Maple Leaf 1 oz or American Eagle 1 oz: which is the better buy today?
Maple Leaf 1 oz and American Eagle 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, American Eagle 1 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 oz | American Eagle 1 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 31.10 g | 31.10 g |
| gross weight | 31.10 g | 33.93 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt |
| diameter | 30 mm | 32.7 mm |
| thickness | 2.87 mm | 2.87 mm |
| face value | 50 dollars | 50 dollars |
| struck | Canada · since 1979 | United States · since 1986 |
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.
American Eagle 1 oz — One ounce of gold in a 22 carat alloy, so it weighs more than an ounce on the scale. The most traded bullion coin in the United States.
American Eagle 1 oz is 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, so it weighs 33.93 g for its 31.10 g of gold; Maple Leaf 1 oz is 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt, 31.10 g on the scale. Neither holds more gold for the difference: the alloy is hardness, which is why American Eagle 1 oz can be handled and Maple Leaf 1 oz travels in a capsule.
Both are modern bullion coins, struck for investors — Maple Leaf 1 oz since 1979, American Eagle 1 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.