Maple Leaf 1/2 oz or Maple Leaf 1/4 oz: which is the better buy today?
Maple Leaf 1/2 oz holds 15.55 g of fine gold and Maple Leaf 1/4 oz 7.78 g: Maple Leaf 1/2 oz holds 2.00 times the gold of Maple Leaf 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 | Maple Leaf 1/2 oz | Maple Leaf 1/4 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 15.55 g | 7.78 g |
| gross weight | 15.55 g | 7.78 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 25 mm | 20 mm |
| thickness | 2.23 mm | 1.78 mm |
| face value | 20 dollars | 10 dollars |
| struck | Canada · since 1986 | Canada · since 1982 |
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.
Maple Leaf 1/4 oz — The quarter ounce, 20 mm of 999.9 gold with the ten-dollar face value — the size the Mint added first, in 1982, when the ounce turned out to be too big a bite for many buyers.
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 1/2 oz since 1986, Maple Leaf 1/4 oz since 1982 — 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 Maple Leaf 1/4 oz is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.