The Royal Mint has started selling gold and silver bars directly to the public for the first time.

Silver minted bars are available in 100g units, while the gold bars range from 1g to 100g.

Depending on the price of the precious metals at the time of purchase, a 1g gold bar could cost around £40, while 100g could be around £2,800.

The bars are branded with the initials RMR for Royal Mint Refinery, which was last used in 1968.

Golden deal: The Royal Mint has started selling gold and silver bars directly to the public for the first time

The Royal Mint Refinery marque dates back to 1852 and the brand became known for handling much of the gold and silver bullion sent to London from across the world for processing under the RMR label.

The name survived the First and Second World Wars until production ceased in 1968.

The new bars are likely to appeal to people looking for a 'cost-effective' way to buy bullion, with the gold bars having the added appeal of being VAT-free, the Mint said.

UK citizens looking to enhance their self-invested personal pension (Sipp) or small self-administered scheme can get up to 45 per cent tax relief on their purchase of gold RMR bars if they are bought through their pension scheme.

Solid price: Gold bars range from 1g to 100g, and silver are available in 100g units

Lisa Elward, the Royal Mint's head of international sales and bullion, said: 'We are thrilled to be able to add minted bars bearing the historic Royal Mint Refinery marque to our bullion range.'

The RMR bars are being made available directly to customers through royalmintbullion.com, the Mint's online bullion trading platform which was set up last September to help people to buy and sell gold easily and securely.

When the Mint set up the site, it said that consumers had in the past been been deterred by perceived barriers to buying precious metals.

It also pointed to research by the World Gold Council which suggested that there was potentially £4 billion-worth of untapped demand for gold investment within the UK alone.