refiner, once they're verified on arrival. See what a gold bar is worth and PAMP, Valcambi, and Perth Mint bars.

Don't open a sealed card

There's no reason to take a bar out of its card to sell it, and doing so turns an easy sale into one that needs testing. If you're curious what's inside, the weight and purity are printed on the card.

Bar guides: Gold bars · Silver bars · Refiner bars · 999 vs 9999 gold · Tola bars · Spotting fakes

We pay more than pawn shops, jewelers, and mail-in gold kits: in Consumer Reports' tests, jewelers and pawn shops paid 36% to 71% of melt value, and mail-in kits 11% to about 29%. We pay 94% for scrap gold. Who pays the most?