Maple Leaf 1/10 oz or Kangaroo 1/10 oz: which is the better buy today?
Maple Leaf 1/10 oz and Kangaroo 1/10 oz hold the same gold — 3.11 g of fine metal each — and differ in everything else: Maple Leaf 1/10 oz is struck in 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt by Royal Canadian Mint, Kangaroo 1/10 oz in 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt by The Perth Mint. With the metal identical, the only thing left to compare is what each dealer charges above it.
| coin | Maple Leaf 1/10 oz | Kangaroo 1/10 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 3.11 g | 3.11 g |
| gross weight | 3.11 g | 3.11 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 16 mm | 16.6 mm |
| thickness | 1.22 mm | 1.50 mm |
| face value | 5 dollars | 15 dollars |
| struck | Canada · since 1982 | Australia · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Maple Leaf 1/10 oz — A tenth of an ounce of pure gold at 16 mm: the maple leaf is still there, legible, on a coin that weighs about as much as a paperclip.
Kangaroo 1/10 oz — A tenth of an ounce of pure gold with a fifteen-dollar face value — the odd number is Perth’s own — and the smallest Kangaroo most dealers stock.
Both are struck in 999.9 ‰ · 24 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 — Maple Leaf 1/10 oz since 1982, Kangaroo 1/10 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.