Maple Leaf 1/2 oz or American Eagle 1/2 oz: which is the better buy today?
Maple Leaf 1/2 oz and American Eagle 1/2 oz hold the same gold — 15.55 g of fine metal each — and differ in everything else: Maple Leaf 1/2 oz is struck in 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt by Royal Canadian Mint, American Eagle 1/2 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 | Maple Leaf 1/2 oz | American Eagle 1/2 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 15.55 g | 15.55 g |
| gross weight | 15.55 g | 16.96 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt |
| diameter | 25 mm | 27 mm |
| thickness | 2.23 mm | 2.24 mm |
| face value | 20 dollars | 25 dollars |
| struck | Canada · since 1986 | United States · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Maple Leaf 1/2 oz — Half an ounce of pure gold, 25 mm across, and as soft as the full coin: it travels in its capsule for the same reason.
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 1/2 oz is 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, so it weighs 16.96 g for its 15.55 g of gold; Maple Leaf 1/2 oz is 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt, 15.55 g on the scale. Neither holds more gold for the difference: the alloy is hardness, which is why American Eagle 1/2 oz can be handled and Maple Leaf 1/2 oz travels in a capsule.
Both are modern bullion coins, struck for investors — Maple Leaf 1/2 oz since 1986, American Eagle 1/2 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.