The 1 troy ounce gold bars are the most common best alternative to gold coins. The 1 troy ounce size is the global standard in gold trading and the 1 troy ounce gold bar is always cheaper than a newly minted gold bullion coin. This is because the production costs for gold bars are lower than for gold coins. Because the production costs are lower, the gold bars are cheaper than coins of the same weight.
 
The 1 troy ounce gold bar has a weight of 31.101 grams and is struck in 99.99% pure gold. The unit of weight "troy ounce", also abbreviated as "oz" is a standard unit with which precious metal is weighed. The reason for this weight lies in the past and goes back to the development of uniform weight measurements.

The production cost for the 1 oz gold bar is lower than that of coins of the same weight. This is because gold bars are often made from gold jewelry or other recycled gold, and producing bar gold is a simpler process than minting gold coins.
 
If you want to invest in physical gold at the lowest price, consider choosing gold bars over gold coins. The advantage of the gold coins, however, is that they are slightly more tradable internationally and you get a better price for them when selling them back. So on balance it doesn't matter much. For larger purchase amounts you can also choose gold bars of 50 grams or 100 grams - then it will be considerably cheaper than buying gold troy ounce coins.

We provide a buy-back guarantee for all gold bars you buy from The Silver Mountain: If you want to sell your gold bar back in the future, we offer a fixed bid rate of the current gold price. There are no conditions attached to the amount of gold bars you want to sell back to us.