Baht Bars
The baht is a Thai unit of weight.
The most popular bar is the 10 baht cast bar, equivalent
to 150.4 g or 4.9 oz. The traditional gold purity of baht
bars is unusual: 96.5%.
Tola Bars
The tola is an Indian unit of
weight. The most popular weight is the 10 tola cast bar,
equivalent to 3.75 oz or 116.64 g. More than 2 million
are manufactured annually. Tola bars, most of which are
imported from Europe, are widely traded in the Middle
East, India, Pakistan and Singapore.
10 tola bars are distinctive in two
ways. They have smooth rounded edges and are an ideal
size for smuggling, if necessary inside the
smugglers body. They have no serial numbers. Round
minted tola bars are often incorporated into jewellery,
especially in Pakistan where marriage
necklaces can weigh 500 g or more.
Chi Bars
The chi is a Vietnamese unit of
weight. 1 chi weighs 3.75 g. 10 chi (or 1 cay or 1 luong)
weighs 37.5 g. Pamp (Switzerland) was the first among
accredited manufacturers to produce a range of chi
denominated minted bars for Vietnam.
Decorative Bars
The application of an attractive
decorative design to the reverse side of a standard
minted bar has occurred only since around 1980. The
manufacture of decorative minted bars is dominated by
accredited manufacturers in Switzerland, Germany and
Brazil.
Hologram Bars
Pamp (Switzerland) pioneered the
application of multi-coloured hologram designs to minted
bars in 1990. These bars, popular in the Middle East, are
now distributed worldwide.
Rainbow Bars
Mitsubishi (Japan) is the pioneer
manufacturer of multi-coloured rainbow bars.
The manufacturing process combines different carat gold
colour tones in order to create an infinite variety of
attractive patterns. The Exhibition displays experimental
bars, made in 1993, which illustrate rainbow,
woodgrain, textile and
polka dot patterns. The bar purity is 75% (18
carat).
Yin-Yang Bars
Several unusual
Yin-Yang bars issued by Ishifuku (Japan) in
1993 are displayed. These two innovative
kidney shaped bars depict the Zen religious
symbol representing the harmony of opposites.
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. They illustrate the official stamps and other
markings which appear only on its London Good Delivery
400 oz bars.
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