Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Sjoerd Harder on the occasion of his 60 th birthday A series of novel 3-N,N-dimethylaminofunctionalized phosphinines were synthesized and structurally characterized. DFT calculations showed that these aromatic phosphorus heterocycles possess stronger π-donor and σ-donor properties compared to the parent phosphinine C 5 H 5 P. With CuBr • SMe 2 , the corresponding complexes of the type [(phosphinine) 2 CuBr] 2 are formed, which show the classical terminal σ-coordination mode of the phosphorus donor towards the Cu(I) center. Upon reaction with AuCl • SMe 2 , mononuclear phosphinine-Au(I)Cl complexes could be obtained and crystallographically characterized. Moreover, the presence of a SiMe 3 -group and a donorfunctionality provide the possibility for post-synthetic ligand modifications. With CuCl • SMe 2 the phosphinine-based hydrochloride salts forms a rare Cu(I) complex with a Cu 4 Cl 4core, that contains two pairs of differently coordinating phosphinine ligands.