The sight of gold can make anyone’s eyes sparkle with undisguised greed. However, very few – meaning the super rich and famous – will actually get to see a genuine gold bar.

If you’ve watched action thrillers featuring daring heists on such gold depositories as Fort Knox, you have the general idea that gold bars consist of this precious metal, which have been molded into specially shaped bars.

There are two methods by which gold bars are manufactured, namely casting and minting. Casting simply involves purifying and liquefying the gold, which is then poured into a mold, giving it its desired shape.

On the other hand, with minting, after the gold has been cast, it is then cut into specific dimensions and its value marked on the surface by mechanical presses. Most gold bars have a standard weight of 400 ounces or 12.44 kilograms. The gold bars that are in storage in central banks all over the world are known as “gold tola bars”, because they are weight in tolas (an Indian unit of weight equal to 180 grains troy or 0.375 ounce troy).

Gold bars have become ideal investments. People invest by buying these gold bars. These are then later sold when their values reach a high on the market.

Investing in gold bars is a wise decision. I read Francisco Colayco’s book about financial literacy and one thing he said again and again was to invest your money in something that would beat inflation. Just keeping it in your bank is not wise because the interest rate is so low that pretty soon inflation will take over it.

He suggested investing into mutual funds and we have already started doing that. However, I heard that gold is also a good investment because its value keeps on appreciating as time passes. We might definitely try this because we want our money to be able to beat inflation. I heard it’s already convenience now to buy gold and you can even have it delivered for safekeeping directly to your bank.