10 oz Goddess Mara Silver Bar

The 10 oz Goddess Mara Silver Bar

The Goddess Mara is an ultra-high-relief art bar from Argentia Precious Metals, a trade name of Canadian PMX Corp., as part of its Sculptural Arts Collection. It depicts Mara, the chief goddess of Latvian mythology and the female counterpart of the supreme god Dievs, seated on a forest throne with a crown of flowers and a full moon rising behind her. Latvian mythology is a rare theme in bullion, where mythological designs are otherwise dominated by Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse subjects.

Two production details set this bar apart from ordinary 10 oz bars. It is struck from .9999 fine silver sourced from LBMA-recognised refineries, a step above the .999 standard for silver bars, and it is made with a free-flowing metal process that leaves a unique live edge, so no two bars are dimensionally identical. The 10 oz weight also puts it in a less crowded segment of the art bar market, where most sculptural pieces are 1 oz or 5 oz.

For pure stacking, generic 10 oz silver bars are cheaper, with industrial-finish bars from refiners like Asahi carrying lower premiums and the 10 oz weight class generally trading at 3-6% over spot. The Goddess Mara is a hybrid purchase: 10 ounces of high-purity silver plus a sculptural design, and it has been out of stock at multiple major dealers at times, pointing to limited production runs or strong demand.

Goddess Mara 10 oz Bar Specifications

The obverse carries the Argentia logo, a stylised triangle, with hallmarks stating weight, purity, and metal type, set against a Greek meander pattern that echoes the classical theme. The reverse holds the sculpted Mara design; the Antiqued finish darkens the recessed areas for contrast, while the Colour Enamelled edition adds hand-painted detail to the throne and flora.

Security rests on the holographic seal of the Mylar packaging and the bar's distinctive sculpted profile rather than micro-engraving or electronic verification; there is no published fixed mintage, with production appearing to run in limited batches. Keep the sealed sleeve intact, since silver tarnishes on exposure to sulphur and original packaging supports resale value.

Goddess Mara Bar Tax Treatment by Country

The bar is not legal tender and has no face value, so it is taxed as investment silver everywhere; its .9999 purity clears every relevant threshold.

• Canada: 0% GST/HST, as silver refined above the 99.9% federal purity threshold. Argentia is Canadian, making this a domestic product for Canadian buyers.
• US: No federal sales tax; most states exempt bullion, with the remainder varying by state. Long-term capital gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• UK: 20% VAT on purchase, and CGT applies on disposal since bars carry no legal tender status. The bar is also not commonly stocked by UK dealers.
• Australia: 0% GST on investment-grade silver at 99.9% purity or higher.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt at 99.9% silver purity or higher.
• Singapore: 0% GST under the Investment Precious Metals scheme; no capital gains tax.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, no import duty, no capital gains tax.
• EU: Full local VAT at standard national rates on new silver bars.

Goddess Mara vs Lady Fortuna, Argentia Stablemates, and Plain 10 oz Bars

The most famous art bar comparison is PAMP Suisse's Lady Fortuna, the most recognisable goddess-design bar in the world. The PAMP bar wins on global brand recognition and dealer familiarity, but its standard form is .999 purity against the Mara's .9999, and PAMP's minted format is uniform where Argentia's live-edge process makes each Mara bar physically unique. Which matters more depends on whether you value liquidity or distinctiveness.

Within Argentia's own Sculptural Arts Collection, the Goddess Mara sits alongside the Egyptian Cat, King Tut, and Alexander the Great, all 5 oz pieces sharing the same .9999 purity and ultra-high-relief production. The Mara's 10 oz format makes it one of Argentia's larger standard offerings and doubles the silver content per piece against those stablemates.

Against plain bullion, the trade-off is straightforward. Industrial-finish 10 oz bars from refiners such as Asahi, the successor to Johnson Matthey's refining operations, carry lower premiums with no artistic component, and the 10 oz class as a whole is regarded as the best balance of premium savings and liquidity in silver, typically 3-6% over spot against 5-15% for 1 oz bars. An art bar will always cost more per ounce than its plain equivalent; the question is whether the design premium holds at resale, and limited-batch sculptural pieces depend on collector demand for that, where plain bars depend only on spot.