Explainer · figures of 2 October 2026
What is the premium over the spot price?
The spot price is what the metal itself trades for, per troy ounce. The premium is what a coin or bar costs on top of that.
The cheapest ounce of gold we measured is the Gold Bar 1 oz Loxodonta Africana - Rand Refinery - QR Code at StoneX Bullion: €3,790.19. Spot is €3,716.15. The difference, €74.04 or +1.99%, is the premium. The same sum for silver sits beside it.
Measured across 6,055 prices at 14 shops.
- Price at StoneX Bullion
- €3,790.19
- Spot price
- €3,716.15
- Premium
- €74.04 +1.99%
- Price at Holland Gold
- €62.50
- Spot price
- €54.37
- Premium
- €8.13 +14.95%
What the premium is made of
Four things. We do not measure what each part costs; we only see the total.
Making it
A coin is struck, a bar is cast or pressed. That work is done per piece, however small the piece.
Packaging and certificate
A blister, a capsule, a certificate with a serial number. That too comes per piece, not per gram.
The shop
Buying in, holding stock, shipping and margin. This part differs from shop to shop, and it is the part a comparison shows.
VAT
Investment gold is exempt from VAT in the EU. Silver, platinum and palladium are not: the VAT is in the price you pay, and so in the premium.
What is a normal premium?
It depends mostly on the metal. Gold sits at a median of +5.45%. The other metals sit higher: silver +30.95%, platinum +33.56% and palladium +36.09%.
Most of that gap is VAT. Our prices include VAT; the spot price does not. Investment gold is exempt, while on the other three VAT is charged on the full price and counts towards the premium.
Some silver coins are sold under the margin scheme. VAT is then charged only on the shop's margin, not on the full price.
Gold523 products · 887 prices · 14 shops+5.45%median+0.32%lowest: Gold Bar 250 g .9999 - verschiedene Hersteller at Geiger Edelmetalle
Silver189 products · 257 prices · 11 shops+30.95%median+14.95%lowest: Silver Britannia 1 oz at Holland Gold
Platinum42 products · 64 prices · 8 shops+33.56%median+24.00%lowest: Platinum Bar 1 oz Credit Suisse at StoneX Bullion
Palladium16 products · 21 prices · 6 shops+36.09%median+27.84%lowest: Palladium Bar 1 kg at Auragentum
Median: half the products sit above it, half below. Each product counts once, at the lowest price a shop offers it for. Damaged products are left out.
Small costs more
The lighter the bar, the higher the premium. A gold bar of 0.5 g sits at a median of +23.54%; a bar of 1 kg at +1.66%.
The work and the packaging come per piece, and on a small piece they are spread over little gold.
The steps do not fall evenly: at a weight with few products, each one weighs heavily on the median. The count after each premium is how many products it covers.
Coin or bar
At one troy ounce, coins carry a lower median premium than bars in all 3 metals where we measure both.
Weight matters more than form: see the steps above. With silver, VAT plays a part: some of the coins are sold under the margin scheme.
Same product, different shop
Even for exactly the same product, the premium differs from shop to shop.
7 shops can deliver the Gold Buffalo 1 oz: from €3,812.68 at StoneX Bullion to €4,037.92 at EMK. That is a gap of €225.24, or 5.91%.
9 shops can deliver the Silver Kangaroo 1 oz: from €62.77 at 101 Munten to €79.00 at Italpreziosi. That is a gap of €16.23, or 25.86%.
Across the whole catalogue, 492 products are listed by more than one shop. The median gap between the cheapest and the dearest shop is 9.27%.
Shipping is not in these prices; the buying guide adds it.
Gold Buffalo 1 oz7 shops, one dot each
Silver Kangaroo 1 oz9 shops, one dot eachCollector coins: you pay for the year
A series with a limited mintage, or a design that changes every year, is priced on scarcity rather than on metal.
An ordinary silver coin of 1 oz sits at a median of +15.97% (9 products). The Libertad of 1 oz sits at +215.10%, across 45 coins.
That gap is not the shop's margin. It is the price of a year and a mintage. That is why series have their own pages here, apart from the boards.
What do you get back?
A shop that buys back starts from the spot price, not from what you paid. Most of the premium does not come back, and neither does the VAT on silver, platinum and palladium.
What a shop actually pays, we do not measure: we track selling prices, not buy-back prices. So we name no percentage.
Important
This is not buying or selling advice. We sell nothing, broker nothing and are no party to your purchase. This page explains what a premium is; whether a product suits you, we cannot know.
The figures are a snapshot. They come from our latest measurement and change with every new one. A low premium now says nothing about tomorrow's premium or tomorrow's price.
A low premium is no guarantee. The premium is what you pay above the metal price, not what the metal will stay worth. Precious metal pays no interest or dividend, and its price can fall.
VAT rules differ by country and by product. What is written here is the outline, not tax advice. The price at the shop is what counts.
Work it out yourself
The buying guide works out the cheapest way to buy for your amount, shipping included. The four boards rank every product by what an ounce costs.