TITLE XII

SPECIAL SCHEMES
CHAPTER 5

Special scheme for investment gold
Section 1

General provisions
Article 344
1
For the purposes of this Directive, and without prejudice to other Community provisions, ‘investment gold’ shall mean:
1. gold, in the form of a bar or a wafer of weights accepted by the bullion markets, of a purity equal to or greater than 995 thousandths, whether or not represented by securities;
2. gold coins of a purity equal to or greater than 900 thousandths and minted after 1800, which are or have been legal tender in the country of origin, and are normally sold at a price which does not exceed the open market value of the gold contained in the coins by more than 80 %.
2
Member States may exclude from this special scheme small bars or wafers of a weight of 1 g or less.
3
For the purposes of this Directive, the coins referred to in point (2) of paragraph 1 shall not be regarded as sold for numismatic interest.
Article 345
Starting in 1999, each Member State shall inform the Commission by 1 July each year of the coins meeting the criteria laid down in point (2) of Article 344(1) which are traded in that Member State. The Commission shall, before 1 December each year, publish a comprehensive list of those coins in the ‘C’ series of the Official Journal of the European Union. Coins included in the published list shall be deemed to fulfil those criteria throughout the year for which the list is published.