Napoléon 20 Fr or Panda 30 g: which is the better buy today?
Napoléon 20 Fr holds 5.81 g of fine gold and Panda 30 g 30.00 g: Panda 30 g holds 5.17 times the gold of Napoléon 20 Fr. 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 | Napoléon 20 Fr | Panda 30 g |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 5.81 g | 30.00 g |
| gross weight | 6.45 g | 30.00 g |
| purity | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | 999 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 21 mm | 32 mm |
| thickness | 1.30 mm | 2.00 mm |
| face value | 20 francs | 500 yuan |
| struck | France · 1803–1914 | China · since 2016 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Napoléon 20 Fr — The French 20 francs, from Bonaparte to the Great War: the most widely held of the small European gold coins.
Panda 30 g — Metric rather than imperial — 30 g, not an ounce — and the only one of these whose design changes every year.
Napoléon 20 Fr is 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt, so it weighs 6.45 g for its 5.81 g of gold; Panda 30 g is 999 ‰ · 24 kt, 30.00 g on the scale. Neither holds more gold for the difference: the alloy is hardness, which is why Napoléon 20 Fr can be handled and Panda 30 g travels in a capsule.
Napoléon 20 Fr was money before it was an investment — struck from 1803 to 1914 — and is bought today as a bullion coin on the strength of being recognised everywhere; Panda 30 g has been struck for investors since 2016, and its price is the metal plus the mint’s and the dealer’s margin, nothing else.
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 5.81 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 30.00 g — which is why Napoléon 20 Fr is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.