LBMA Good Delivery bars are the institutional standard for gold trading. Here is what the standard actually requires and why it matters even for retail investors.
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Every time you read about gold being moved between London and New York, or between central banks, the metal in question is almost certainly LBMA Good Delivery. The standard is dry technical specification that nonetheless underpins the entire global gold market.
The specifications
An LBMA Good Delivery gold bar must conform to:
- Weight: 350-430 troy oz (typically ~400 oz)
- Fineness: minimum .995 fine gold
- Marks: serial number, refiner stamp, fineness, year
- Dimensions: length 250mm, width 75mm, height 35mm (approx)
- Surface: smooth, no cavities or layering
Silver Good Delivery bars are roughly 1,000 oz and follow analogous specifications.
The accreditation process
Refiners cannot self-certify. The LBMA physically tests sample bars, audits the refinery's processes, requires a minimum production track record (annual output of 10 tonnes for gold), and reviews the refiner's solvency. Approval can take years, and the LBMA delists refiners that fail subsequent audits.
"The Good Delivery standard exists for one reason: a Citibank trader in London must be able to accept a bar from any refiner on the list without weighing it, assaying it, or knowing anything about the refiner. That trust took 100 years to build." - LBMA chief executive, 2018 keynote
Why retail investors should care
Three reasons. First, every gold ETF holds Good Delivery bars. GLD, IAU, SGOL, and PHYS all custody only Good Delivery metal. Second, allocated vault accounts at any major institution use Good Delivery bars. Third, when you eventually sell your retail bars or coins, the price you receive is anchored to Good Delivery wholesale pricing.
The chain of integrity
A Good Delivery bar's history is supposed to be unbroken. Once a bar leaves the LBMA chain (for example, sold to a retail customer), it must be refined again to re-enter the chain. This is why your retail 1oz bar is technically not "Good Delivery" even if it came from a Good Delivery refiner: the chain of custody was broken when the metal was cast into a retail product.
Counterparts: COMEX and Shanghai
The US has its own standard, the COMEX 100oz bar, used in NYMEX gold futures delivery. Shanghai uses its own 1kg standard. The three standards do not directly interchange; converting between them requires re-refining, which adds cost and creates the small but persistent regional price differences between London, New York, and Shanghai gold.
The 2014 Russian gold incident
After Crimea sanctions, several Russian refiners (including the Krastsvetmet refinery owned by Norilsk) were eventually removed from the Good Delivery list in 2022. Bars produced before delisting remain valid; new production from those refiners must be re-refined to enter Western markets. This is a real example of how political risk shows up in the technical standard.
Bottom line: Good Delivery is the invisible infrastructure of the gold market. You probably will never own a Good Delivery bar directly, but every gold investment you make depends on the standard's continued integrity.
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