Philharmonic 1/2 oz or Philharmonic 1/4 oz: which is the better buy today?
Philharmonic 1/2 oz holds 15.55 g of fine gold and Philharmonic 1/4 oz 7.78 g: Philharmonic 1/2 oz holds 2.00 times the gold of Philharmonic 1/4 oz. 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 | Philharmonic 1/2 oz | Philharmonic 1/4 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 15.55 g | 7.78 g |
| gross weight | 15.55 g | 7.78 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 28 mm | 22 mm |
| thickness | 1.60 mm | 1.20 mm |
| face value | 50 euro | 25 euro |
| struck | Austria · since 1994 | Austria · since 1989 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Philharmonic 1/2 oz — Half an ounce of pure gold with a fifty-euro face value, and the Philharmonic’s way with proportions: 28 mm across and 1.6 mm thin, the widest half-ounce coin on this site.
Philharmonic 1/4 oz — A quarter ounce of 999.9 gold at 22 mm, with the twenty-five-euro face value. The organ of the Musikverein is on every size, down to this one.
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 — Philharmonic 1/2 oz since 1994, Philharmonic 1/4 oz since 1989 — 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 7.78 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 15.55 g — which is why Philharmonic 1/4 oz is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.