Tola
Also: Tola, Bhari
The tola is a long-standing South Asian weight unit for gold and silver, fixed at exactly 11.6638 grams and common above all in India, Pakistan and the Gulf trade.
The tola is a centuries-old measure of weight from the Indian subcontinent that has long featured in the gold trade. Its precise value of 11.6638 grams traces back to the mass of the silver rupee, which was standardised during the era of the Mughal Empire. These days the tola turns up chiefly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and across the gold markets of the Arabian Peninsula - Dubai and Bahrain in particular.
Origin and Historical Significance
"Tola" stems from the Sanskrit tula, meaning scales. Under the British Indian weights system the tola was set as the statutory unit for precious metals, matching the weight of one silver rupee. Tying money to weight in this way was characteristic of pre-modern coinage regimes, and it accounts for the unit's survival to the present day in the jewellery and bar business.
Conversion to Common Units
1 tola = 11.6638 g = 180 grains = 0.375 troy ounces
1 troy ounce = 2.6667 tola
10 tola = 116.638 g = approx. 3.75 troy ounces
The unit converter works out the current gold price per tola for you automatically.
Tola Bars on the World Market
You will find tola bars offered in 1, 5, 10 and 100 tola sizes. The 10-tola bar (around 116.6 g) is the leading format in Gulf wholesale dealing and functions there as a regionally entrenched market standard - it is, however, not an LBMA Good Delivery bar, which would call for a minimum weight of roughly 350 troy ounces. Typically these bars are produced at a fineness of 999 or 995 (24 carat / fine gold).
| Denomination | Grams | Troy ounces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 tola | 11.66 g | 0.375 ozt |
| 5 tola | 58.32 g | 1.875 ozt |
| 10 tola | 116.64 g | 3.750 ozt |
| 100 tola | 1,166.38 g | 37.50 ozt |
Distinction from Other Units
Do not mix up the tola with the East Asian tael, whose weight ranges roughly from 37.4 g (Hong Kong) to 50 g (China) depending on where you are. The troy ounce (31.1035 g) and the grain (0.0648 g) sit within the same troy family but serve as separate reference quantities. The melt value calculator handles every common weight unit, the tola included.
In Brief
Weighing 11.6638 g, the tola is a clearly defined, historically rooted unit that stays firmly embedded in the gold trade of the Indian subcontinent and the Gulf. If you buy or appraise bars or jewellery from those regions, you should be able to convert with ease into grams and troy ounces.