Sovereign or American Eagle 1 oz: which is the better buy today?
Sovereign holds 7.32 g of fine gold and American Eagle 1 oz 31.10 g: American Eagle 1 oz holds 4.25 times the gold of 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 | Sovereign | American Eagle 1 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 7.32 g | 31.10 g |
| gross weight | 7.99 g | 33.93 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt |
| diameter | 22.05 mm | 32.7 mm |
| thickness | 1.52 mm | 2.87 mm |
| face value | one pound | 50 dollars |
| struck | United Kingdom · since 1817 | United States · since 1986 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Sovereign — The small coin of the European market: struck since 1817, sold and bought everywhere, and hard alloy so it survives being handled.
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 struck in 916.7 ‰ · 22 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 — Sovereign since 1817, American Eagle 1 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 7.32 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 31.10 g — which is why Sovereign is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.