{"id":3359,"date":"2026-08-05T09:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T06:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/gold-coin-premiums-why-shop-price-differs-from-spot\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T09:08:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T06:08:05","slug":"gold-coin-premiums-why-shop-price-differs-from-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/gold-coin-premiums-why-shop-price-differs-from-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Coin Premiums: Why Shop Prices Beat Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You check the gold price in the morning news, walk into a shop to buy a one-ounce coin, and the price on the tag is always higher than the number on the screen. That gap is not an error or a hidden fee \u2014 it is called the <strong>premium<\/strong>, and it is a normal part of how the physical precious metals market works. In this article we look at where the spot price comes from, what a premium is actually made of, why it differs between coins and bars, and how to compare it as a buyer.<\/p>\n<h2>What the spot price is and where the number comes from<\/h2>\n<p>The spot price is the price at which large, standardised quantities of gold trade on the wholesale market \u2014 typically as vaulted bars or unallocated account gold, not as coins you can hold in your hand. The best-known benchmark is the <strong>LBMA Gold Price<\/strong>, set twice a day at 10:30 and 15:00 London time in an electronic auction. The auction is administered by ICE Benchmark Administration, and the price is quoted in US dollars per fine troy ounce of 995 gold before being converted into other currencies (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lbma.org.uk\/prices-and-data\/lbma-gold-price\/lbma-gold-price\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LBMA<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The important nuance: that price applies to <em>standardised gold traded at wholesale<\/em>. It is not the price at which anyone will sell you one specific coin that has been minted, packaged and shipped to Estonia. Spot is the starting point, not the final price \u2014 much as the exchange price of wheat is not the price of a loaf of bread on the shelf.<\/p>\n<h2>What a premium is and how it is calculated<\/h2>\n<p>The premium is the difference between the price of a product and the spot value of the pure metal it contains. It is usually expressed as a percentage:<\/p>\n<p><em>Premium % = (retail price \u2212 spot value of the metal) \u00f7 spot value of the metal \u00d7 100<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For example, if one ounce of gold is worth EUR 3,500 at spot and the coin sells for EUR 3,675, the premium is EUR 175, or 5%. The same logic applies in reverse when you sell: a dealer will typically buy back at or slightly below spot. The gap between the buy and sell price is the spread, and it is the spread \u2014 not the premium alone \u2014 that determines how far the price has to move before your position breaks even.<\/p>\n<h2>What the premium is actually made of<\/h2>\n<p>A premium is not a single fee but the sum of several real cost components:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Refining and minting.<\/strong> Turning a gold bar into a coin means producing blanks, striking, quality control and packaging. The mint charges for this per piece.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mint and wholesaler margins.<\/strong> Mints usually sell to authorised distributors, who sell on to retailers. Every link in that chain has its own margin.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shipping and insurance.<\/strong> Moving precious metal means insured, secured logistics, and that costs money per shipment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Retailer costs.<\/strong> Premises, safes, staff, accounting, inventory, and the price risk carried on stock sitting in the vault.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Supply and demand.<\/strong> When retail demand is strong and mints cannot keep up, premiums rise. When demand cools, premiums fall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why a small coin costs more per gram<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the minting, packaging and handling cost is <em>per piece<\/em>, not per gram. Striking a 1\/10 oz coin does not cost a tenth of what a one-ounce coin costs \u2014 it costs almost the same. So a small piece carries the same cost spread over far less metal, and the premium as a percentage is clearly higher.<\/p>\n<p>In practice this means a <a href=\"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/pood\/100-g-argor-heraeus-gold-bar\/\">100 g gold bar<\/a> gives you a cheaper entry per gram than a <a href=\"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/pood\/1-10-oz-canadian-maple-leaf-gold-coin\/\">1\/10 oz Canadian Maple Leaf gold coin<\/a>. What you give up is divisibility: small coins can be sold one at a time, a large bar cannot. Which is better depends on whether your goal is the lowest price per gram or flexibility. We covered this trade-off in more depth in our comparison of gold bars and gold coins.