Obverse - The front side of a coin which contains the principal design.
Offer - A motion to sell a commodity at a specified price. Opposite of bid. The Offer price is the price at which a dealer offers to sell a commodity.
Ounce - A unit of weight. In the precious metals industry, an ounce means a troy ounce equal to 31.1035 grams.
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Palladium - A rare silver-white metal of the platinum group. Palladium resembles platinum chemically and is extracted from some copper and nickel ores. It is primarily used as an industrial catalyst and in jewelry.
PCGS - Acronym for Professional Coin Grading Service, one of two major coin grading services in the United States.
Pd - The chemical symbol for palladium.
Pennyweight - An American unit of weight for gold, in which one pennyweight equals 24 grains or 1/20 of a troy ounce.
Personal Check - A bank draft drawn on an individual account or a company account and signed by an authorized person.
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 - A chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. A heavy, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal, platinum is resistant to corrosion and occurs in some nickel and copper ores along with some native deposits. Platinum is used in jewelry, laboratory equipment, electrical contacts, dentistry, and automobile emissions control devices.
Platinum Eagles - Modern platinum bullion coins minted by the U.S. Treasury.
Premium - The market value of a coin less the intrinsic value of its metal content. Premiums are set by issuing authorities (e.g., U.S. Mint) and/or bullion dealers and vary by product. The dollar amount or percentage a coin sells over its intrinsic value.
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.
Pt - The chemical symbol for platinum.
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Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - An independent governmental agency that administers federal securities laws and regulates the firms that buy and sell those securities.
Settlement Price - The price established by the Exchange settlement committee at the close of each trading session as the official price to be used by the clearinghouse in determining net gains or losses, margin requirements, and the next day's price limits. The term "settlement price" is often used as an approximate equivalent to the term "closing price." The close in futures trading refers to a brief period at the end of the day, during which transactions frequently take place quickly and at a range of prices immediately before the bell. Therefore, there frequently is no single closing price, but a range of prices. In months with significant activity, the settlement price is derived by calculating the weighted average of the prices at which trades were conducted during that period.
Silver - A chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ag (from the traditional abbreviation for the Latin Argentum) and atomic number 47. A soft white lustrous transition metal, silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal and occurs in minerals and in free form. This metal is used in coins, jewelry, tableware, and photography.
Spot - Term which describes one-time open market cash transaction, where a commodity is purchased "on the spot" at current market rates. Spot transactions are in contrast to term sales, which specify a steady supply of product over a period of time.
Spot Market - A market of immediate delivery of product and immediate payment.
Spot Month - The futures contract closest to maturity. The nearby delivery month.
Spread - The difference between the bid price and the ask price of a bullion bar or coin.
Sterling Silver - Silver of a fineness of 92.5%.
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Troy Ounce - The Troy ounce is the traditional unit weight for precious metals, believed to be named after a weight used at the annual fair at Troyes in France in the Middle Ages. Conversion: 1 Troy ounce = 480 grains = 31.1035 grams = 1.09711 avoirdupois ounces.
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