1g Heimerle + Meule Gold Bar

One Gram of Gold at the Smallest Standard Size

The 1g Heimerle + Meule gold bar contains a single gram of 999.9 fine gold, the smallest standard gold bar weight. At roughly $100-$120 depending on spot, a one-gram bar is the lowest-cost way to buy physical gold outright, which is precisely the job it exists to do. Nobody accumulates wealth a gram at a time; the format serves gifting, first purchases, and stackers who want maximum divisibility, a holding that can be liquidated in tiny increments rather than ounce-sized chunks.

The cost of that accessibility is the steepest percentage premium in the bar market. One-gram bars typically run 8-15% over spot because manufacturing, assaying, packaging, and distribution costs are roughly fixed regardless of bar size, and spread over a single gram of metal they dominate the price. The arithmetic is unforgiving at scale: assembling a full troy ounce from individual 1g bars at a 12% premium costs around $280 more than buying one 1oz gold bar at a typical 3%. Buy this size for what a small gold object does well, not as a building block.

Physically, the bar is a thin wafer around 8 x 15 mm, sealed in an assay card about the footprint of a credit card. That card is doing real work; it carries the authentication that makes a piece of gold this small resellable, so it should be kept sealed and protected from bending.

1g Heimerle + Meule Gold Bar Specifications

The 999.9 fineness is the four-nines standard for retail gold bars, well above the 995 minimum that defines investment gold in the UK and EU. One-gram bars are produced as small, thin wafers and supplied sealed in assay card packaging that records the weight, purity, and refiner details. For a bar this small the packaging is effectively part of the product: an opened or unbranded gram bar has poor resale prospects, while a sealed card from a recognised refiner trades on sight. The bar itself measures roughly 8 x 15 mm, small enough that no special storage is needed beyond keeping the card flat and undamaged.

Tax Treatment of 1g Gold Bars by Country

At 999.9 fine, this bar qualifies as investment gold almost everywhere, so the purchase is generally tax-free. The wrinkles are at the small-value margins and at sale time.

• UK: 0% VAT on investment gold of 995+ purity. Bars are not CGT-exempt, though at one gram a holding would need to be very large before gains approached the £3,000 annual allowance.
• EU: 0% VAT under the Investment Gold Directive for bars and wafers of 995+ fineness. In Germany, gains on gold held over 12 months are tax-free.
• US: no federal sales tax; around 35 states exempt bullion. The threshold states are the trap for gram bars: California exempts only purchases over $2,000, Florida over $500, and New York, Massachusetts, and Louisiana over $1,000, so a single 1g bar at roughly $100-$120 falls below every one of those thresholds and gets taxed where they apply. Long-term gains are taxed at the 28% collectibles rate.
• Canada: 0% GST/HST on gold refined to 99.5%+ purity in bar or wafer form.
• Australia and New Zealand: GST-free as investment-grade gold at 99.5%+ purity.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: no GST (Singapore's IPM scheme covers 99.5%+ gold) and no capital gains tax in either jurisdiction.

1g Bar vs Branded Gram Bars, CombiBars, and Fractional Coins

The gram-bar market is dominated by the Swiss refiners. The 1g PAMP Suisse Fortuna is the most recognised gram bar globally, with its Lady Fortuna design and assay card setting the standard, and Valcambi, Perth Mint, and Argor-Heraeus all compete at the weight. Brand recognition matters disproportionately at this size, since dealers buy famous sealed cards on sight while lesser-known bars get more scrutiny. The Heimerle + Meule bar competes on price against those names: if it is cheaper, the gold inside is identical at 999.9 fine, and the saving is real for a gift or a first purchase where resale economics are not the point.

For anyone buying multiple grams, the Valcambi CombiBar changes the calculation. It is a perforated sheet of 50 or 100 individual 1g segments that snap apart as needed, with a lower per-gram premium than buying gram bars separately and the storage convenience of a single bar. Buyers wanting divisibility in quantity are usually better served there than by a drawer of individual cards. The other alternative is a fractional sovereign coin: a 1/10oz gold coin holds about three times the gold of a gram bar, comes with legal tender status, and trades in a deeper resale market, at a higher absolute price point. The gram bar wins on entry cost alone; almost everything else favours moving up the scale.