<\/p>\n<h2>Premiums are not fixed \u2014 they move<\/h2>\n<p>Premiums move independently of the spot price and reflect tightness in the physical market. When retail investors buy heavily, mint order books lengthen and premiums stretch upward; when buying interest fades, premiums come back down. In June 2026, Kitco noted that physical premiums in China and other major markets had softened, removing one source of support for the price (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kitco.com\/news\/article\/2026-06-19\/hawkish-fed-keeps-pressure-gold-physical-premiums-soften-kitco-pm-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kitco<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>For context: according to the World Gold Council, bar and coin demand in the second quarter of 2026 came to 307.1 tonnes, 3% below the same quarter a year earlier, while the first half was still 21% above the same period last year (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gold.org\/goldhub\/research\/gold-demand-trends\/gold-demand-trends-q2-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Gold Council<\/a>). That rhythm of demand is exactly what pushes premiums up and down over longer stretches.<\/p>\n<h2>Is there an upper limit on the premium?<\/h2>\n<p>For investment gold, EU VAT rules set a surprisingly concrete limit. To qualify as VAT-exempt investment gold, a gold coin must be of a purity of at least 900 thousandths, minted after 1800, be or have been legal tender in its country of origin, and be <strong>normally sold at a price that does not exceed the open market value of the gold it contains by more than 80%<\/strong>. For bars, the requirement is a purity of at least 995 thousandths and a weight accepted by the bullion market (<a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/EN\/legal-content\/summary\/vat-special-scheme-for-gold.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EUR-Lex<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>That 80% is not a yardstick for a normal premium \u2014 the premium on a standard bullion coin such as a <a href=\"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/pood\/1-oz-austrian-philharmonic-gold-coin-2025\/\">1 oz Austrian Philharmonic gold coin<\/a> sits far below it. But if you come across a gold coin priced at several times its metal content, you are no longer buying gold; you are buying collector value, and that is a different market with different rules.<\/p>\n<h2>Why silver premiums look bigger<\/h2>\n<p>With silver, two extra factors come into play. First, silver is many times cheaper, so the same per-piece minting cost accounts for a much larger share of the metal&#8217;s value. Second, the VAT exemption for investment gold <em>does not extend to silver<\/em> \u2014 in Estonia the standard VAT rate has been 24% since 1 July 2025 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.emta.ee\/en\/business-client\/taxes-and-payment\/value-added-tax\/vat-rates-and-supply-exempt-tax\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Estonian Tax and Customs Board<\/a>). That is why the gap to spot on, say, a <a href=\"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/pood\/american-silver-eagle\/\">1 oz American Silver Eagle<\/a> looks far wider than on gold, even though part of it is tax rather than dealer margin.<\/p>\n<h2>How to compare premiums in practice<\/h2>\n<p>A few simple rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Always compare the <strong>percentage over spot<\/strong>, not the euro amount \u2014 the euro figure depends on where the gold price happened to be.<\/li>\n<li>Look at the <strong>final price including shipping and insurance<\/strong>, not just the sticker price.<\/li>\n<li>Ask for the <strong>buy-back price<\/strong> too. A low buying premium paired with a poor buy-back is not a good deal.<\/li>\n<li>Compare <strong>like for like<\/strong>. Premiums on products from different mints, years or weights cannot be set side by side directly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Do I get the premium back when I sell the coin?<\/strong><br \/>\nPartly, and not automatically. The buy-back price depends on demand for that specific product at the moment you sell. Widely recognised bullion coins usually hold a better buy-back price than obscure products.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is the lowest premium always the best choice?<\/strong><br \/>\nNot necessarily. A very large bar is cheap per gram, but you cannot sell it in parts. Factor in liquidity and divisibility as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Should the online price and the shop price be the same?<\/strong><br \/>\nThey are usually close, but buying in person avoids shipping and insurance costs, while online prices may reflect a fresher spot price.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell precious metals. Precious metal prices fluctuate. Before making any investment decision, consider your own circumstances and consult a specialist if necessary.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Goldman &amp; Sons editorial team<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why does a gold coin cost more than the spot price? We break down what a premium is made of, why small coins cost more per gram, and how to compare offers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investeerimine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldmansons.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}