A platinum bar is refined platinum cast or minted into a fixed weight for investment, sold at a premium over the spot price rather than at a live market quote. Retail platinum bars run from 1 gram to 1 kilogram, while institutional Good Delivery plates reach 6 kilograms under London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM) purity rules. WPIC's Platinum Quarterly of 18 May 2026 forecasts 2026 global platinum bar and coin demand at 718,000 ounces, up 27% year on year, with the retail, ex-China line forecast to a six-year high of 533,000 ounces. This page sets out bar sizes, purity, brands, premium behavior, how bars compare with coins and exchange-traded funds, and how to buy, store and sell one.
What Is a Platinum Bar?#
Platinum bars sold to investors range from 1 gram fabricated bars to 1 kilogram bars, the retail sizes that lead into the plates used in wholesale trading. Bars are one of four routes into investing in platinum, alongside coins, exchange-traded funds and futures, and at typical retail sizes they carry the lowest premium over spot of any physical form.
Wholesale platinum trades as LPPM Good Delivery plates and ingots weighing 1 to 6 kilograms (32.151 to 192.904 troy ounces), at a minimum purity of 99.95% set by the London Platinum and Palladium Market. Retail bars share that same purity floor at a fraction of the weight, so a 1 gram bar and a 6 kilogram Good Delivery plate certify to an identical fineness even though only the plate settles London's wholesale market.
Platinum Bar Sizes and Weights#
Retail platinum bars come in eleven common sizes, from 1 gram to 1 kilogram, plus a 50 troy ounce size that trades only as the NYMEX futures delivery unit, not as a retail product. JM Bullion's dated bar and premium listings (5-6 August 2026) span seven gram denominations, 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 grams, cast by refiners including Valcambi, Argor-Heraeus, Credit Suisse and Johnson Matthey, plus four larger sizes, 1 troy ounce, 10 troy ounces, 500 grams and 1 kilogram. Each size converts to troy ounces at the fixed factor of 31.1034768 grams per troy ounce, set out below.
| Size | Grams | Troy ounces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 gram | 1 | 0.0322 |
| 2.5 grams | 2.5 | 0.0804 |
| 5 grams | 5 | 0.1608 |
| 10 grams | 10 | 0.3215 |
| 20 grams | 20 | 0.6430 |
| 50 grams | 50 | 1.6075 |
| 100 grams | 100 | 3.2151 |
| 500 grams | 500 | 16.0754 |
| 1 troy ounce | 31.1034768 | 1 |
| 10 troy ounces | 311.034768 | 10 |
| 1 kilogram | 1,000 | 32.1507 |
| 50 troy ounces (NYMEX contract) | 1,555.17384 | 50 |
The 50 troy ounce row matches the NYMEX platinum futures contract, quoted in US dollars per troy ounce, which large investors occasionally take delivery against instead of buying a retail bar.
Platinum Bar Purity and Fineness#
Investment-grade platinum bars carry a minimum fineness of 99.95% under the LPPM Good Delivery Rules, verified by a five-figure assay that must not be rounded up: an assay reading between 99.946% and 99.949% is reported as 99.94%, one hundredth of a percentage point below the LPPM Good Delivery floor, and the bar fails. Fineness on a bar is expressed in millesimal fineness, parts per thousand, so 99.95% reads as 999.5.
That bar-grade fineness sits far above the purity used in 950 platinum jewelry, where Pt950 marks 95.0% fine platinum, 950 parts per thousand, the figure investors most often confuse with a bar's own 999.5 mark. A ring stamped Pt950 and a bar stamped 999.5 both carry a genuine fineness mark, but only the bar meets Good Delivery purity.
Platinum Bar Brands and Good Delivery#
Retail platinum bars are cast mainly by refiners on the LPPM's own Good Delivery List, four names accounting for most bars in circulation, the accredited refiners whose plates meet the fineness and assay rules above:
- Argor-Heraeus, Switzerland, refiner and caster, LPPM Good Delivery listed.
