Not yet. Just got them. people are fearful as price could fall further. The seller told me that the left one is not 9999. But 997. not state the bar anyway.
Thank you all for questioning this cast bar.I learned heaps from people here. I got a bit worry as I paid a fair bit of premium for what is looking like vintage bar. Woo,,, I also talked to the seller, he told me that he bought them from a reliable distributor of Perth Mint a few weeks ago with the invoice. He got them XRF tested. I also did some research over the internet. After a couple of hours of searching, I found the past auctions of similar bars from the following site. https://coins.ha.com/itm/australia/...BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 http://numismaclub.com/unt/169156-perth_1_troy_ounce_9999_fine_gold_cast_bullion_bar.html anyway, I will have them tested...
Thanks for asking questions. These questions are all relevant for me to understand what I actually bought. I did further research, it was so interesting learning the Miller Process which was firstly used by Perth Mint in 1867 to produce gold bars between 995 to 997 and then later years on using further method to produce 9999. Pyrometallurgical chlorination - Also known as the “Miller Process,” pyrometallurgical chlorination is when chlorine gas is pumped into molten bullion. Base metals react with the chlorine to form chlorides, which either evaporate or rise to the surface to form a slag. Once purple fumes of chloride begin to appear, it is a sign that the metal has reached around 99.5 to 99.7 percent purity and the process is complete. For this reason, the bar produced appears to be looking too good. I didn't notice that till bubble mentioned it. Thank you for being so detail. https://www.providentmetals.com/knowledge-center/precious-metals-resources/how-gold-bars-made.html# Very interesting indeed. The left bar was Miller Process and the right was Wohlwill process.
Out of curiosity - what's the weight in grams for your two blobs? The one with Miller process should be a tiny fraction heavier, right? I did a bit of digging and according to one source PM changed to 9999 process in 1989 when the new refinery opened. So one could presume the blobs without the '9999' were manufactured prior to that year, on the original Hay Street location. Thus, left swan blobs without 9999 would be from 1976 to 1989 (ish) and left swan blobs with 9999 would be from roughly 1989 to 2010 (that's when the logo was changed to modern swan)?
Thanks for the information. I did weight them before I bought them. I didn't note of any difference in weight ie 1oz. I also tested them with my Sigma verifier subsequently. It fell just outside the measure bracket 999+. I have them tested with XRF - 997 as expected.
