1 oz Gold Bar Dragon 2026 (Mintage: 8,888)
- Rich in detail: finely chiselled scales
- Perth Mint: tradition since 1896
- Legal tender: face value 100 AUD
- Rich in detailSpread claws and blazing detail across the whole surface
- Perth MintMinted by the world-famous mint in Australia
- Legal tenderRecognised as a coin, featuring the portrait of King Charles III
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1 ounce fine gold
It breathes no fire. It brings the rain.
Dragon Gold Bar 2026, front with the dragon
The whole dragon stands upright on the bar, claws outstretched, its body covered in fine scales.
From the water into the clouds
It lives in the water and rises into the clouds.
Dragons have appeared in Chinese art since Neolithic times. No later than the Han dynasty, from 206 BC to AD 220, they were regarded as beings of water: they live in rivers and seas, fly up into the clouds, govern the weather and bring the life-giving rain.
This is how old books tell it: the dragon’s breath becomes clouds, and the clouds become rain or lightning. In winter it sleeps beneath rivers and ponds, in the first month of spring it rises, and then it thunders, and rain falls.
In China it stands for the beneficence of heaven. The dragons of Europe are mostly winged and breathe fire, while in East Asia the dragon is regarded as a benevolent being, usually without any wings.
“Above all things the dragon in China is a rain-maker.”
A dragon made of many animals
The antlers of the stag, the scales of the carp.
According to old tradition, the dragon is made up of parts of many animals: the antlers of the stag, the scales of the carp, the claws of the eagle and the body of the snake. Learned Chinese books also name whiskers at the mouth and a luminous pearl beneath the chin.
The magnifying glass reveals how finely the design is struck here.
HeadThe head of the dragon
ClawsClaws like those of an eagle
ScalesScales like those of a carp
Enlarged from the pictures in our gallery.
The legend of the Dragon Gate
The carp, which becomes a dragon.
A legend tells of the Yellow River: a carp that swims upstream through the Dragon Gate becomes a dragon.
In China the image stood for passing the civil service examination. On a Yuan dynasty inkstone in the Metropolitan Museum, the grinding surface and the ink well lie between carp and dragon; their diligent use might well decide success.
The phoenix
Dragon and phoenix, emperor and empress.
On a porcelain plate of the Wanli period in the Metropolitan Museum, the five-clawed dragon is the emblem of the emperor. At its side appears the phoenix, which often stands for the empress.
On a wedding robe from the 1930s in the Victoria and Albert Museum, too, dragon and phoenix form the basic pattern, as the male and female elements of marriage. By tradition, the bride was “empress of the day.”
More companions of the dragon
The phoenixThe phoenix often stands for the empress, the dragon for the emperor.
The tigerThe dragon stands for the east, the white tiger for the west.
The pearlIn art, the dragon often chases a pearl, a symbol of wisdom.
The five elementsEarth, wood, metal, fire and water follow one another in a cycle.
The qilinWith the dragon, phoenix and tortoise, one of the four spiritual beings.
The emblem of the emperor
From the waves at the hem to the pearl.
An imperial robe of yellow silk from the Qianlong period, shown at the Palace Museum in Beijing in 2019, follows the usual arrangement from bottom to top: water lines form the waves of the ocean, from them rises Mount Kunlun, and at chest height the five-clawed dragon chases the flaming pearl.
The claws mattered: the five-clawed dragon, long, was distinguished from the four-clawed one, mang, which stood for lower ranks.
“Only the emperor and empress were allowed to wear bright yellow.”
Our dragons to scale
Dainty in gold, mighty in silver.
From 1/200 ounce of gold to 5 ounces of silver, side by side to the scale of their dimensions. The piece on this page is marked.
Whatever is available links to its product.
1/200 ounceGold, 14 mmGold14 mm- 1 ounceGold, 32.6 mmGold32.6 mm
1 ounceGold, 41.6 × 24.6 mmGold41.6 × 24.6 mm
1 ounceSilver, 40 mmSilver40 mm
2 ouncesGold, 36.6 mmGold36.6 mm
2 ouncesSilver, 50 mmSilver50 mm
3 ouncesSilver, 50 mmSilver50 mm
5 ouncesSilver, 65.25 mmSilver65.25 mm
At a glance
- Type
- Bar
- Metal
- Gold
- Design
- Dragon
- Weight
- 1 ounce fine gold
- Fineness
- 999.9/1,000
- Dimensions
- 41.6 × 24.6 mm
- Year
- 2026
- Quality
- Brilliant uncirculated
- Mintage
- 8,888 pieces
- Designer
- Jennifer McKenna
- Manufacturer
- Perth Mint
- Packaging
- Capsule
A coiled dragon of jade, made in the Shang dynasty, in the 13th or 12th century BC.
