1 oz Baird Cast Bar Platinum Bar

The 1 oz Baird & Co. Cast Platinum Bar

The 1 oz Baird & Co. cast platinum bar contains 31.1035 grams of 999.5 fine platinum from the London refiner Baird & Co., a family-owned firm founded in 1967 and an LBMA member since 2000. The 1 oz size is the most commonly traded retail platinum bar and the one with the best resale liquidity; larger platinum bars exist but trade thinly, and gram-weight pieces carry premiums of 20-40% that rule them out as investments. For anyone entering platinum, this weight is the practical starting point.

Bars are the cost-efficient route into the metal. Platinum bars carry lower premiums than platinum coins, typically 5-10% over spot for 1 oz minted bars, and cast bars like this one are the cheaper of the two production styles since pouring molten metal into a mould costs less than minting. Platinum premiums run higher than gold bar premiums at equivalent sizes because production volumes are lower, fewer refiners compete, and platinum is harder to fabricate (melting point 1,768C against gold's 1,064C), so chasing the cheapest format matters more here than in gold bars.

Baird's pitch is domestic provenance at competitive pricing. The company operates the only LBMA-accredited gold refinery based in the UK, refining at its 30,000 sq ft Beckton facility in East London and selling over the counter from its Hatton Garden store. For UK buyers that means a refiner-direct product without the brand premium Swiss names command, in a metal where every percentage point of premium hurts because 20% VAT lands on top of it.

Baird 1 oz Platinum Bar Specifications

The 999.5 fineness is the standard for investment platinum bars. Baird bars carry the company hallmark, weight and fineness markings, and a unique serial number; authentication relies on those physical markings and the firm's LBMA membership rather than a proprietary digital system like PAMP's Veriscan. Cast bars have a rougher, hand-poured surface with natural variation, against the smooth stamped finish of minted bars; metal content and purity are identical either way.

Platinum is forgiving to own. It does not tarnish or corrode, needs no atmospheric precautions, and is harder than gold (Mohs 3.5 vs 2.5), so it resists handling marks. It is also unusually hard to fake: at 21.45 g/cm3 platinum is denser than any cheap substitute, tungsten (19.25 g/cm3) would be detectably light in a correctly sized bar, and the only metals dense enough to pass, iridium and osmium, cost more than platinum itself. Counterfeit platinum bars are rare for exactly this reason.

Tax on 1 oz Platinum Bars by Country

Platinum misses out on the investment-gold exemptions, which reshapes the buying decision by jurisdiction.

• UK: 20% VAT on purchase, and as a non-legal-tender bar it is CGT-liable on sale above the £3,000 annual allowance. That combination makes platinum bars the least tax-efficient platinum form for UK buyers, and it is worth comparing the all-in cost against a platinum Britannia coin, which shares the VAT but escapes CGT.
• US: No federal sales tax; most states exempt bullion, though a single bar at roughly $1,000 sits below the exemption thresholds in California ($2,000) and the $1,000-floor states. Long-term gains taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%. At 99.95% purity from an accredited refiner the bar meets the IRS threshold for platinum IRAs.
• Canada: 0% GST/HST at 99.5%+ platinum purity.
• EU: Full standard VAT, 17-27% by member state. No investment exemption for platinum.
• Australia: 0% GST for investment-grade platinum (99%+ purity).
• New Zealand: GST-exempt at 99%+ platinum purity; no formal capital gains tax.
• Singapore: 0% GST under the IPM scheme (platinum at 99%+ purity); no CGT. Baird has had a Singapore branch since 2013.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, no import duty, no CGT.

Baird & Co: From Coin Dealing to London's Refinery

Baird & Co. began in 1967 when Tony Baird (1942-2015) set up as a numismatic coin dealer; he was reportedly the first person to trade Krugerrands in the UK, starting the year the coin was first minted. The firm expanded into refining in 1979, and in 1977 became the first private contributor of coin pricing to the Reuters Monitor System, maintaining the "BACO" page for over two decades as a de facto pricing reference for the UK coin trade. It was also an early mover online, launching one of the first precious metals e-commerce websites in 1996-1997.

LBMA membership followed in 2000, and in 2008 the refinery moved to a purpose-built 30,000 sq ft high-security facility in Beckton, East London; the relocation was prompted by the London 2012 Olympics, whose Olympic Park development claimed the firm's previous Stratford-area site. A Singapore branch opened in 2013. The company became an official Royal Mint Partner in 2016 and received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2018. After Tony Baird's death in 2015 the business passed to his wife Lorena and sons Alex and Carlos, keeping it family-owned.

The firm has a record of firsts beyond gold: it produced the world's first commercially available rhodium investment bar in 2012, and in 2018 collaborated with the government of Tuvalu on the world's first legal tender rhodium coin, the Tuvalu South Sea Dragon. Alongside bullion it manufactures specialist industrial gold alloys and offers toll refining, making it considerably more than a bar producer.

Baird Platinum vs Swiss Bars and the Platinum Britannia

The international competition at this weight comes from the LBMA-accredited Swiss and German refiners: PAMP Suisse (sealed assay cards, Veriscan digital authentication), Valcambi, Heraeus, and Argor-Heraeus (kinebar holographic security). Those brands carry stronger recognition in Asian and Middle Eastern markets and their sealed minted bars command better resale prices than loose bars. Baird's counter is price and provenance: a domestic UK alternative at typically lower premiums for equivalent weight and purity, with serial-numbered bars that UK dealers accept readily. As a cast bar it also avoids the minting cost premium that assay-carded bars carry.

For UK buyers the more important comparison is with the platinum Britannia coin. Both attract 20% VAT, but the Britannia is legal tender and therefore CGT-exempt on sale, while any bar is CGT-liable. The bar's lower premium wins for small holdings comfortably inside the £3,000 annual CGT allowance; for larger positions the coin's exemption can be worth far more than the premium difference. The premium gap between platinum bars and coins is wider than for gold, which keeps the bar genuinely competitive in this trade-off.

Against other platinum bar sizes, 1 oz is the sensible default. A 1 oz platinum bar resells more easily than anything larger, while 100g+ platinum bars often have to be sold through specialist dealers or refiners, and the premium saving from sizing up (4-8% at 100g versus 5-10% at 1 oz) is modest compensation for that lost flexibility.