‘Koban’ Bars

Tokuriki Honten (Japan) has manufactured attractive ‘Koban’ bars since the early 1960s, ranging from 5 g to 50 g. The bars commemorate the oval shape of traditional Japanese gold coinage issued between the 16th and 19th centuries.

‘Twin-Coin’ Bar

Yoo Long Kim Kee (Thailand) was the first to manufacture a decorative cast bar to a precise weight through injecting gold into an enclosed mould under pressure.

‘Gold Leaf’ Bars

From the 1930s until the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, unusual ‘gold leaf’ bars were widely manufactured in Vietnam. Their thinness makes them extremely portable, easily placed inside shoes, sewn into the lining of clothes or rolled into narrow tubes. Thousands of these bars, smuggled by Vietnamese refugees, were sold to gold dealers, mainly in South East Asia. The standard bar weighs around 15 g.

Fine Gold Cards

Fine gold cards, pioneered by Mitsubishi (Japan) in the mid-1980s, enable multi-coloured printed designs to be applied to their smooth surfaces. Although gold cards up to 1000 g are available, the 1 g card is the most widely sold in Japan and cards issued by a variety of Japanese manufacturers are on display.

‘Bone’ Bar

The innovative 100 g cast bar in an unconventional ‘bone’ shape which was manufactured by Degussa (Brazil) in 1982.

‘Gold Fillet’ Bars

‘Gold Fillet’ bars, which are manufactured from thin rolled gold strips, are sometimes produced to display the official stamps of ‘400 oz’ (12.5 kg) bars where they are not used in the manufacture of smaller bars. Produced by Australian Gold Refineries at its Perth and Kalgoorlie refineries, they illustrate the official stamps and other markings which appear only on its London Good Delivery ‘400 oz’ bars.