Krugerrand 1/4 oz or American Eagle 1/4 oz: which is the better buy today?
Krugerrand 1/4 oz and American Eagle 1/4 oz hold the same gold — 7.78 g of fine metal each — and differ in everything else: Krugerrand 1/4 oz is struck in 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt by South African Mint, American Eagle 1/4 oz in 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt by United States Mint. With the metal identical, the only thing left to compare is what each dealer charges above it.
| coin | Krugerrand 1/4 oz | American Eagle 1/4 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 7.78 g | 7.78 g |
| gross weight | 8.48 g | 8.48 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt |
| diameter | 22.06 mm | 22 mm |
| thickness | 1.89 mm | 1.83 mm |
| face value | no denomination | 10 dollars |
| struck | South Africa · since 1980 | United States · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Krugerrand 1/4 oz — A quarter ounce of gold in a 22 mm coin — about the size of a Sovereign, and bought for the same reason: a piece small enough to sell one at a time.
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 — Krugerrand 1/4 oz since 1980, American Eagle 1/4 oz since 1986 — and priced on their metal and the margins above it.
So the comparison is the premium. Whichever of the two a dealer asks less for above its metal is the cheaper gold that day — and that changes shop by shop and day by day, which is what the numbers above are for.