20 G Gr Gram 995 24K GOLD Bullion Bar W/ Certificate Oz Start Price USD 0.99 Current Price USD 690.00 Time Left - Bid Count 10 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, October 04, 2008 End Time Saturday, October 11, 2008 Location Istanbul See more about '20 G Gr Gram 995 24K GOLD Bullion Bar W/ Certificate Oz' Description You are bidding on 1 (One)  Item 20 Gm Gram (~0.643  Troy Ounce)  Gold Bullion (Bar, Ingot) by Turkish State (Darphane) Mint 995/1000 pure 24 Karats gold in a sealed vinyl coated card. -.- Gold is always an excellent investment tool and a really outstanding great gift concept something you can put in your hands, that never loses its value. Please read our item description page. We are updating regularly. ITEM DESCRIPTION-------------------------------- 20 Gram (~0.643 Troy Ounce) 995/1000 Pure Gold  Individually sealed in manufacturers vinyl card with authentication certificate. Freshly minted with a shiny finish and ready to ship. Colour of photo is not showing of surface finish of gold bar. SECURITY POLICY---------------------------------- Please do not bid this auction if your purchasing power is not enough. We are reporting unpaid bidders to eBay after 3 days.   Please do not bid on this auction if you disagree with our sales terms, payment or shipping & handling conditions. For safety purposes, we are keeping bidders User IDs from being displayed to everyone.  All of our bids are keeping private in consequence of fraudulent activities.  Items will mail via International Certified Mail (Some countries identified as Registered mail.) with signature confirmation that gives you an added level of security by requiring your name and signature for your package. Therefore, you may sure that it reaches not just the right address, but the right hands as well.  We are shipping only PAYPAL confirmed address that  provides way for us to verify your identity with safe transaction.  PAYMENT------------------------------------------ Only Paypal Payment is Accepted.   Payment is to be received within 3 days of auction close. Bid with confidence ! PAYPAL verified FEEDBACK & COMMUNICATION--------------------- You can be assured that you are purchasing a quality product from honest seller. Please keep-in touch with us before you leave negative or neutral feedback. Our goal is outstanding service, fast shipping and %100 positive feed. Correspondence language is simply English. Please be patience our replies. Mostly we reply your questions in 24 hours.  SHIPPING & HANDLING----------------------------- Insurance is optional and $13.99 each. Items will mail via International Certified Mail  with signature confirmation. (Some countries identified as Registered mail.) Shipping on payment made with Paypal  will be delayed 3 days until payment clears. Shipping is free of charge limited time only. We may change the promotional rates, including S&H, insurance, at any time for any reason. Items are not available for pick-up. Order(s) are shipped daily Monday to Friday. Item(s) sealed for loss prevention. Delivery Times: States (7-15 Days). Canada (10-15 Days). Europe (5-10 Days). International (10-21 Days). Please be patient. Occasionally takes up to 2 or more weeks for delivery. Sometimes postal service is getting slower. Especially at weekends and holidays. We are marking as "gift" when we are mailings your item(s).ABOUT TURKISH STATE MINT (DARPHANE) -------------Turks have been issuing metal coins since 9th century , when they first settled in the vast plains of the Middle East and Anatolia. Many different states had coins of their own and the place where they issued coins was called  'Mint'. However, the mint that was established by Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror near the Beyazit Mosque following his conquest of Istanbul, is accepted as the first 'Turkish Mint'. We don't have a document relating to its year of foundation, therefore 1476 is taken  to be the start of Turkish minting, when Fatih had the first gold coin minted in the name of himself. Capacity was later increased and the mint was moved to the Simkeshane Caravanserai in Beyazıt in 1596. To meet the increasing coin demand of the fastly expanding Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Istanbul, as many as 40 auxiliary mints were established. Among these, the most important ones were in Bursa, Edirne, Amasya, Erzurum, Tiflis, Egypt, Tunusia, and Algeria. Istanbul continued to be the principal city of mintage, and the other mints were closed in 1843. Coins are issued only here in Istanbul since then. The Mint was moved to its current buildings in Topkapı Palace from the Simkeshane Caravanserai in 1723, under the rule of Sultan Ahmet III. After that, it was enlarged by the addition of new workshops and "HUNKAR DAIRESI" in the garden, in 1832. Preliminary work on the opening of the third mint facility, which is the current one in Yildiz-Besiktas, dates back to 1953. Metal coin demand was projected to increase in the following years, therefore new equipment was purchased. Construction of the new building started in mid-1961, and production began on July 8, 1967. History archives show that the first three government organizations of the Ottoman Empire where the (TOPHANE), which produced cannons for the army, the (TERSANE), which produced warships, and the (DARPHANE) which produced metal coins for the Treasury. So valuable in the historical and traditional sense, the mint directorate was joined with the state printing office in 1933. Now the "Printing Plant" this institution was founded in 1845 to print security documents and is currently situated in the Topkapı Palace zone. Renovation and modernization of the printing complex is going on. When completed, it  will be the most sophisticated facility in Turkey and its neighbours, with state-of-the- art technology.  TERMINOLOGY-------------------------------------- KARATS:This stems back to ancient times in the Mediterranean /Middle East, when a carat became used as a measure of the purity of gold alloys. A Carat (Karat in USA & Germany) was originally a unit of mass (weight) based on the Carob seed or bean used by ancient merchants in the Middle East. The Carob seed is from the Carob or locust bean tree. The carat is still used as such for the weight of gem stones (1 carat is about 200 mg). For gold, it has come to be used for measuring the purity of gold where pure gold is defined as 24 carats. How and when this change occurred is not clear. It does involve the Romans who also used the name Siliqua Graeca (Keration in Greek, Qirat in Arabic, now Carat in modern times) for the bean of the Carob tree. The Romans also used the name Siliqua for a small silver coin which was one-twentyfourth of the golden solidus of Constantine. This latter had a mass of about 4.54 grammes, so the Siliqua was approximately equivalent in value to the mass of 1 Keration or Siliqua Graeca of gold, i.e the value of 1/24th of a Solidus is about 1 Keration of gold, i.e 1 carat. Gold jewellery/ jewelry is usually described in terms of caratage (karatage), which is an indication of its gold content, for example 18 carat or 18K. Alternatively, the gold content can be described in terms of "fineness", which is the gold content expressed in parts per thousand, for example 750 (which is 18 carat or 75.0% gold).Since the price paid by the purchaser for gold jewellery is based on the amount of gold in it, it is important for the consumer to know how many carats (in USA – karats) of gold there is in the piece. Most jewellery worldwide is marked with the caratage or fineness. This may be part of a Hallmark on the jewellery (see Assaying & Hallmarking for the definition of a mark and hallmark).Pure gold (fine gold) is 24 carats (karats) and so 24 carats is theoretically 100% gold. In Chinese, it is also known as "Chuk Kam", meaning "pure gold" and is defined as 99.0% gold minimum. Thus, there is a 1.0% negative tolerance allowed in this case. TROY OUNCE:Gold is traditionally weighed in Troy Ounces (1 Troy Ounce=31.1035 grammes=1.0971 ounce). GREETINGS----------------------------------------------We appreciate the time you took to our listing. We are very interested in working for you and look forward to hearing from you regarding this bid. END OF ITEM DESCRIPTION------------------------------               Place a Bid!