What the premium you were quoted means
The panel reports the premium over spot and the typical range for that specific product. These are the five readings, and the product matters as much as the number, because a fractional coin carries a higher premium than a bar for reasons that have nothing to do with the dealer.
- Below the typical range A good quote for this product
- The dealer is pricing under what we have recorded for that coin or bar. Check that the quote is for the product you actually want, that it holds at the quantity you are buying, and that the shipping and insurance are inside it rather than added afterwards.
- Inside the typical range A normal quote
- Where most quotes on a standard bullion product land, which for a one-ounce American Eagle is roughly 5% to 8% over spot. There is no premium to negotiate away here beyond a point, since the mint and the dealer both have costs inside that figure.
- Above the typical range Worth asking about
- Not unusual on a fractional coin or a low-volume product, and worth a question on anything standard. Ask what the same order costs in one-ounce bars, because the difference is often several percent of the whole purchase and it buys you the same ounces of metal.
- Past our red-flag line Roughly double the typical premium
- Premiums at this level are the pattern behind most of the enforcement actions the CFTC has brought in this category. If the coin is described as rare, exclusive or collector-grade, check it against the fineness rule in 26 U.S. Code 408(m)(3) first, because many of those products are not IRA-approved at all.
- Above anything we have priced Outside our recorded range
- We have not seen a standard bullion product quoted this far over spot in any of the pricing we have collected. The metal content is a matter of arithmetic and it is the same whoever sells it to you, so the difference is going somewhere other than into your account.
What is a coin premium, and why does every dealer charge one?
The premium is the gap between what a dealer charges for a coin and what the gold inside it is worth at the market price. Every dealer charges one, because a coin has to be minted, distributed, insured and held in inventory before it reaches you, and none of that is free. Spot is the price of the metal rather than the price of a product made from it.
What varies enormously is the size of that gap. Across the fourteen IRA-approved products we track, the typical premium runs from 3% on a ten-ounce bar to 18% on a tenth-ounce American Gold Eagle, and the reason is fabrication cost rather than anything about the gold. Minting a tenth-ounce coin costs nearly what minting a full-ounce coin costs, against a tenth of the metal to spread it over.
That is why the product you are quoted matters as much as the dealer you pick. A reader who agrees to fractional coins because they were told the coins are easier to sell later has usually accepted three times the markup of the bar they could have bought instead, and inside an IRA the divisibility argument is weak anyway, since the custodian sells whatever you instruct.
How to check a dealer quote against the spot price
Four steps, and the first one is where most of the accuracy comes from.
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Pick the exact product you were quoted
A one-ounce American Gold Eagle and a one-tenth-ounce Eagle carry the same name and completely different markups, because the fabrication cost is nearly the same on both and the tenth holds a tenth of the metal. Getting the size right is most of the accuracy here.
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Enter the total quote, not the per-coin price
Sales floors quote both ways and switch between them mid-call. Put in whichever figure you were given and set the quantity to match, and the calculator handles the division.
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Check the spot price it is comparing against
Spot is fetched at build and refreshed in your browser, and the timestamp sits beside it. Gold moves a percent or more in a day, so a quote from Tuesday checked against Friday's spot will read a little off through no fault of the dealer.
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Read the percentage, then read the position track
The number on its own means little until you can see it against the field. The track places your quote among the fourteen products we price, so a 9% premium reads differently on a tenth-ounce Eagle, where 18% is typical, than on a one-ounce bar, where 4% is.
What each input means, and where to find it
Three of these come off the order confirmation. The fourth is fetched live and shown above so you can see what the comparison is being run against.
- Quoted price
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What the dealer said the order comes to. Use the number before shipping and insurance if those are itemised separately, because they are a real cost but they are not a markup on the metal.
Where to find it The written confirmation, or the figure read out on the call. A dealer who will not put a total in writing before you commit is telling you something on its own.