- MKS PAMP, Switzerland, trades retail bars under the PAMP Suisse brand, LPPM Good Delivery listed.
- Valcambi, Switzerland, refiner and caster, LPPM Good Delivery listed.
- Johnson Matthey, United Kingdom and United States entities, LPPM Good Delivery listed.
Johnson Matthey and Argor-Heraeus both refine and cast platinum bars under LPPM accreditation, alongside PAMP and Valcambi in Switzerland.
Older bars from refiners such as Engelhard, no longer a stand-alone platinum refiner, still circulate on the secondary market and are accepted by dealers once the assay stamp is verified. DailyPlatinum lists these names neutrally: no verified ranking of platinum bar brands exists, and a bar's fineness and assay stamp matter more to its resale value than its mint mark.
Platinum Bar Premiums over Spot#
A platinum bar costs more than the spot price, because dealers add a fabrication and handling premium that shrinks as the bar gets larger. Against a JM Bullion platinum ask of $1,763.90 per troy ounce on 5-6 August 2026, a 1 kilogram bar carried a 5.2% premium, a 10 ounce bar 6.1%, and a 1 ounce bar 7.2%, rising to 12.9% for a 1 ounce Engelhard bar and 22.5% for the same bar bought on the secondary market. Coin premiums ran wider over the same two days: 8.9% on a Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf and 19.7% on an American Platinum Eagle, both one troy ounce.
Why Bar Premiums Rise When Lease Rates Rise#
Bar premiums widen and products go out of stock together when the cost of leasing platinum for fabrication rises faster than dealers can reprice. Fabricators typically lease metal rather than buy it outright, and platinum's three-month implied lease rate ran from about 3% in late 2024 to above 20% by mid-2025 (WPIC), a carrying cost that can exceed a bar's entire fabrication margin. Fabricators respond by pulling product rather than raising prices smoothly: on 6 August 2026, JM Bullion listed 26 gram-denomination platinum products out of stock, spanning Valcambi, Argor-Heraeus, Credit Suisse, PAMP and Johnson Matthey branded bars from 1 gram to 100 grams.
| Bar size | Premium over spot | Date, source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kilogram | 5.2% | JM Bullion, 5-6 Aug 2026 |
| 500 grams | 5.5% | JM Bullion, 5-6 Aug 2026 |
| 10 troy ounces | 6.1% | JM Bullion, 5-6 Aug 2026 |
| 1 troy ounce, varied mint | 7.2% | JM Bullion, 5-6 Aug 2026 |
| 1 troy ounce, Engelhard | 12.9% | JM Bullion, 5-6 Aug 2026 |
| 1 troy ounce, Engelhard, secondary market | 22.5% | JM Bullion, 5-6 Aug 2026 |
The full dated table of premiums by size and product is tracked on platinum premiums over spot.
Platinum Bars vs Coins vs ETFs#
Platinum bars carry the lowest premium of any physical form but no legal-tender recognisability and no exchange listing, unlike coins and ETFs. A platinum coin carries a face value and sovereign backing that widens its premium over a bar of the same weight, while a platinum ETF trades as a security on an exchange, with no bar to store or insure. The three routes differ most in storage, minimum outlay and IRA eligibility.
| Product | Premium or fee | Storage needed | IRA eligible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platinum bar | 5.2% to 7.2% over spot, 1 kg to 1 oz (JM Bullion, Aug 2026) | Yes, vault or safe | Yes, at 0.9995 fine from an approved refiner |
| Platinum coin | 8.9% to 19.7% over spot, 1 oz sovereign coins (JM Bullion, Aug 2026) | Yes, vault or safe | Yes, at 0.9995 fine (Eagle, Maple Leaf and similar) |
| Platinum ETF | 0.49% to 0.60% annual expense ratio | No, held as a security | Held in a standard brokerage IRA, not a bullion IRA |
Buying, Storing and Selling Platinum Bars#
Buying a platinum bar means choosing a dealer, a size and a storage method before the metal changes hands.
