Casting in bronze, sterling and gold is no problem, the bull head on my last buckle post (3d die) is cast. But to cast in solid gold is very expensive these days. A die struck figure like the figure on this buckle is a good solution, and you can still put your own art work into it if you could make the die yourself. Engraving a figure would take to long and expensive for most applications. I build buckles for events and that requires a number of buckles, each with a different figure. Die stricking is just anouther dimension that would add to my art.