- Product
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Which of the fourteen IRA-approved coins and bars we track. Each carries its own typical premium and its own gold content, and a Gold Eagle is 91.67% pure while a Buffalo, Maple Leaf, Philharmonic and every bar on the list is 99.99%.
Where to find it The order confirmation names the exact product and weight. If it says only gold coins, ask which ones before anything is bought.
- Quantity
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How many of that product the quote covers. Larger orders usually carry a slightly lower premium per coin, though the difference between one coin and twenty is small next to the difference between a bar and a fractional coin.
Where to find it The order confirmation.
- Spot price
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The market price of the metal itself, per troy ounce. It is what the calculator measures the quote against, and it is the number a dealer is adding their margin on top of.
Where to find it Fetched live above. Our gold price today tracker carries the same figure with the LBMA fix behind it.
How the premium percentage is calculated
The whole calculation is one division, and the only part that catches people is the purity term.
The calculator takes the melt value of the product, which is its gold content in troy ounces multiplied by the live spot price, and expresses the quote as a percentage above that. Gold content is the coin's weight multiplied by its fineness, so a one-ounce Gold Eagle at 91.67% purity contains slightly less than one ounce of gold despite weighing more than one ounce in total. Each product's typical and red-flag premiums come from our own dealer sampling rather than from any published index.
premium % = ((quote ÷ quantity) − (weight × purity × spot)) ÷ (weight × purity × spot) × 100
- quote
- Total price the dealer named, before shipping and insurance
- weight
- Stated weight of the product in troy ounces
- purity
- Fineness as a decimal, 0.9167 for a Gold Eagle and 0.9999 for most others
- spot
- Live market price of gold per troy ounce
What this percentage leaves out
- Shipping and insurance, which are real costs and are charged separately at most dealers.
- The buy-back spread, because a dealer bidding under spot on the way out costs you a second time and this measures only the purchase.
- Custodian and depository charges, which our fee calculator prices.
- Sales tax, which does not apply inside an IRA but does on a personal purchase of the same coin.
- Any judgment on whether the product itself belongs in a retirement account.
Three quotes, checked against spot
All three were run through the calculator above with gold at $3,400. They are the three shapes a quote usually takes.
Carol is quoted on Gold Eagles
Told $3,720 per one-ounce American Gold Eagle with spot at $3,400, buying ten of them for a $37,200 order.
- Product
- Gold Eagle, 1 oz
- Quote
- $37,200
- Quantity
- 10
9.4% over spot, against a 6% typical premium for that coin.
It is not outrageous and it is not a good price either. The 3.4 points above typical is $1,156 on this order, which is worth one phone call to a second dealer before anything settles.
Warren is offered fractional coins
A dealer suggests quarter-ounce Eagles rather than one-ounce, calling them easier to sell in pieces later. Quoted $980 each with spot at $3,400.
- Product
- Gold Eagle, 1/4 oz
- Quote
- $980
- Quantity
- 1
15.3% over spot, against a 12% typical premium for that size.
Fractional coins carry a structurally higher premium because minting a quarter-ounce coin costs nearly what minting a full ounce does. Inside an IRA the divisibility argument is weak anyway, since the custodian sells what you instruct and does not need a small coin to do it.
Priya prices bars instead
Same $37,200 budget, quoted on PAMP Suisse one-ounce bars at $3,530 each with spot at $3,400.
- Product
- PAMP Suisse bars, 1 oz each
- Quote
- $37,065
- Quantity
- 10.5
3.8% over spot, against a 4% typical premium for that bar.
Same metal, same depository, roughly $2,000 less in markup than Carol's Eagle quote on a comparable order. Bars carry the lowest premiums on the approved list, and a dealer steering hard toward coins is usually steering toward the higher-margin product.
What a normal premium looks like
These are the typical premiums across the fourteen IRA-approved products we track, sampled from direct dealer quotes.
- 3% to 4% One-ounce bars
PAMP Suisse, Credit Suisse, Valcambi and Johnson Matthey all sit here, and the ten-ounce PAMP bar is the cheapest thing on the approved list at 3%.