How and Where to Buy a Platinum Bar#
Platinum bars are sold through bullion dealers, refiners' own retail arms and coin shops, each quoting its own premium over spot. Comparing platinum bullion dealers before buying matters more on a bar than on a coin, because the size-driven premium gap, 5.2% to 7.2% in JM Bullion's August 2026 table, is often wider than the spread between two dealers' quotes on the same bar. The same buying steps, choosing a size, a dealer and a payment method, apply across all four ways of how to buy platinum.
Are Platinum Bars IRA Eligible?#
A platinum bar qualifies for a US precious-metals IRA only if it is at least 0.9995 fine, from an approved refiner, and held by the IRA's custodian or depository, never at home. That 0.9995 threshold is not arbitrary: under Internal Revenue Code Section 408(m)(3)(B), IRA-eligible bullion must meet the fineness a regulated futures market requires for delivery, and the NYMEX platinum contract's delivery grade is 0.9995, one notch stricter than the 0.995 fineness gold needs for the same exemption.
Three separate parties handle an IRA bar, and conflating them is the most common investor error:
- Custodian: a bank or IRS-approved trustee that holds the IRA itself and does not sell metal.
- Dealer: sells the platinum bar to the IRA, outside the custodian relationship.
- Depository: an approved vault, such as the Delaware Depository or Brink's Global Services, that keeps the bar in physical possession on the IRA's behalf.
Taking personal possession of an IRA bar at any point counts as a deemed distribution of the entire account, taxable immediately and open to a 10% early-withdrawal penalty. See platinum IRA for eligible products and custodian setup.
Storing a Platinum Bar#
Platinum bars bought for long-term holding are typically stored in an insured vault, allocated or segregated to the buyer rather than pooled with other investors' metal. Segregated storage costs more than commingled storage, and US IRA depositories quote annual fees from roughly $75 to $350, depending on bar value and storage type. Vault, insurance and home-storage tradeoffs for every bar size are compared on platinum storage.
Selling a Platinum Bar#
A platinum bar is sold back at the dealer's bid price, or refined for scrap value if its hallmark or assay cannot be verified. A verifiable bar, one with an intact refiner stamp, weight and assay number matching the dealer's or LPPM's records, sells close to spot; an unverifiable bar is treated as scrap and paid on its assayed platinum content after a refining charge. Sellers without a verifiable bar, or selling jewelry rather than bullion, can check current scrap platinum price terms instead.
Platinum Bars FAQ#
How much is 1 bar of platinum worth?#
One platinum bar is worth its weight in fine platinum at the day's spot price, plus the dealer's premium for that size, which DailyPlatinum's price pages track live. A 1 ounce bar therefore costs more per ounce than a 1 kilogram bar, because the smaller bar carries a wider platinum premiums over spot, 7.2% against 5.2% in JM Bullion's dated August 2026 table.
How much does a 10 oz platinum bar cost?#
A 10 troy ounce platinum bar's price is 10 times the spot price per ounce, plus a smaller percentage premium than a 1 ounce bar, because fabrication cost is spread over more metal. JM Bullion's dated table put that premium at 6.1% for a 10 ounce bar against 7.2% for a 1 ounce bar on 5-6 August 2026, a gap of just over one percentage point.
Are fake platinum bars common?#
Fake platinum bars exist mainly at unusually low prices or from unverified sellers; a genuine bar carries a stamped weight, fineness and assay mark that a dealer or an XRF test can check. Buying from an LPPM-listed refiner or an established dealer, and verifying the stamp against the refiner's own records, rules out most counterfeits before a purchase completes. How to test platinum sets out the acid, XRF and density checks a buyer or dealer can run.
What are platinum's symbol, atomic number and CAS number?#
Platinum has the symbol Pt, atomic number 78 and CAS number 7440-06-4. Every investment bar, regardless of size or refiner, is this same element at a minimum of 99.95% purity. See platinum (Pt), element 78 for its full physical and chemical profile.