What premium over spot means

A one-ounce American Gold Eagle weighs 33.931 grams. Only 31.1 of them are gold; the rest is the alloy that makes it 22 karat. The spot price is for that ounce of gold. A dealer’s price is for the whole coin. The difference between the two is the premium.

Three steps. Multiply spot by the metal actually in the piece, its fine weight: that is melt value. Take melt value away from the dealer’s price: that is the premium in dollars. Divide it by melt value: that is the premium in percent.

The tenth-ounce coin’s premium is smaller in dollars and nearly twice as large in percent. That is why the tables here show both.

The first line of each sum, the metal in the piece, is where most people go wrong. “Over spot” is exact only when a piece holds one troy ounce of fine metal, and most don’t:

Every premium here is measured against melt, whatever the size, and when a price sits below melt the premium is printed as a negative number.

A mint’s cost to make a piece barely changes with its size. Spread over a tenth of an ounce, that cost is a far bigger share of the metal than it is on a full ounce, and almost nothing on a kilo bar.

Coins tend to run above rounds, and rounds above bars. Neither order is fixed: bar premiums rose with the shortage in the 2025 silver run. So each product here is measured on its own, and no size’s premium is worked out from another’s. The gold floor shows the gap between sizes as it stands today.

Each dealer prices from its own costs, so the same Silver Maple carries a different premium at each one. Most also charge 3 to 4% more by card than by wire or check, and the tables here use the wire or check price.

Some listings look cheaper than most buyers can get: one per customer, a promotional price, a price that only holds above a minimum order. They stay on the page with a flag, and out of the default ranking. Spot moves all day and dealers reprice on their own clocks, which is why every premium here carries the time its price was last confirmed.

A premium is what a dealer asks today. It isn’t what the piece would fetch back: dealers buy below the price they sell at, and every price on this site is a selling price. It says nothing about rarity or condition, because the catalog is bullion, priced on its metal. And it doesn’t tell you whether a piece is worth buying. This site measures the premium and leaves that call to you.

• A product page →Every dealer's offer on one coin, ranked by premium, each with the time its price was confirmed.
• The silver floor →The cheapest ounce at every weight, compared by cost per ounce of fine metal.
• Deals →Offers below their own product's 30-day median.
• Spot →The price every premium here is measured from, with its history.