Lunar zodiac gold bars and coins: designs, gifting and premiums

Who makes lunar gold bars and coins

There are two broad families. Government mints strike coins, and private refiners make minted bars. The Perth Mint is the name most people know: its Australian Lunar series started in the 1990s and is now in its third twelve-year cycle. The coins are legal tender in Australia and struck in 999.9 gold. The Royal Canadian Mint has issued lunar designs as well.

On the bar side, Swiss refiners such as PAMP make minted lunar bars. The animal sits on one face. The other face carries the usual bullion details: the refiner's mark, the fineness and the weight. Most come sealed in a card or plastic assay pack with a serial number, just like the refiner's plain minted bars.

What we have in stock shifts through the year, and most of all around the turn of each lunar year. The shop page shows what is available right now. If you are unsure which series a piece belongs to, ask at the counter and we will show you.

How the yearly animal designs work

The Chinese zodiac is a cycle of twelve animals, and each lunar year belongs to one of them. A new design comes out for every year, so you can usually tell a piece by its animal and the year marked on it. The 2024 pieces carry the Dragon, 2025 the Snake and 2026 the Horse.

One small point catches people out. The lunar year starts at Chinese New Year, which falls between late January and mid-February, not on 1 January. So a baby born in early January usually belongs to the previous year's animal. Here is the full cycle in order:

• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Rabbit
• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat
• Monkey
• Rooster
• Dog
• Pig

Reading what is on a lunar bar or coin

The artwork changes every year. The practical information doesn't. A coin normally shows the issuing country, a face value, the year, the weight and the purity. The face value is there to give the coin legal tender status and tells you nothing about what the gold is worth.

On a minted bar, turn it over. You should find the refiner's name or logo, the weight in grams or ounces, the fineness, such as 999.9, and a serial number that matches the assay card. Lunar coins tend to come in troy ounces and fractions of an ounce, while bars also come in gram sizes. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams, slightly heavier than the everyday ounce most people have in mind.

You will also see coloured, gilded and proof-finish versions. They look very nice in a display case. Just treat them as a different product from the standard bullion version, because they are priced differently and sold back differently.

Why lunar gold is a popular gift in Singapore

Timing and meaning do most of the work. A piece with the baby's birth-year animal suits a full month celebration, and grandparents often pick the same animal in a small weight. Some families add the new animal each Chinese New Year and build up a set over the years.

Gold also suits a gift that gets put away. A sealed bar in its card, or a coin in its capsule, can sit in a drawer for years and come out looking the same, provided it stays dry. With our humidity, a small airtight box and a sachet of silica gel is enough.

Then there is cost. Sizes from 1 g to 10 g keep the gift within a sensible budget, and it is still solid 999.9 gold, not a gold-plated souvenir. People often tell us that matters to them more than the size.

Why lunar designs cost more than plain bars

Expect a lunar bar or coin to carry a higher premium over its gold content than a plain cast bar of the same weight. The design has to be engraved, striking takes more work, and the packaging is more elaborate. Many designs are made for one year only. Demand also piles up before Chinese New Year, which affects how much stock is around.

The pricing itself works like everything else we sell: the live world spot price plus a premium, shown openly on every product page. That means you can put a lunar piece next to a plain bar of the same weight on our site and see the gap yourself. Prices move during the day, so look at the live figures rather than something you noted last week.

If all you want is the most gold for your money, a plain bar generally gives you more grams per dollar. If the design and the occasion are the point, the extra is what you are paying for. Different purposes, different products.

GST, testing and selling lunar gold back

Investment precious metals are exempt from GST in Singapore if they meet IRAS's conditions. For gold, that means at least 99.5% purity, in the form of a bar, ingot, wafer or coin. Bars must come from an accredited refiner and carry its mark, fineness and weight. Coins must be legal tender in their country of issue and meet IRAS's other conditions.

Standard 999.9 lunar coins and bars generally fit these rules, but some special or decorative versions may not. Ask us about the specific piece, and see IRAS's e-Tax guide for the full rules.

Every piece we sell is tested first, with a Precious Metal Verifier (PMV) and XRF, plus a Veriscan check on PAMP bars. When you sell to us, the final amount is set at the counter after testing, at that moment's price. Collectors sometimes pay more for certain older years, but don't count on it: a bullion buy-back is based mainly on the metal. Keeping the original card or capsule makes the whole process easier.