100 oz Silver Bar - Asahi

These new 100 oz silver bars are struck by the newly formed Asahi Refining, which took over major holdings from Johnson Matthey. 

Bar Highlights:

• - Contains 100 troy oz of .999 pure silver.

• - Struck in stackable ingot form.

• - Features official Assay mark.

For serious investors, the 100 oz Asahi Silver Bar might look strikingly familiar. Asahi Refining was able to get its business up and running quickly by purchasing two refineries from Johnson Matthey as the latter company minimizes its refining activities in the precious metals industry. Although the bars have the markings of the new company, the molds appear similar to those previously used by Johnson Matthey.

Regardless of the similarity, these bars are newly struck products from the refiners at Asahi Refining. Johnson Matthey has been divesting from its gold and silver refining business slowly over the past few years, completing the full sale of its precious metals holdings and facilities to Asahi Refining in July 2015 under a deal that had been announced in December 2014.

On the obverse face of these 100 oz Asahi Silver Bars you’ll find the stamp of the new refiner at the top. Inside an oval at the top of the bar are the words “Assayers, Refiners,” and the name of the new company encircles that as “Asahi SLC.” The only other engravings featured on these bars include the weight, purity as “999,” and the assayer’s mark in the bottom corner.

Asahi Refining completed its acquisition of Johnson Matthey facilities officially in July 2015, but the process of taking over operations and production occurred much earlier in the year. In March 2015, Asahi Holdings took control of the Johnson Matthey precious metals refineries in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and Brampton, Ontario, Canada in March, and began operating as Asahi Refining.