5 oz King Tut Silver Bar

The 5 oz King Tut Silver Bar

The King Tut bar is silver bought for the sculpture as much as the metal. Part of the Sculptural Arts Collection from Argentia Precious Metals, a Canadian company (the trade name of Canadian PMX Corp.), it renders Tutankhamun's death mask in ultra-high relief, struck to commemorate the centennial of Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the pharaoh's intact tomb. The result is closer to a small three-dimensional sculpture than a conventional flat bar, with the mask's striped nemes headdress, uraeus cobra, and serene face standing out in dramatic depth.

Two production details set it apart from mass-market art bars. It is .9999 fine silver sourced from LBMA-recognised refineries, a step above the .999 standard most art bars use, and Argentia's free-flowing metal process gives every bar a unique live-edge outline, so no two King Tut bars share the same profile. Three finishes are offered: bright Ultra High Relief, Antiqued with a darkened patina that emphasises the contours, and a soft, stone-like Matte.

The 5 oz weight (155.5 g) is a sensible canvas for this kind of work, big enough for sculptural detail, far cheaper per piece than a 10 oz format. As bullion, expect to pay above plain-bar pricing for the artistry; standard 5 oz silver bars run roughly 4 to 7% over spot and an art bar sits above that. Buyers are collectors of Egyptian themes and Argentia's series first, premium-optimising stackers second.

King Tut Bar Specifications

The obverse carries Argentia's stylised triangle logo with hallmarks reading "5 oz Fine Silver .9999," framed by a geometric pattern of grouped squares and circles that nods to ancient Egyptian architectural ornament. The reverse is the death mask itself in ultra-high relief, produced by a free-flowing metal, die-struck method.

Security is packaging-based rather than embedded: the holographic seal on the Mylar sleeve and the brand hallmarks are the verification points, with no micro-engraving or electronic features. The unique live-edge profile of each bar is itself a soft authentication marker. Bars ship 50 to a master box for bulk buyers, and there is no certificate of authenticity, so the sealed sleeve is worth preserving.

Tax Treatment of the King Tut Bar

The bar's .9999 purity comfortably clears every purity-based exemption that exists for silver, so its tax position is just the standard silver-bar story for each jurisdiction.

• Canada: the home market, since Argentia is Canadian. GST/HST exempt as silver refined above the federal 99.9% threshold, in bar form.
• US: the main retail market, with the bar stocked by major dealers. State sales tax rules vary; most states exempt bullion, others tax it, and a handful apply thresholds. At a 5 oz silver price point the bar can fall below thresholds like Florida's $500 line on a single-bar order. For IRAs, silver must be 99.9%+ purity, which the bar meets, though custodian acceptance of art bars is worth confirming before buying for that purpose.
• UK: 20% VAT applies on new silver bars, and there is no CGT exemption since bars have no legal tender status. UK dealer availability is limited in any case.
• EU: full local VAT on new silver, between 17% and 27% depending on the member state.
• Australia and New Zealand: GST-free as investment-grade silver, both jurisdictions setting the bar at 99.9% purity for silver.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore exempts qualifying investment precious metals from GST and has no capital gains tax; Hong Kong levies no sales tax, duty, or CGT at all.

The Death Mask Behind the Bar

Tutankhamun ruled Egypt around 1332 to 1323 BCE and was, by the standards of pharaohs, a minor king. He became the most famous figure of ancient Egypt for one reason: on 4 November 1922, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon found his tomb in the Valley of the Kings virtually intact, the only pharaonic burial ever discovered largely undisturbed. The gold death mask recovered from the tomb weighs over 22 pounds, roughly 11 kg, and is held at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, with plans to move it to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. It remains one of the most recognised archaeological artifacts in the world.

Argentia's bar reproduces that mask's defining features, the striped headdress, the false beard, and the calm expression, timed to the discovery's centennial. The ultra-high-relief striking is what makes the reproduction work: a flat engraving cannot capture the mask's depth, while the UHR process lets the headdress and cobra rise off the bar's surface.

Within Argentia's Sculptural Arts Collection, the King Tut sits alongside the Egyptian Cat at 5 oz, Alexander the Great at 5 oz, and Goddess Mara at 10 oz, all sharing the .9999 purity and the same free-flowing production method that leaves each piece with a one-of-a-kind edge. For collectors, the practical consequence of that process is pleasant: every King Tut bar is physically unique, which is rare in a product category built on uniformity.

King Tut vs Other Egyptian and Art Bars

Within the Egyptian-theme niche, the King Tut's differentiators are purity and process. Scottsdale Mint has produced Egyptian-themed bars and rounds, but typically in .999 silver; other mints, including Republic Metals, have issued Tutankhamun-themed bars, again generally at .999 and without the ultra-high-relief sculptural treatment. The Argentia bar's .9999 fineness and UHR striking put it in a smaller class, though the purity difference is more bragging right than investment edge, 99.99% versus 99.9% being negligible in metal value.

The benchmark art-bar competitor is PAMP Suisse, whose art bars carry the strongest brand recognition in the category. PAMP works in .999 purity with standard form and industrial finishing, where Argentia's live-edge process makes each bar physically unique. PAMP's advantage is resale: a globally photographed Swiss brand sells anywhere, while Argentia recovery depends more on finding a buyer who values the design. Neither includes the kind of embedded security a sovereign mint coin carries.

The stacking alternative is simply a plain 5 oz silver bar from a recognised refiner at 4 to 7% over spot, or stepping up to a 10 oz bar for better per-ounce pricing. Within Argentia's own range, the Egyptian Cat and Alexander the Great offer the same format and purity with different subjects, which matters mainly to collectors assembling the Sculptural Arts set.