By anyone’s accounts it takes more than a bit of chutzpah to sell lead as bullion. It is the cheapest of all metals and if you were to try to buy an ounce of it at a scrap dealer he might give you several for free. But this is also a tricky metal. It is soft and subject to tarnish. The commercial grades available often are crudely refined since why would anyone care if your lead has a bit of this and a bit of that when it’s practically given away for free, right?

These factors conspire to make a finished piece of lead of high purity much more expensive than one might initially guess. The softness problem for example requires careful machining to avoid smudging areas of high detail. The 92% or 95% grade of lead available at the hardware store is unsuitable so it’s necessary to resort to lab-sourced hyper-refined lead that costs more than many other metals. And so on. At the end of the day though, we’re not kidding anyone, your Pb ounce will sadly never appreciate a dime as long as you own it ;-)