Krugerrand 1 oz or Napoléon 20 Fr: which is the better buy today?
Krugerrand 1 oz holds 31.10 g of fine gold and Napoléon 20 Fr 5.81 g: Krugerrand 1 oz holds 5.36 times the gold of Napoléon 20 Fr. 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 | Krugerrand 1 oz | Napoléon 20 Fr |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 31.10 g | 5.81 g |
| gross weight | 33.93 g | 6.45 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt |
| diameter | 32.77 mm | 21 mm |
| thickness | 2.84 mm | 1.30 mm |
| face value | no denomination | 20 francs |
| struck | South Africa · since 1967 | France · 1803–1914 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Krugerrand 1 oz — The coin that invented the one-ounce bullion market in 1967. Copper in the alloy gives it its red tone and its hardness.
Napoléon 20 Fr — The French 20 francs, from Bonaparte to the Great War: the most widely held of the small European gold coins.
Both are alloyed — Krugerrand 1 oz at 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, Napoléon 20 Fr at 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt — hard enough to be handled without ceremony; the difference on the scale is alloy, not gold, and the fine gold weight beside it is the only one that counts.
Napoléon 20 Fr was money before it was an investment — struck from 1803 to 1914 — and is bought today as a bullion coin on the strength of being recognised everywhere; Krugerrand 1 oz has been struck for investors since 1967, and its price is the metal plus the mint’s and the dealer’s margin, nothing else.
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 5.81 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 31.10 g — which is why Napoléon 20 Fr is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.