History
PAMP Gold Bar – Year of the Mouse
In celebration of the new Lunar Series, these outstanding gold bars are a unique acquisition for those wishing to mark their affinity with this resourceful animal. Throughout Chinese culture, the rat is regarded as a symbol of adaptability, intelligence tempered with caution, industriousness, charisma, and prosperity. A perfect keepsake and tribute for those born in 2020, 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972 and every 12th preceding year.
Those born in the year of the mouse are considered to be good at acquiring and safeguarding riches. This ability stems from their naturally curious mind that always seeks out knowledge and, thanks to their quick-wittedness, they are able to take advantage of opportunities. People born under the year of the mouse tend to have strong intuition, are perfectionists and have excellent taste. They are most often ambitious and, in striving to attain their goals, they will use all their wits to succeed, including being charming, persuasive and charismatic. This can attract others and specifically the opposite sex, and although people born in the year of the mouse tend to enjoy a large social circle they most often have more acquaintances than true friends. But once you become their real friend, they will treat you as their family. People born under the year of the mouse are loyal and devoted to their loved ones, making them especially good parents.
It can therefore be seen that the PAMP Lunar Year of the Mouse Gold Bar is an ideal gift for whoever you love or respect, since giving a Gold Lunar 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.