American Eagle 1/2 oz or American Eagle 1/4 oz: which is the better buy today?
American Eagle 1/2 oz holds 15.55 g of fine gold and American Eagle 1/4 oz 7.78 g: American Eagle 1/2 oz holds 2.00 times the gold of American Eagle 1/4 oz. The metal costs the same per gram in both; what differs is how much of the price is the coin rather than the gold — and the small one always carries more of it.
| coin | American Eagle 1/2 oz | American Eagle 1/4 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 15.55 g | 7.78 g |
| gross weight | 16.96 g | 8.48 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt |
| diameter | 27 mm | 22 mm |
| thickness | 2.24 mm | 1.83 mm |
| face value | 25 dollars | 10 dollars |
| struck | United States · since 1986 | United States · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
American Eagle 1/2 oz — Half an ounce of gold in the Eagle’s 22 carat alloy, so 16.97 g on the scale, with the twenty-five-dollar face value. Struck in smaller numbers than the ounce or the tenth, which shows in its premium.
American Eagle 1/4 oz — The quarter-ounce Eagle: 22 mm, ten dollars on its face, Saint-Gaudens’ Liberty on the obverse like every size of the family.
Both are struck in 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt: the same alloy, the same feel in the hand, and any difference on the scale is a difference in gold.
Both are modern bullion coins, struck for investors — American Eagle 1/2 oz since 1986, American Eagle 1/4 oz since 1986 — and priced on their metal and the margins above it.
What decides between them is not the gold, which costs the same per gram in both, but everything charged per coin: striking, distribution, the shop’s margin. Spread over 7.78 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 15.55 g — which is why American Eagle 1/4 oz is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.