What’s the Good Delivery Specification?

The Good Delivery Specification is set of rules for gold and silver bars. These rules are issued by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and includes detailed descriptions of physical characteristics that must be fulfilled by gold and silver bars used in settlement in the wholesale London bullion market.

The Good Delivery Specification also contains requirements that must be fulfilled by any refinery that wish to be included in the LBMA Good Delivery List of approved refineries.

The full name of the document where you find all these requirements is “The Good Delivery Rules for Gold and Silver Bars: Specifications for Good Delivery Bars and Application Procedures for Listing. In this document, you will find requirements for bar weight, bar dimensions, bar appearance, fineness, marks, and more.

Gold and silver bars that fulfill the requirements of the Good Delivery Specification are known as Good Delivery bars. Good Delivery bars are used on major international markets world-wide, and are also kept in the gold reserves held by governments, central banks and the International Monetary Fund.

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Examples of requirements that must be fulfilled by Good Delivery gold bars (as of 2015):

  • The fineness must be at least 995.0 parts fine gold per thousand parts.
  • The gold content must be 350 – 430 troy ounces.
  • The gold bar must be marked with a serial number, refiner’s hallmark, fineness, and year of manufacture. Weight is not required (nor recommended) to be stamped on the bar, since each bar will be weighed on delivery. The weight of a bar can change through handling and sampling.
  • The recommended (but not mandatory) dimensions are 25 – 45 mm in height, 210-290 mm long at the top, and 55 – 85 mm wide at the top.