1 oz East India Company Una and the Lion Gold Bar

The 1 oz East India Company Una and the Lion Gold Bar

This 1 oz gold bar from the East India Company carries the Una and the Lion motif, a design with a stronger pedigree than almost anything else in modern bullion: it reinterprets William Wyon's 1839 five-pound gold coin, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful coins ever produced. The East India Company has issued annual Una and the Lion bullion releases for the Government of Saint Helena since 2020, and this bar extends the theme into bar form with 31.1035 grams of 999.9 fine gold.

The pitch is design plus metal. As investment gold at four-nines fineness, the bar qualifies for the VAT exemptions that apply to gold across the UK, EU, and most major markets, so the buyer is not paying a tax penalty for the decorative format. The decision point against a plain 1 oz gold bar from a mainstream refiner is premium: themed products generally cost more over spot than generic bars, and the Una and the Lion programme positions itself as a collector-bullion crossover with lower mintages than mainstream bullion lines.

Buyers should also note what a bar does not offer. The coin versions of this design are legal tender of Saint Helena; a bar carries no face value and no legal tender status. For most jurisdictions that changes nothing, but in the UK it confirms there is no CGT exemption, which only applies to UK legal tender coins in any case.

Una and the Lion 1 oz Gold Bar Specifications

The 999.9 fineness is the retail standard for gold bars and comfortably clears the 995 minimum that defines investment gold for tax purposes in the UK and EU. The design depicts Lady Una and her lion, the pairing first struck onto British coinage by William Wyon in 1839 and revived by the East India Company in its annual series from 2020.

The 1 oz size is the sweet spot of the gold bar market: the best balance of premium efficiency and resale liquidity, recognised by dealers globally. Standard practice with any 1 oz minted gold bar applies here: keep it in its original sealed packaging, since breaking a seal can mean re-assaying at resale, and verify a listing's finish and packaging details before comparing prices, as presentation varies between releases.

Tax Position of the Una and the Lion Gold Bar

At 999.9 fineness this bar qualifies as investment gold, which makes it free of sales tax in nearly every market the design is sold into.

• UK: 0% VAT as investment gold (995+ fineness). No CGT exemption: that relief covers UK legal tender coins like the Britannia and Sovereign, and applies to neither bars nor Saint Helena issues. Gains above the £3,000 annual allowance are taxable at 18-24%.
• EU: 0% VAT under the Investment Gold Directive for bars at 995+ fineness. In Germany, gains are tax-free after a 12-month hold.
• US: No federal sales tax; most states exempt bullion, several apply thresholds. Long-term gains are taxed at the 28% collectibles rate.
• Canada: 0% GST/HST for gold at 99.5%+ purity.
• Australia: 0% GST for investment-grade gold at 99.5%+ purity.
• New Zealand: 0% GST at 99.5%+ purity.
• Singapore: 0% GST under the Investment Precious Metals scheme; no capital gains tax.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, no duty, no capital gains tax.

For UK buyers attracted to the design, the coin-versus-bar question has a tax edge worth checking: neither this bar nor the Saint Helena coin versions are CGT-exempt, so the usual UK argument for paying a coin premium does not apply within this series.

From Wyon's 1839 Masterpiece to the Modern Series

The Una and the Lion design originates with William Wyon, Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint, who in 1839 depicted the young Queen Victoria as Lady Una guiding the British lion on a five-pound gold coin. Una is the heroine of Book I of Edmund Spenser's 1590 epic The Faerie Queene, where she represents truth and is protected by a lion; Wyon's decision to portray a reigning monarch as a fictional character was unprecedented in British coinage. The inscription "DIRIGE DEUS GRESSUS MEOS" ("May God direct my steps") circled the figures. Only a few hundred originals were struck for collector sets, and surviving examples now command six-figure sums, with one proof selling for over £500,000 at auction.

The modern revival came in two forms. The Royal Mint issued a faithful reproduction of Wyon's reverse in 2019 under its Great Engravers series. The following year the East India Company launched its own annual programme for the Government of Saint Helena, with designs by Glyn Davies that reinterpret the pairing of Una and her lion in a fresh pose each year rather than copying the original. The 2024 release was subtitled "Faerie Queene", acknowledging the Spenser poem directly.

The East India Company brand itself is a licensed revival: the historic company was dissolved in 1874, and the modern entity, established in 2010, operates under licence from the UK government. Saint Helena, the issuing territory for the coin series, is a remote South Atlantic island best known as the place of Napoleon's exile, and has issued collector coinage through various partnerships for decades. This bar carries that accumulated design history into a format priced closer to the metal.