Technical article

Coins and Bullion: Premium over Spot and the Dealer Spread

Small coins carry higher premiums, because the fixed costs of minting and selling are spread over less metal.

By Neil Solomon · 3 min read

Picture a family that finds a small box of gold coins in a parent's desk. The first question is the one on the card: what is a gold coin worth the day I sell it?

The metal price and the premium

The metal price is the spot price. Buyers usually pay more than spot, and that extra is the premium. A bullion price-comparison site, MetalCharts, gives normal-market premiums over spot in July 2026. These are tier C figures, so treat them as a guide.

The same source says Silver Eagle premiums passed 50% in the shortages of 2020 and 2021. Small coins carry higher premiums, because the fixed costs of minting and selling are spread over less metal.

What a dealer pays back

A second price-comparison site says dealers typically buy back 2% to 5% below spot for gold and 5% to 15% below spot for silver, depending on the product and the market. Put the two together and the round trip from a buyer's premium to a dealer's buyback is the cost of owning the coin for a time. Neither source is official.

A coin that is more than metal is a different case. Graded coins are priced by grade, rarity and recent auction results. Several heirs and dealers in coin forums say that many ordinary coins in a family box are worth only their metal. A coin columnist adds that cleaning a coin can harm its value, and advises leaving coins as found until a specialist has seen them.

Tax on the sale

In the US, a long-term gain on coins or art is taxed at up to 28%. The statute counts gold and silver bullion in this rate. An heir's basis is usually the value at death. In the UK, most possessions worth GBP 6,000 or more are chargeable, and cost and sale price are treated as at least GBP 6,000 where they would be lower. A coin collection is unlikely to count as a set unless it holds every denomination of one year or reign. The Royal Mint describes its Sovereigns and Britannias as free of capital gains tax. That is a seller's page, so read the tax rules for your own coins. In Canada, coins are listed personal property. Cost and proceeds are each treated as at least CAD 1,000, and half of a net gain is taxed.

A dealer who receives more than US$10,000 in cash in a single transaction files a report with the US government, per a trade publisher.

You might say: "The coin says one ounce of gold, so it must be worth one ounce of gold." Close, and the gap is the point. The sale price depends on who buys it and how they buy.

You could ask a dealer for the buy price and the sell price on the same coin, in writing, on the same day. Two dealers give two pairs.

What did you pay over spot the last time you bought gold, and what did you get back? Share it here. Someone may be pricing a first coin.

Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.