- 5.5% to 7% One-ounce coins
Maple Leaf and Philharmonic at 5.5%, Kangaroo and Gold Eagle at 6%, Gold Buffalo at 7%. The sovereign mints charge for the guarantee and the recognisability.
- 8% to 18% Fractional coins
A half-ounce Eagle runs 9% and a tenth-ounce runs 18%, because the minting cost barely falls as the metal content does. This is where the choice of product costs the most, which is why it is worth settling before the order is placed.
- 2× typical The red-flag line
Our threshold for a quote worth walking away from, set at roughly double the typical premium for that product. On a one-ounce Eagle that is 12%, and quotes above it are the pattern behind most of the enforcement actions in this category.
What people get wrong about coin premiums
The first of these is the most common, and it points in the opposite direction to the other three.
Does a premium mean the dealer is overcharging me?
No, every dealer charges one, because a coin has to be minted, distributed, insured and held in inventory before it reaches you, and none of that is free. What the percentage tells you is whether this quote sits near the normal range for that product or well outside it.
Are proof and commemorative coins worth the extra?
No, not inside a retirement account. A proof American Gold Eagle is IRA-eligible and routinely quoted at 30% or more over spot against 6% for the bullion version of the same coin. Inside a retirement account the collector market is the argument for that gap, and a custodian selling the position back is pricing metal rather than collectibility.
Is the premium the only cost of buying?
No, the round trip costs more than the purchase premium alone. A dealer who sells at 6% over spot will typically bid 2% to 3% under it when buying back, so the round trip costs more than the purchase premium alone. Ask for the buy-back spread in the same conversation as the sell price, since almost nobody volunteers it.
Does a lower spot price mean a better deal?
No, the premium is what the dealer controls and spot is what the market does. A quote taken on a day gold fell is not a better quote, and the only comparison that means anything is the same product at two dealers against the same spot price at the same moment.
Coin premium questions
What is a fair premium on a gold coin?
Between 4% and 7% over spot on a one-ounce bullion coin, and anything past 10% is worth a second quote. Bars run lower at 3% to 4%, and fractional coins run structurally higher, so a 15% premium on a tenth-ounce Eagle is close to typical while the same 15% on a one-ounce bar is more than triple what it should be.
Why do dealers push proof coins so hard?
The margin is several times larger. A proof Gold Eagle carries the same metal as the bullion version and is routinely quoted 30% or more above spot against 6% for the bullion coin, and the difference is dealer margin rather than anything the depository or the custodian sees. Proof coins are IRA-eligible, so nothing about the sale is improper, and the size of that gap is the reason bullion is the cheaper way to hold the same ounce.
Does the premium come back when I sell?
No, the premium does not come back. A dealer buying metal back bids at or slightly below spot, so the premium you paid at purchase is spent. That is why the round-trip cost matters more than the sticker, and why a 6% purchase premium plus a 2% buy-back discount means gold has to rise about 8% before the position breaks even.
Which gold coins can go in an IRA?
26 U.S. Code 408(m)(3) sets a 99.5% minimum fineness for gold bullion and carves out an explicit statutory exception for the American Gold Eagle, which is 91.67% pure and eligible anyway. Bars must come from a refiner meeting LBMA or COMEX standards. We track fourteen products that clear those rules, and rare or graded coins do not.
Is a premium negotiable?
Yes, on larger orders, though not usually by much. The move that works is having a second written quote on the identical product and saying so, since a dealer holding your paperwork and no competition has no reason to move. Get both quotes on the same day, because a spot move of a percent will otherwise swamp the difference you are trying to see.
What does spot price actually mean?
It is the price for immediate delivery of one troy ounce of gold in the wholesale market, set continuously and benchmarked twice a day by the LBMA auction in London. Nobody buys a physical coin at spot, because spot prices metal rather than a minted, shipped and insured product, and the gap between the two is the premium this calculator measures.