Pendant in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1 oz Dragon Minted Bar 2026 by the Perth Mint – strictly limited to 8,888 pieces
- Investment goal: With the Dragon gold bar, you invest your capital in a real tangible asset that effectively shields your savings from the creeping loss of purchasing power.
- Value preservation: As a proven store of value, physical precious metal preserves the true value of your assets – across years, decades, and generations.
- Protection: Especially in times of inflation, recession, and growing national debt, you safeguard your wealth with gold against economic and political turbulence.
The 1 oz Dragon Minted Bar 2026 – internationally known as the Rectangular Dragon or Dragon Rectangle – combines the clean shape of a bar with the appeal of a bullion coin. Minted by the world-renowned Perth Mint in Australia, founded as early as 1896, this rectangular minted bar carries a face value of 100 AUD (Australian dollars) and is thus official legal tender. The fineness is 999.9/1,000, and the fine weight is exactly one ounce – approximately 31.1 grams of pure fine gold.
A design full of power and symbolism
The obverse features an artfully modeled oriental dragon. With splayed claws, finely chiseled scales, and blazing details, it winds across the entire surface – accompanied by the year "2026" and the characteristic "P" mint mark of the Perth Mint. The reverse bears the portrait of King Charles III along with the inscriptions "CHARLES III AUSTRALIA", the weight, the fineness "9999", and the face value "100 DOLLARS". In Chinese culture, the dragon symbolizes strength, power, and good fortune; this issue thus follows the tradition of the lunar calendar, without being part of the classic Lunar series.
Strictly limited – the magic of eight
The worldwide mintage is limited to just 8,888 pieces. In Chinese culture, the number eight is considered a symbol of prosperity and good fortune – the mintage figure is thus a deliberate nod to tradition. This scarcity makes the Brilliant Uncirculated minted bar highly desirable for collectors and investors alike, as the dragon design changes every year, and sold-out years of issue cannot be repeated.
Why gold? Purchasing power protection with a millennia-long history
Gold is the world's oldest currency and has served as a stable store of value for over 6,000 years. As early as ancient Egypt, it served as a unit of measure in trade; later it shaped kingdoms, the Silk Road, and, throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the gold standard. It possesses an inherent, intrinsic value, has never been worth zero, and is recognized worldwide as a means of payment and exchange. As a scarce commodity with a naturally limited supply, it offers reliable inflation hedge and preserves your purchasing power when confidence in paper money wanes.
Gold is God's money – while fiat currency can be printed and multiplied at will by central banks, the supply of gold remains physically limited.
It is not without reason that central banks themselves rank among the largest gold holders in the world – a clear sign of how much trust is placed in the yellow precious metal, even at the highest levels. For your personal crisis protection, physical gold means security that you can literally hold in your hand. It is durable, retains its properties over time, and can be sold worldwide.
Tax advantages at a glance
- Investment gold is exempt from VAT upon purchase (§ 25c UStG).
- Profits from the sale are generally tax-free after a holding period of at least one year.
- High liquidity: tradable worldwide and easily convertible into cash at any time.
- Low correlation to many traditional assets – a building block for diversifying your portfolio.
Compared to other Perth Mint products
Those who prefer the classic bar will opt for the 1 oz Perth Mint bar with the swan logo; those seeking collector's potential will choose design series such as the Australian Kangaroo or the Lunar editions. The Rectangular Dragon combines both: it is flat and stackable as a bar, yet also stands out with its annually changing design and the low mintage of a collector's coin. Its slight premium over a plain standard bar is thus the price for exclusivity and design.
The minted bar is delivered well protected and individually in a coin capsule (clear capsule). The dimensions are 41.6 × 24.6 × 2.79 mm. This way, you preserve the design and surface in Brilliant Uncirculated condition permanently – a piece of gold that retains its shine for generations.
Product depiction may differ from the final product.
