Interesting, strange, disappointing or revealing; I’m not sure which adjective applies to the Mint facts you have provided us with. On the face of it, does it really make any sense that the Mint would put the kibosh on its production of the 2022-P American Liberty Silver Medal at over 25,165 short of that item’s Mintage Limit while simultaneously continuing to crank out ASE-S Silver Proofs until the cows come home and thereby create the sad reality of turning that, at 271,387 minted, into a fairly common coin?

I can’t thank you enough for taking all of that time and effort, Good Sir Rich, to so thoroughly, completely and comprehensively answer my question. I feel as though I’ve just taken a short course in the intricacies of ingot and bar specification, consistency, and identification. Wonderful!

Great question, Sir Kaiser!

Short answer – These words do tend to have slightly separate meanings… “Bullion” is a general term commonly used when referring to precious metals (gold, silver, platinum) accounted in units of mass like troy ounces or grams. Bullion can come in many forms such as coinage, bars, ingots, rounds, and the like. “Ingot” is more of a description given to the shape of a piece of cast metal. It can refer to non-precious metals as well as bullion and usually has the shape of its original cast. “Bar” can actually be a specific technical term when referring to a standard Good Delivery bar. Commonly a “bar” just refers to a shape of a bullion product which has its mass (weight) and purity marked on the material.

Long answer – The answer is yes and no… A gold ingot is sometimes also known as a gold bullion or a gold bar. A gold bar, also called gold bullion or gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping. Larger gold bars that are produced by pouring the molten metal into molds are called ingots.
In basic terms, a silver ingot is a non-specific amount of silver that has been shaped to make it easy to store, transport and process. Silver is not the only type of metal that comes in ingots; in fact most manufacturing processes that involve precious and non-precious metals will at some point involve ingots. Ingots can be thought of as a blank slate; a convenient form in which silver and other metals can exist until they are needed. They might be melted down or machined to make something new. They might remain in their ingot form until a later date, or to act as a currency reserve in their own right. In some senses the words ‘bar’ and ‘ingot’ are effectively interchangeable when referring to silver or gold. But for practical purposes, and for those who know a bit more about the industry, it’s sensible to define these terms as distinct from one another A silver bar is essentially a far more refined iteration of an ingot, usually complying with the Good Delivery specification. A silver bar also has to conform to specific dimensions to meet these internationally recognized standards Finally, a silver bar needs to come with a serial number, assay stamp, fineness figure and year of manufacture all displayed on its surface.

Good Sir Rich aka The Fountain Of Numismatic Knowledge,

Thanks as always for the enlightenment; we know we can count on you.

Incidentally, is there a difference between a “bar” and an “ingot”?

Sir Kaiser and Major D,
Bullion comes in three basic forms: coins, bars, and “rounds”

Good Sir Rich,

I have only this to say about that. Whatever are the folks at the US Mint up to now?

I hadn’t even thought of that rationale, Major D, for changing the appellation “Bullion Coins” to “Bullion Rounds”, but if that in any way can help put a dent in the widespread passing off of Bullion as Uncirculated then all the more reason for it. Thanks for that brilliant idea!

As for your question regarding the difference between Rounds and Medals, the best I can offer is that all Medals are Rounds but not all Rounds are Medals. I know that’s not even close to being a sufficient differentiation, but I trust our site compadres can fill in the blanks.

But at least not, gentlemen, in a galaxy far, far away.

By the way, that Winged Mercury Dime is one of the finest looking coins ever made. It’s right up there with the Walking Liberty Half Dollar.

We can remember a time when we used silver coins in our change.