Philharmonic 1 oz or Philharmonic 1/10 oz: which is the better buy today?
Philharmonic 1 oz holds 31.10 g of fine gold and Philharmonic 1/10 oz 3.11 g: Philharmonic 1 oz holds 10.00 times the gold of Philharmonic 1/10 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 oz | Philharmonic 1/10 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 31.10 g | 3.11 g |
| gross weight | 31.10 g | 3.11 g |
| purity | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 37 mm | 16 mm |
| thickness | 2.00 mm | 1.20 mm |
| face value | 100 euro | 10 euro |
| struck | Austria · since 1989 | Austria · since 1991 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Philharmonic 1 oz — Europe’s own one-ounce coin, and the only one with a euro face value. Wide and thin: 37 mm across for the same ounce of gold.
Philharmonic 1/10 oz — A tenth of an ounce with a ten-euro face value: Europe’s small gold coin, pure, 16 mm across, and legal tender in Austria whatever it is worth as metal.
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 oz since 1989, Philharmonic 1/10 oz since 1991 — 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 3.11 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 31.10 g — which is why Philharmonic 1/10 oz is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.