• A-E
• F-N
• O-Z

O

Obverse: the front side of a coin which contains the principal design.

Option: the right, but not an obligation, to buy or sell a commodity or a financial security on a specified date in the future.

Ounce: a unit of weight. In the precious metals industry, an ounce means a troy ounce equal to 31.1035 grams.

P

PCGS: acronym for Professional Coin Grading Service, one of two major coin grading services in the United States.

Pennyweight: an American unit of weight for gold in which onepennyweight equals 24 grains or 1/20 of a troy ounce.

Physicals market: a marketplace in which the physical product is traded, as opposed to a futures market where "contracts" are traded and physical delivery of the product may or may not take place.

Planchet: a blank piece of metal used for stamping a coin or medallion.

Platinum Eagles: modern platinum bullion coins minted by the U.S. Treasury.

Premium: the dollar amount or percentage a coin sells over its intrinsic value. Example: the American Eagle sells at a premium of 5% to 8%.

Proof: a coin produced using special dies and planchets that results in a sharpness of detail and a virtually flawless surface, usually mirror-like fields. Proof coins are produced for the collector market.

Put: an option that gives the owner the right to sell a commodity or a financial security on a specified date in the future.

Q

R

Rally: an advancing price movement following a decline in a market.

Restrike: officially issued reproduction of a former circulating coin.

Reverse: the back of a coin.

Rounds: short for 1-oz silver rounds, which are privately-minted .999 fine round pieces of silver about the sizes of silver dollars.

S

Short sale: the sale of an asset for future delivery without possession of the asset sold.

Silver Eagles: modern 1-oz silver bullion coins.

Silver rounds: 1-oz .999 fine round pieces of silver about the sizes of silver dollars. Typically, silver rounds are privately minted, as contrasted with the 1-oz .999 fine Silver Eagles that are official silver coins of the U.S. Mint.

Slabbed coins: coins encapsulated in plastic for protection against wear. Generally, "slabbed" coins are graded by one of the two major grading services.

Sovereign: English gold coin with a face value of one pound sterling and a gold content of .2354 ounce.

Spot: the price for the physical delivery of bullion bars, usually 100-oz bars of gold or platinum and 1,000-oz bars of silver.

Spot market: a market in which delivery and payment have to be made within two working days of the transaction date.

Spread: the difference between the buying price and the selling price of a precious metal coin or trading unit.

Symbolic face value: nominal value given to legal tender coins sold for their metal content. Example: the 1-oz Gold Eagle carries a $50 face value but sells for the value of its gold content plus a premium of 5% to 8%.

T

Tola: a unit of weight of India equal to 180 grains or 0.375 troy ounce (11.7 grams).

Tola bars: gold bars measured in tolas, the most popular of which is the 10-tola cast bar (3.75 troy oz).  Although manufactured in Europe, tola bars are traded primarily in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, and Singapore.

Troy ounce: unit of weight for precious metals. One troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams or 480 grains. One troy ounce equals 1.09711 avoirdupois ounce.

Troy pound: twelve troy ounces. Troy pound is an academic term and is rarely used. For instance, no one buys a "troy pound of gold" but twelve ounces of gold.

U

Uncirculated: a coin in new condition, sometimes said to be "brilliant uncirculated" or "BU." The term is often used interchangeably with Mint State.

V

W

X

Y

Yield: a measure of the annual return on an investment expressed as a percentage.

Z

If a term was not found or you feel we should add one,  please send comments to info@cmigs.com