100 gram PAMP Lunar Dog 2018 Gold Bar

History

PAMP Gold Bar - Year of the Dog

The Chinese lunar calendar is today used by many for Taoist cosmology. It is believed that, depending on the year of the zodiac when a person is born, a special relationship exists between theperson’s personality and the animal that constitutes part of the Chinesezodiac. The animals in the zodiac are supposed to be of symbolic nature, where each animal is a representation of a specific group of characteristics andtraits that can be found in every human being. There are twelve animals in theChinese zodiac, each of them being celebrated once every twelve years. The year of the dog was celebrated in 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 and 2018.

Those born in the year of the dog are considered to be persons who bear a strong sense of loyalty towards others and will do anything for the person they cherish the most. Likewise, they are ready to help others and tend to put the interest of others before their own. People born in the year of the dog are said to be people who cherish a quiet life in the companionship of the family. They are also considered to be honest and sincere, disapproving of evil acts and dishonest gain. Because of their truthfulness, they will sometimes have issues coping with other people’s bad behaviour. Other people tend to have a harder time establishing a relationship with people born under the sign of the dog as they tend to be more conservative and cautious. But once friendship is established, they become excellent companions as they will remain faithful in maintaining the relationship. It can therefore be seen that the Gold Bar - Year of the Dog is an ideal gift for whoever you love or respect, since giving a Gold Bar means that you are showing affection by immortalising the person’s year of birth and particular virtues in pure and precious golden artwork.

Minted  bars  refer  to  the  manufacturing  process  that  is  applied  to  create  them.  The  process begins  by  heating  gold  material  in  a furnace  until it  turns  to  a  molten  slurry.  During  the heating process, all unwanted impurities in the slurry are removed until only molten gold of high purity is left, most often at around 99.99%. The molten gold is then poured into moulds, usually in the shape of large bars, where it cools and solidifies. The solid gold is then inserted into  a  mill  that  rolls  the  gold  into  panels  with  a uniform  dimension.  Afterwards, the  gold panels are inserted into a blanking press that punches blanks out of the gold panels. The next step  involves  the  weighing  of  each gold  blank  to  ensure  that  it  is  neither  underweight  nor overweight and those that pass this test are then polished for them to obtain a shiny surface. The  last stage  involves the  minting  process where the  gold  blank  is  inserted into a  minting press  that  presses  its  die with  huge  force  to transfer  the  design  from  the  die  onto  the  gold blank. The result is a  minted bar. The newly  minted gold bar is then inspected before being sealed in a transparent tamper-proof protective package.

PAMP was founded in 1977 in Switzerland, and has since then grown to become the world’s most significant manufacturer of bullion bars, ranging in weights from 1 to 100 grams. PAMP’s main facility is located in the picturesque Swiss village of Castel San Pietro where it operates an advanced refinery and fabrication plant that applies the highest Swiss engineering skills and latest cutting-edge technologies in the refinement and production processes of its famed bullion bars. Hailed as a market leader in innovation and in the fabrication of retail precious metal bars, the company was the first precious metals manufacturer to grace the reverse side of its gold bars with different aesthetic motifs. One of them, the beautiful motif of Lady Fortuna, the Roman Goddess of Fortune, became a world hit and is today the hallmark of PAMP’s excellence as a fabricator. It is no wonder then that the acronym of the brand PAMP (Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux) means artistic precious metal products. PAMP’s high purity and quality bullion bars are accredited by the Swiss National Bank and the LBMA (London Bullion Market Association), making them the preferred choice of leading financial institutions, central banks, investors and collectors worldwide.

PAMP a member of the London Bullion Market Association

The LBMA, or London Bullion Market Association, was established as an independent oversight body by Britain’s Central Bank in 1987. The roots of the LBMA can be traced back several centuries to the 1700s when London started to emerge as the world’s leading trading hub for precious metals. Referred to as the “London Gold Market”, it was self-regulated by the London’s foremost bullion traders and fabricators who oversaw the market by accrediting precious metal refiners to the London Good Delivery List. Only those refiners that met the quality and purity criteria set down by the “LGD” list were allowed to enter the London bullion market. Today, more than 135 companies, which include some of the largest precious metal refiners, storage providers, manufacturers and bullion traders, are members of the London Bullion Market Association. They all form part of the LBMA, the world’s most respected and trusted international authority that monitors the production and refining process of gold and silver bullion. LBMA’s primary role is to manage the Good Delivery List which is today the international standard for the quality and assaying of gold and silver bars. PAMP has been an LBMA member since 1987.