Nonmonetary gold is gold that is not held or used as an official reserve asset by a central bank or government monetary authority. All commercially traded gold — including investment bars, jewelry-grade grain, and industrial sheet — is nonmonetary gold and classifies under heading 7108. Monetary gold transactions between central banks are excluded from normal customs classification.

Unwrought gold includes cast bars, ingots, shot, and grain that have not been worked into a specific shape. Once gold has been rolled into sheet or foil, drawn into wire, or otherwise mechanically worked into an intermediate form intended for further fabrication, it is considered semimanufactured. The distinction matters because the two subheadings can carry different duty rates, and misclassification is a common audit finding for precious metals importers.