Half Sovereign or Maple Leaf 1/2 oz: which is the better buy today?
Half Sovereign holds 3.66 g of fine gold and Maple Leaf 1/2 oz 15.55 g: Maple Leaf 1/2 oz holds 4.25 times the gold of Half Sovereign. 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 | Half Sovereign | Maple Leaf 1/2 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 3.66 g | 15.55 g |
| gross weight | 3.99 g | 15.55 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 19.3 mm | 25 mm |
| thickness | 0.99 mm | 2.23 mm |
| face value | half a pound | 20 dollars |
| struck | United Kingdom · since 1817 | Canada · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Half Sovereign — Half the Sovereign in every way but one: the same 22 carat alloy and the same St George, on 3.66 g of gold, and a premium that is not half — a coin costs the same to strike whatever it weighs.
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.
Half Sovereign is 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, so it weighs 3.99 g for its 3.66 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 Half Sovereign can be handled and Maple Leaf 1/2 oz travels in a capsule.
Both are modern bullion coins, struck for investors — Half Sovereign since 1817, Maple Leaf 1/2 oz since 1986 — 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 3.66 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 15.55 g — which is why Half Sovereign is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.