10 oz APMEX Lunar Silver Bar

The 10 oz APMEX Lunar Silver Bar

The 10 oz APMEX Lunar Silver Bar holds ten troy ounces (311.035 grams) of .999 fine silver and is the largest format in APMEX's dealer-branded lunar series. The programme follows the Chinese zodiac, one animal per year across a twelve-year cycle: Series 1 ran from roughly 2012 to 2023, and Series 2 launched in 2024 with the Year of the Dragon and redesigned artwork. The 10 oz bar has featured in both series alongside 1 oz rounds, 1 oz bars, and 5 oz bars.

At this weight the product makes sense as a stacking purchase that happens to have a design. Ten-ounce bars sit in the most efficient part of the retail silver curve, typically 3 to 6% over spot against 5 to 15% for 1 oz bars, and the format is widely regarded as the best balance of premium savings and liquidity in silver. Adding a zodiac design to that weight class gives buyers themed silver without paying coin-level premiums; sovereign-mint lunar coins from the Perth Mint carry significantly higher markups for the same theme.

The caveat that applies to the whole series applies here with more money at stake: these are APMEXclusive products sold only through APMEX, and dealer-branded bars typically trade close to melt value outside the issuing dealer's own buyback. A buyer wanting maximum resale flexibility at this weight may prefer a 10 oz silver bar from a recognised refiner; a buyer who likes the design pays little extra to own it.

10 oz APMEX Lunar Silver Bar Specifications

A 10 oz silver bar is a compact object for its value, around 84mm by 49mm by 8mm as a general format, and stores more efficiently than ten individual 1 oz pieces with their packaging and air gaps. Each year's bar carries the corresponding zodiac animal depicted in a style inspired by Chinese artistic traditions, with Series 2 introducing fully redesigned artwork from 2024.

There are no government-backed security features; APMEX guarantees the weight and purity of its APMEXclusive products. Standard silver authentication, precise weight, dimensions, and the magnet slide test, applies, and counterfeit checks matter more at 10 oz than at 1 oz since the format is among those more commonly targeted by fakes. Keeping the bar in its original packaging supports resale.

APMEX Lunar 10 oz Bar Tax Treatment

As a non-legal-tender silver bar, the product receives standard investment-silver treatment everywhere.

• US: The home market. No federal sales tax; many states exempt investment silver while others tax it or set purchase thresholds. Long-term gains are taxed at the 28% collectibles rate. The .999 purity meets the IRA fineness threshold for silver, but custodian acceptance of dealer-branded bars varies and most prefer recognised-mint products.
• UK: 20% VAT on new silver, with no CGT exemption since the bar is not legal tender. The series is not commonly stocked by UK dealers, so purchase usually means importing from APMEX with shipping and potential duties on top.
• Canada: GST/HST-exempt as silver refined to 99.9%+ purity in bar form.
• Australia and New Zealand: GST-free as investment-grade silver at 99.9%+ purity.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore exempts qualifying investment silver from GST and has no capital gains tax; Hong Kong levies no sales tax, import duty, or CGT.

Because a 10 oz bar is a few hundred dollars per unit, US state threshold rules (states that exempt bullion only above a minimum transaction size) can determine whether a single-bar order ships tax-free; ordering multiple bars can clear those thresholds.

APMEX Lunar 10 oz vs Refiner Bars and Sovereign Lunar Coins

Against plain 10 oz bars from recognised mints and refiners, the Royal Canadian Mint, PAMP Suisse, Asahi, Sunshine Minting, and similar names, the APMEX Lunar bar competes on design rather than price efficiency. Recognised-mint bars command the tightest buyback spreads and sell readily to any major dealer or local coin shop; a dealer-branded bar is still .999 silver and still liquid, but its most reliable buyer is APMEX itself. For pure accumulation, the generic bar is the safer default. For a stacker who enjoys the zodiac cycle, the Lunar bar adds annual variety at the same weight class.

Against sovereign-mint lunar products, the positioning reverses. The Perth Mint's Australian Lunar coins are legal tender in .9999 silver with significantly higher premiums, and the Perth Mint also issues a 10 oz lunar coin; the Royal Mint's Lunar series occupies similar sovereign-mint territory. The APMEX bar delivers the same theme at far lower cost per ounce, which is its core argument. It simply cannot match the international recognition, and in Asian markets where the zodiac carries the most cultural weight, a US dealer brand has less standing than Perth Mint or PAMP lunar products.

Within the APMEX series itself, the 10 oz bar is the cheapest route per ounce into the design, while the 1 oz APMEX Lunar round offers divisibility and the collector formats (proofs, colourised, high-relief editions) cluster at the smaller sizes. Buyers building a full twelve-year set at 10 oz per year should note that is 120 oz of silver committed to a single dealer's brand.