Palladium Bars

Palladium Bars

When precious metal investors and collectors search for new products, they often set their sights on gold and silver. At Silver.com, we offer a wide variety of precious metal coins, rounds, and bars that are struck using numerous elemental metals. While our selection includes the most popular gold and silver brands in the world, we also stock a variety of precious metal bars struck using a metal known as palladium.

What Exactly is Palladium?

That isn’t a typo above, we meant palladium and not platinum. Palladium is a precious metal in group 10 of the periodic table and is a transition metal in the same group as platinum, but it is a distinctly unique metal that is different than platinum. Although the soft, silver-white appearance of palladium gives it a strong resemblance to other members of the transition metal group, it is the least dense metal in the group and has the lowest melting point of any other metal in group 10.

Palladium is an ideal product for use in casting palladium bars of its flexibility. It is soft and ductile when it is heat treated, but can also be greatly increased in terms of strength and hardness when it is cold-worked.

History of Palladium in Precious Metal Bars

While palladium is not well-known by all investors and collectors today, it was at one time more popular than it is today. The very first palladium products were issued by the tiny African nation of Sierra Leone in 1966. This was followed by similar palladium products from Tonga in 1967, and wider production in subsequent years from sovereign mints in Canada, the former Soviet Union, France, Palau, Portugal, China, and Australia.

The popularity of palladium bars nosedived at the dawn of the 21^st century. Palladium prices skyrocketed at that time to record highs of $1,100, and resulted in many investors selling off their palladium bars and other products to cash in on the spike. The mass exodus from the palladium market by investors led many sovereign and private mints around the globe to halt production of palladium bars.

At the time, the automotive industry was the primary driver of palladium prices. In everyday use, palladium is popular in the catalytic converters that help reduce some of the harmful emissions from combustion engines, such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides. Other popular uses of palladium include jewelry, dental equipment/tools, and as an electrode in popular consumer electronics.

Rebound of Palladium

Today, palladium is increasing in popularity among investors and collectors. The price of palladium remains high today, enticing a new generation of investors and collectors to seek out palladium bars and other products. However, since most of the mints and refineries around the globe abandoned palladium production, the market still lacks supply to meet the increasing demand.

The most active mints and refineries in the world are Switzerland’s PAMP Suisse refinery and the Royal Canadian Mint. These two facilities have made the greatest inroads back into the palladium market, with PAMP Suisse serving as the primary producer of palladium bars available on the global precious metals market today.

Palladium Bars from Silver.com

Given the prominence of PAMP Suisse in the palladium market, the popular Fortuna design is the most readily available palladium bar at the moment. The Fortuna design honors the Roman goddess of fortune. Known as Fortuna, in ancient Roman mythology she was the daughter of the King of the Gods, Jupiter, and was not only a bringer of fortune (both good and bad), but also a symbol of luck in Roman religion.

The PAMP Suisse Fortuna Palladium Bar design features the image of Fortuna on the obverse side of the bar. She is depicted in left-profile relief, wearing a blindfold over her eyes, a wreath crown atop her brow, and a cornucopia on her head. The cornucopia winds down to the bottom of her figure, where a pair of clasped hands capture the wealth of money flowing form the horn of the cornucopia.

On the reverse side of the bar you’ll find common markings used to identify the product for investors. At the top of the bar is the famous PAMP Suisse logo, which features the four letters of the refinery’s name inside a collection of individual circles. Below the corporate logo and name, the bar’s weight, metal content, and purity are listed. The bottom of the bar features an engraving of the assayer’s mark, as well as an individual serial number identifying the specific product.

All palladium bars, regardless of refinery or mint, are cast using .9995 pure palladium. At PAMP Suisse, the following palladium bar weights are commonly produced in minted ingots:

• 1 gram
• 5 gram
• 10 gram
• 20 gram
• ½ oz
• 1 oz
• 10 oz
• 50 gram
• 100 gram
• 500 gram
• 1 kilogram

Unlike other precious metal products, the most popular palladium bars are those struck at 10 oz and 1 kilogram. The lower price, compared to gold and silver, of palladium makes larger bars a popular option for investors. PAMP Suisse also offers a 1 Kilogram cast palladium bar.

Purchasing Palladium Bars from Silver.com

When you purchase a palladium bar from Silver.com, your order is placed into our shipping fulfillment queue as soon as your payment is processed. We proudly accept a variety of payment methods, including credit/debit cards (Visa and MasterCard), PayPal payments, bank wire payments, and paper checks. PayPal and bank wire payments process immediately, while credit/debit cards take an average of one business day and paper checks average 4 to 6 business days.

Our shipping options consist of a tiered scale of costs for standard shipping based upon the amount of your total purchase. All purchases in excess of $3,000 receive free shipping and insurance. You’ll receive a tracking number in your email within 24 hours of your shipment departing with a carrier. Silver.com works with the US Postal Service and UPS to move packages.

If you have any questions about palladium bars, a Silver.com associate is available to help answer those inquiries. Please don’t hesitate to call our team members on the phone at 888-989-7223, connect with us through our live web chat, or send us an email with your inquiries.