Tael
Also: Tahil, Liang, 兩
A time-honoured East Asian weight unit for precious metals, the tael carries no single value: depending on the region it falls somewhere between roughly 37.4 g and 37.8 g.
Reaching back among the most ancient weight measures of East Asia, the tael — also spelled tahil, or liang 兩 in Chinese — remains in active use across the precious-metals markets of China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. In earlier centuries it functioned as a monetary weight for silver, much as the troy ounce did in Europe, and it went on to become a recognised standard format for gold bars.
One name, many weights
What defines the tael above all is that it never settled on a single international value. The weight it stands for shifts from one trading hub to the next:
| Region | Weight |
|---|---|
| Hong Kong | 37.4290 g |
| Taiwan | 37.5000 g |
| China (metric, since 1959) | 50.0000 g |
| Singapore | ≈ 37.4290 g |
Comparing tael bars of differing origin therefore always means checking which regional definition applies. Converting to grams or troy ounces is straightforward with the Unit Converter.
Tael gold bars in Hong Kong
Hong Kong's market makes heavy use of tael bars (sometimes called biscuit bars). They usually change hands in 1, 2, 5 and 10 tael sizes and commonly carry a fineness of 990‰ (99.0%) — a shade under the 999.9‰ that is typical of European bars. A 1-tael bar has a gross weight of 37.4290 g, and its fine weight works out like this:
Fine weight = Gross weight × Fineness
Example: 37.4290 g × 0.990 = 37.055 g fine gold
To pin down the current melt value, turn to the Melt Value Calculator.
Its place in history
Throughout much of East Asia, the tael reigned as the standard accounting unit for silver right up to the 20th century. The Chinese silver tael (the Kuping tael) underpinned, among other things, 19th-century trade agreements and indemnity payments. When the People's Republic of China adopted the metric system in 1959, it pegged the liang at precisely 50 g, whereas Hong Kong and Taiwan carried on with the older figure.
Setting it apart from kindred units
- Troy ounce: 31.1035 g — the international unit for trading precious metals
- Tola: 11.6638 g — a South Asian measure, prominent above all on India's gold market
- Gram: the SI base unit, and the one most widely used in Europe and worldwide
Measured against the global standard, a single Hong Kong tael comes to about 1.2034 troy ounces.
In brief
Because the tael is anything but a fixed quantity, its weight rides entirely on where it comes from. Before buying or selling an East Asian tael bar, always confirm the origin definition alongside its fineness, then weigh it against the current gold price.