50 Pesos or American Eagle 1 oz: which is the better buy today?
50 Pesos holds 37.50 g of fine gold and American Eagle 1 oz 31.10 g — close enough to be the same purchase in metal, and far enough apart in everything else not to be the same coin to own.
| coin | 50 Pesos | American Eagle 1 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 37.50 g | 31.10 g |
| gross weight | 41.67 g | 33.93 g |
| purity | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt |
| diameter | 37 mm | 32.7 mm |
| thickness | 2.69 mm | 2.87 mm |
| face value | 50 pesos | 50 dollars |
| struck | Mexico · 1921–1947 | United States · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
50 Pesos — The Centenario: 37.5 g of fine gold, more than an ounce, struck for the centenary of independence and restruck ever since with the 1947 date.
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.
Both are alloyed — 50 Pesos at 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt, American Eagle 1 oz at 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt — hard enough to be handled without ceremony; the difference on the scale is alloy, not gold, and the fine gold weight beside it is the only one that counts.
50 Pesos was money before it was an investment — struck from 1921 to 1947 — and is bought today as a bullion coin on the strength of being recognised everywhere; American Eagle 1 oz has been struck for investors since 1986, and its price is the metal plus the mint’s and the dealer’s margin, nothing else.
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.