Maple Leaf 1 oz or Britannia 1 oz: which is the better buy today?
Maple Leaf 1 oz and Britannia 1 oz hold the same gold — 31.10 g of fine metal each — and differ in everything else: Maple Leaf 1 oz is struck in 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt by Royal Canadian Mint, Britannia 1 oz in 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt by The Royal Mint. With the metal identical, the only thing left to compare is what each dealer charges above it.
| coin | Maple Leaf 1 oz | Britannia 1 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 31.10 g | 31.10 g |
| gross weight | 31.10 g | 31.10 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 30 mm | 32.69 mm |
| thickness | 2.87 mm | 2.79 mm |
| face value | 50 dollars | 100 pounds |
| struck | Canada · since 1979 | United Kingdom · since 1987 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Maple Leaf 1 oz — Pure gold, no alloy: the softest of the one-ounce coins and the one that shows a fingerprint, so it travels in its capsule.
Britannia 1 oz — Struck in 999.9 gold since 2013 — earlier ones are 22 carat. Legal tender in the United Kingdom, which is what exempts it from capital gains tax there.
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 oz since 1979, Britannia 1 oz since 1987 — 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.