The reaction of phosphine–phosphonium derivatives, such as [AuX(PPh 2 CH 2 PPh 2 Me)]ClO 4 or [Au(C 6 F 5 ) 3 (PPh 2 CH 2 PPh 2 Me)]ClO 4 , or non-cyclic bis(diphenylphosphino)methane-bridging complexes, as [Au(C 6 F 5 ) 2 X(PPh 2 CH 2 PPh 2 )Au(C 6 F 5 )] (X=Cl, C 6 F 5 ) or [Au(C 6 F 5 )(PPh 2 CH 2 PPh 2 )Au(C 6 F 5 )], with acetylacetonate derivatives or gold(I) compounds leads to the synthesis of non-cyclic methanide gold complexes of the types [AuX{PPh 2 C(AuPPh 3 ) 2 PPh 2 Me}]ClO 4 , [Au(C 6 F 5 ) 2 X{PPh 2 CH(AuPPh 3 )PPh 2 Me}]ClO 4 , [Au(C 6 F 5 ) 3 {PPh 2 CH–(AuPPh 3 )PPh 2 }Au(C 6 F 5 )], [N(PPh 3 ) 2 ][Au(C 6 F 5 ) 3 {PPh 2 CH–(AuX)PPh 2 }Au(C 6 F 5 )] or [N(PPh 3 ) 2 ][{Au(C 6 F 5 ) 3 (PPh 2 CH 2 PPh 2 )–Au(C 6 F 5 )} 2 Au].