10g Fortuna Silver Bar

PAMP's Flagship Design in a 10g Silver Bar

The 10g PAMP Suisse Fortuna silver bar carries the most recognisable design in the minted bar market. The Lady Fortuna motif, introduced in 1979, was the first decorative artwork ever placed on a precious metals bar. Before PAMP, bars were plain stamped ingots carrying only weight and purity marks. The Fortuna design created an entirely new product category: the artistic minted bar.

The design depicts the Roman goddess of fortune blindfolded, holding a cornucopia overflowing with gold coins, alongside sheaves of wheat, poppies, and a wheel of fortune. It has remained essentially unchanged since 1979, giving it nearly five decades of market recognition. PAMP bars command the highest brand premiums in the minted bar market, partly because the Lady Fortuna is the most widely recognised bar motif globally.

At 10 grams of .999 fine silver, this bar is a small-denomination product. The metal value is modest, and the premium as a percentage of spot is higher than on larger Fortuna silver bars. The 10g Fortuna works best as a gift, a starter piece for new collectors, or a building block for those accumulating PAMP products across the weight range.

PAMP (Produits Artistiques Metaux Precieux) was founded in 1977 in Castel San Pietro, Ticino, and is now part of the MKS PAMP GROUP. The refinery is LBMA-accredited, and each bar is sealed in tamper-evident CertiPAMP assay packaging with a matching serial number on both bar and card.

10g PAMP Suisse Fortuna Silver Bar Specifications

The obverse carries the Lady Fortuna design in minted relief, producing sharp detail and a mirror-like finish. The reverse shows the PAMP Suisse logo, a registered Swiss cross mark, weight, purity, and the unique serial number. The serial number format is one letter followed by six digits.

The Fortuna series in silver spans a wide weight range: from 2.5g through to 1 kilogram. Common silver sizes include 1 oz, 5 oz, 10 oz, and 1 kg. The 10g sits at the smaller end, primarily serving the metric-weight and gift markets.

Security Features

The 10g Fortuna silver bar does not carry VeriScan technology. VeriScan, PAMP's patented system that scans each bar's microscopic surface topography for digital fingerprinting, is available on the gold Fortuna range. Authentication for the silver 10g relies on the CertiPAMP assay card, the serial number, and PAMP's brand verification services. Bars in sealed packaging are verifiable without opening; bars removed from packaging may trade at a discount.

Tax Treatment for the 10g PAMP Fortuna Silver Bar

The Fortuna bar is not legal tender. It has no face value and is classified as a privately refined silver bar for tax purposes.

United Kingdom

Silver bars carry 20% VAT on purchase. No CGT exemption applies to bars (unlike UK legal tender coins). For a 10g silver bar, the VAT represents a substantial proportion of the total cost and is not recoverable on resale. UK buyers seeking tax-efficient silver might consider margin scheme pre-owned silver or offshore vaulted silver to avoid the upfront VAT, though these options come with their own trade-offs in terms of physical possession and complexity.

United States

.999 silver bars from LBMA-accredited refiners qualify for precious metals IRAs when held by an approved custodian. Capital gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%. State sales tax varies: roughly 35 states exempt bullion, with threshold exemptions in California ($2,000+), Florida ($500+), and New York ($1,000+). The practical IRA utility of a 10g bar is limited by its small size; larger formats are more commonly held in retirement accounts.

Switzerland

PAMP's home market. Investment gold is VAT-exempt, but silver bars carry 8.1% VAT. Swiss-stored silver is available through PAMP's retail platform GOLDAVENUE.

Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

Canada exempts silver at 99.9%+ purity from GST/HST. Australia exempts investment-grade silver at 99.9%+ from GST. New Zealand exempts fine silver at 99.9%+ from GST. The .999 fine Fortuna bar qualifies for exemption in all three jurisdictions.

Singapore and Hong Kong

Singapore exempts qualifying investment precious metals (silver at 99.9%+ from LBMA-accredited refiners) from GST, with no capital gains tax. Hong Kong has no sales tax, import duty, or capital gains tax on bullion.

Fortuna vs Other 10g Silver Bars

The 10g Fortuna is PAMP's most liquid bar at any weight. At 10g, it competes with other branded Swiss and German minted bars for the premium small-format silver market.

Within PAMP's own range, the Faith series bars at 10g, including the Buddha, Ka'Bah Mecca, and Rosa designs, share identical purity, packaging, and serial numbering. The Fortuna's advantage is secondary-market liquidity: it is the most widely traded PAMP design, so dealers are more familiar with it and buyback spreads tend to be tighter. The thematic bars appeal more to buyers choosing a specific design for cultural or aesthetic reasons.

The 10g Geiger Edelmetalle Original bar takes a different approach to the premium minted bar concept. The Geiger has a square format (rather than PAMP's rectangle), UV-reactive LEV logo for authentication, reeded coin-style edges, and a high-relief pearl finish with the Schloss Guldengossa castle motif. The Geiger emphasises layered physical security features, whereas the Fortuna emphasises design heritage and brand recognition. Both carry premiums well above generic bars.

Valcambi, PAMP's largest Swiss competitor, produces 10g silver bars with a cleaner, more utilitarian design. Valcambi bars carry lower premiums than PAMP, making them a better choice for buyers who want Swiss refinery credentials without paying for a branded design motif. Valcambi's CombiBar format (a larger bar pre-scored into smaller segments) offers an alternative approach to small-denomination silver, though CombiBar segments sacrifice the individual serial numbering and assay card of a standalone 10g bar.