20g Classic Platinum Bar

A Mid-Sized Platinum Bar from a Swiss LBMA Referee

The 20g Argor-Heraeus Classic platinum bar is a minted ingot of 999.5 fine platinum from the refiner's standard investment range, the Classic line that sits apart from its Kinebar, Lunar Calendar, and other specialty products. Argor-Heraeus, founded in 1951 and based in Mendrisio in the Swiss canton of Ticino, has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Germany's Heraeus Holding since 2017. It holds LPPM Good Delivery accreditation for platinum and is one of only seven global LBMA Referees, the panel that audits other refiners' Good Delivery compliance.

Platinum bars are a private-refinery product, and the market is far smaller than gold or silver, with fewer competing refiners and thinner dealer inventory. That makes refiner pedigree count for more than it does in gold. Every Classic bar is individually serial numbered, certified by a sworn assayer, and ships in a numbered tamper-evident assay card.

At 20 grams (0.643 troy oz), the bar sits between the gram-weight novelty sizes and the 1 oz bar that dominates retail platinum. Platinum premiums scale steeply with size: roughly 20 to 40% over spot at 1g, 10 to 20% at 10g, and 5 to 10% at 1 oz, so the 20g format buys meaningfully better per-gram pricing than small bars while keeping the outlay below a full ounce. Buyers comparing along the range can also weigh the 10g Classic platinum bar for a smaller commitment in the same line.

20g Classic Platinum Bar Specifications

The obverse carries the Argor-Heraeus monogram within a double circle, the company name and "Switzerland", then the weight, metal, and purity in vertical arrangement with the serial number and sworn assayer mark. The reverse of minted Classic bars is blank, though some platinum bars in the line carry a simplified repeating logo pattern. The design is deliberately minimal, which keeps the authentication marks legible and the production cost down.

Platinum has a natural advantage in authentication. Its density of 21.45 g/cm3 is higher than any cheap substitute metal: tungsten, the standard threat for gold bars, is detectably lighter at 19.25 g/cm3, and the only denser candidates, iridium and osmium, are rarer and more expensive than platinum itself. Counterfeit platinum bars are accordingly rare. The metal is also harder than gold and does not tarnish or corrode, so a sealed assay card kept flat is all the storage care the bar needs.

Platinum Bar Tax Treatment by Country

Platinum does not enjoy the near-universal sales tax exemption that investment gold receives, so where you buy matters more than for gold.

• United Kingdom: 20% VAT on new platinum bullion, and capital gains tax applies on disposal since bars have no legal tender status. Pre-owned platinum can be sold under the margin scheme, with VAT charged only on the dealer's margin.
• European Union: full local VAT rates apply, typically 17 to 27% by member state; the EU investment-gold exemption does not extend to platinum.
• Switzerland: 8.1% VAT on platinum, the lowest rate in Europe.
• United States: sales tax depends on the buyer's state; most exempt bullion. Long-term gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%. At 999.5 fine, the bar meets the IRS platinum fineness requirement of 99.95% exactly, making it IRA-eligible when held by an approved custodian.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt at the 99.5% federal purity threshold.
• Australia: GST-free as investment-grade platinum at the 99% threshold.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt, with a platinum threshold of 99% purity.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore exempts investment precious metals (platinum at 99% or finer) from GST; Hong Kong levies no sales tax at all.

For UK and EU buyers, the VAT load is the dominant cost consideration and makes tax-free jurisdictions or vaulted arrangements the usual route into platinum. North American, Australian, and Asian buyers face no such barrier.

Argor-Heraeus vs Other Swiss and German Platinum Bars

The platinum bar shelf is short. The same LBMA-accredited refiners that dominate gold produce it: PAMP Suisse (assay-carded bars from 1g to 100g), Valcambi, and Heraeus, the German parent company of Argor-Heraeus whose bars are popular across Europe. Credit Suisse platinum bars still trade on the secondary market but are no longer produced. Product ranges are narrower than in gold and not all sizes are consistently in stock, so the practical choice at 20g is often whichever accredited name a dealer has available.

Between those names, differences are modest. All are LPPM/LBMA-pedigree refiners producing 999.5 fine minted bars in sealed assay cards, and all carry the same tax treatment. Argor-Heraeus and Valcambi typically price among the tightest of the Swiss refiners, while PAMP carries a modest brand premium. Sealed cards from any of them command better resale than loose or generic bars, which matters in platinum's thin secondary market, where buy-sell spreads run wider than for gold in both absolute and percentage terms.

The other comparison worth making is against coins. Sovereign platinum coins carry higher premiums than bars, and the bar-versus-coin premium gap is wider in platinum than in gold, so the savings from choosing a bar are more meaningful here. The exception is the UK, where a platinum Britannia shares the bar's VAT burden but escapes capital gains tax as legal tender, an advantage no platinum bar can match.