What "LBMA Good Delivery" Actually Means (And Why Your 1oz Bar Isn't)

Search for gold bars and you'll see "LBMA certified" and "LBMA Good Delivery" stamped across product pages for one-ounce bars and coins. Almost all of it is wrong. Your 1 oz bar is not a Good Delivery bar, no such certification exists for retail products, and the LBMA has never inspected it.

None of that means your bar is bad. It means the phrase means something specific — something genuinely useful once you understand it. Here's what it actually is, and how to use it as a buyer.

What Good Delivery actually is

Good Delivery is the London Bullion Market Association's accreditation standard for large wholesale bars traded in the loco London market. It governs both the bar and the refiner that made it.

	Gold Good Delivery bar	Silver Good Delivery bar
Weight	350–430 fine troy oz (~10.9–13.4 kg), nominally "400 oz"	1,000 oz ±10% (~900–1,100 oz) since 1 Jan 2025
Minimum fineness	995.0 parts per thousand	999.0 parts per thousand
Dimensions (recommended)	~250 × 70 × 35 mm, 5–25° undercut	~300 × 130 mm top, 5–15° undercut

That weight range is not sloppiness. These bars are cast in open moulds by a caster pouring molten metal and judging the fill by eye, so exact weights aren't achievable — which is why every single bar carries its own individually assayed weight and fineness rather than a nominal one.

Worth noting for anyone quoting older sources: the silver specification changed on 1 January 2025. The long-cited 750–1,100 oz range is no longer the production requirement; it's now 1,000 oz ±10%. Bars made under the old range remain acceptable.

The correction: your 1 oz bar is not Good Delivery

The LBMA states it plainly: bars such as kilobars, 100-ounce bars and smaller are not acceptable in the London wholesale market.

So here's the distinction that most retail sites blur:

• "Good Delivery bar" is a specific physical object — 350–430 oz of gold meeting LBMA's rules, accepted for settlement in London.
• "LBMA-accredited refiner" is a company on the LBMA Good Delivery List. That company may also make coins, kilobars and 100 g bars — but those products are not Good Delivery bars. They just share a manufacturer.

The accurate phrase is "produced by a refiner on the LBMA Good Delivery List." The LBMA does not certify, register, inspect or guarantee individual retail bars or coins. There is no LBMA certificate for your one-ounce bar and there never will be.

This applies to kilo bars too, despite how often they're advertised otherwise.

What accreditation actually demands of a refiner

This is why the standard is worth caring about. To get on the list, a refiner must show:

• Track record — at least 5 years in business, 3 years of refining operations
• Scale — annual output of ≥10 tonnes of gold, or ≥50 tonnes of silver
• Financial substance — tangible net worth of ≥£15 million equivalent, maintained ongoing
• Assay capability — the refiner must be able to assay as well as refine; sample bars are tested by LBMA Referees
• Ongoing monitoring — accredited refiners stay in the Proactive Monitoring Programme, submitting dip samples from normal production for check-assay
• Responsible sourcing — audited compliance with the Responsible Gold Guidance (the conflict-free, anti-money-laundering and ESG layer), filed before accreditation and updated annually

Refiners can be moved to the Former List for ceasing production, failing technical standards, ownership changes they can't vouch for — or for not responding adequately to justifiable customer complaints. The LBMA will ask a refiner to stand behind its bars and make restitution. Accreditation typically takes four to six months.

Chain of custody — the bit with commercial consequences

A Good Delivery bar's acceptance depends on unbroken custody. Bars held continuously inside the recognised vaulting chain are accepted on their markings alone. A bar that leaves the chain must be re-assayed or re-refined before it can re-enter it — which costs time and money, and is the single biggest practical reason institutional gold simply never leaves the vault.

That principle scales down to you: a retail bar that stays sealed in its assay card with matching serial numbers is trivially easy for a dealer to buy back. One that's been opened isn't necessarily suspect, but it invites verification you'd rather avoid. It's the same logic behind our advice on verifying a gold bar.

How to actually use this as a buyer

1. Check the refiner, not the bar. Look up the name — and the refining location — on the LBMA Good Delivery Current List at lbma.org.uk. Check the Former List too; a bar from a now-delisted refiner may be perfectly fine, but you should know.
2. Read the bar itself. It should carry the refiner's mark, the weight, the fineness (e.g. 999.9), a unique serial number and the assayer's mark. Minted bars usually add a tamper-evident assay card carrying the same serial.
3. Use the language as a filter. "Made by an LBMA Good Delivery refiner" is accurate. "LBMA certified bar" or "LBMA approved 1 oz" is a red flag — not proof the bar is fake, but a strong hint the seller's copy isn't reliable.

What accreditation buys you: not a guarantee on your specific bar, but real assurance about the manufacturer — proven assay capability, ongoing check-assays, financial substance and audited sourcing. In practice that means easier resale, because dealers everywhere recognise the brand and won't discount for a re-assay.

What it doesn't buy you: protection against counterfeits of that brand. Serial numbers, intact assay packaging and buying from an established dealer do that job.

Where Bitgolder sits

Every bar and coin we ship comes from a sovereign mint or an LBMA-accredited refiner — Metalor, Valcambi, PAMP Suisse, Argor-Heraeus, Umicore, the Royal Canadian Mint and the Royal Mint among them — at 99.9% purity or finer, with assay cards and serial numbers intact. We'd rather hand you the paperwork than ask you to take our word for it.

Browse gold and silver, compare the houses in our refiner guide, or read coins vs bars if you're still choosing a format. Pay in Bitcoin, Monero, stablecoins and 30+ other coins, priced live against spot.

Frequently asked questions

What is an LBMA Good Delivery bar?

A large wholesale bar meeting the LBMA's specification and made by a refiner on its Good Delivery List: gold of 350–430 fine troy ounces at minimum 995.0 fineness, or silver at minimum 999.0 fineness. These are the bars that settle trades in the London market.

Is my 1 oz gold bar LBMA certified?

No. The LBMA does not certify individual retail bars or coins. Your bar may have been produced by an LBMA-accredited refiner, which is meaningful and worth checking, but it is not a Good Delivery bar and no such certification exists for retail products.

How heavy is a Good Delivery gold bar?

Nominally 400 troy ounces, about 12.4 kg, but the accepted range is 350 to 430 fine troy ounces — roughly 10.9 to 13.4 kg. Each bar is individually weighed and assayed because they are cast in open moulds.

Why does LBMA accreditation matter?

It certifies the refiner has at least five years in business, three years refining, 10 tonnes a year of gold output, £15 million net worth, in-house assay capability, ongoing check-assays and audited responsible sourcing. For buyers that means a brand dealers recognise, which keeps resale easy and spreads tight.

How do I check if a refiner is LBMA accredited?

Look the refiner up directly on the LBMA Good Delivery Current List at lbma.org.uk, and cross-check the Former List. Match both the company name and the refining location shown on the bar rather than relying on a dealer's claim.

Is a kilo gold bar LBMA Good Delivery?

No. The LBMA states that kilobars, 100-ounce and smaller bars are not acceptable in the London wholesale market. They are produced by accredited refiners but are not Good Delivery bars themselves.