How Much Does a Gold Bar Cost in Singapore?
Share
A gold bar in Singapore costs the live spot price of its gold content, plus a premium. That is the whole formula. Everything else is detail about how big that premium is and why it varies.
The reason the question is harder than it sounds is that no dealer can quote you a fixed price. Gold trades continuously, and a bar that costs one figure this morning costs another this afternoon. So the useful question is not "what does it cost" but "what am I paying over spot, and is that reasonable".
Start with spot
Spot is the international market price for one troy ounce of gold, quoted in US dollars. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams, which is not the same as the 28.35g ounce used for weighing anything else.
To get from spot to a Singapore dollar price per gram, you divide the USD spot price by 31.1035 and multiply by the USD to SGD rate. That gives you the raw metal value. A 100g bar contains exactly 100g of gold if it is 999.9 fine, so its metal value is that per-gram figure times 100.
For a live reference point, our published gold buyback rates show what we are paying for gold today.
Then add the premium
The premium covers refining, minting, assay, insured transport, the dealer's inventory risk and the dealer's margin. It is quoted as a percentage over spot, and the single most important thing to understand about it is this:
The premium falls as the bar gets bigger.
Refining and minting a 1g bar costs nearly as much in handling as a 100g bar. That fixed cost is spread over a hundred times less gold, so it lands much harder per gram. In practice the pattern looks like this:
| Bar size | Relative premium per gram |
|---|---|
| 1g to 5g | Highest by a wide margin |
| 10g to 20g | High |
| 1 oz (31.1g) | Moderate |
| 50g | Moderate |
| 100g | Lowest of the commonly traded retail sizes |
Larger bars again, such as 1kg, carry lower premiums still, but they are a different kind of purchase: you cannot sell part of one.
The exact percentage varies by refiner and by how the market is moving, so ask for it as a number before you buy. Any dealer should be willing to tell you what you are paying over spot. One who will only quote you a single all-in figure is making it harder than it needs to be to compare them against anyone else.
This is why the advice "buy the biggest bar you can afford" keeps coming up. On pure cost per gram of gold owned, it is correct.
But bigger is not automatically better
There is a real trade-off people discover later.
If you hold one 1kg bar and you need to raise some cash, your only option is to sell the whole kilo. If you hold ten 100g bars, you can sell two. The flexibility costs you something on the way in, and for a lot of buyers it is worth paying for.
Most people building a position over time settle somewhere between 50g and 100g as the practical middle: the premium is reasonable, and the unit is small enough to sell in parts.
Minted or cast changes the price too
Two bars of identical weight and purity can carry different premiums depending on how they were made.
Minted bars are cut from a rolled sheet and pressed, with a clean finish and sharp edges, usually sealed in a tamper-evident assay card. They look like what people picture when they picture a gold bar.
Cast bars are poured into a mould and cooled. The finish is rougher and the shape slightly irregular. They carry a lower premium, because there is less work in them.
The gold is the same. If you are buying purely on value, a cast bar gives you more metal per dollar. If you are buying something you want to hand to someone, minted presents better.
Does the refiner matter?
Yes, but less than people think, and mostly on the way out rather than the way in.
What you actually want is an LBMA Good Delivery refiner. The London Bullion Market Association maintains an accreditation list, and a bar from a refiner on it is accepted by dealers worldwide without needing to be assayed. PAMP Suisse, Valcambi, Metalor and Argor-Heraeus are all on that list.
A bar from an unaccredited refiner may be perfectly good gold, but when you sell it the buyer has to satisfy themselves about that, and you will usually wear the cost of it in a lower price. The accreditation is not about vanity. It is about liquidity.
PAMP bars additionally carry Veriscan, which reads the bar's surface like a fingerprint and checks it against PAMP's own database. That is genuine anti-counterfeit value and worth a small premium if authentication matters to you.
Gold bars versus gold jewellery
If your reason for buying gold is to hold value, bullion and jewellery are not two versions of the same purchase. Gold jewellery carries a craftsmanship premium that you will not recover when you sell, while a 999.9 bar from an accredited refiner is priced close to the metal itself.
The cost you will not see on the price tag
The premium is only half the round trip. What matters when you eventually sell is the spread: the gap between what you pay to buy and what you receive to sell.
A dealer with a low premium and a poor buyback rate can cost you more overall than one with a slightly higher premium and a fair buyback. You will not find this out for years, which is exactly why it is worth looking at published buyback rates before you buy rather than after.
Ask any dealer what they will pay you for the same bar today. If they will not tell you, that is information too.
You can see our published gold buyback rates here.
A short checklist before you buy
- Check the current spot price so you know what the premium actually is
- Ask for the premium as a percentage, not just the final figure
- Confirm the refiner is LBMA Good Delivery accredited
- Check the bar comes with its assay certificate and serial number
- Ask what the dealer's buyback rate is on that same bar today
- Buy the largest size that still leaves you able to sell in parts
FAZ Gold is a MinLaw-registered precious metals dealer at Sim Lim Tower. Every gold bar on our site is priced off the live spot rate rather than a figure set that morning, and our buyback rates are published openly so you can see the full round trip before you buy. Come to the counter at 10 Jalan Besar, #B1-19/20, open daily 10.30am to 8pm, or call +65 6209 1448 if you want to talk a purchase through first.