UK gold bars: 5.4% over spot for 10g, 1.9% for 100g
In short
- At 8:06 a.m. Sofia time an ounce of gold is £2,929.92 (about £94.20 a gram). The cheapest 10g bar is 5.4% above that, the cheapest 100g bar 1.9%.
- For every £1,000 put into a 10g bar you get 10.07g of gold. In a 100g bar it is 10.42g, and at the spot price it would be 10.62g.
- At Baird & Co the gap between the buy and sell-back price is 8.3% on a 10g bar and 5.3% on a 100g bar.
The bigger the bar, the less you pay over the spot price: in the UK the gap between a 10g and a 100g bar is 3.5 percentage points. Dealer prices were taken at 5:49 a.m. and the spot price at 8:06 a.m., so the percentages are approximate.
What happened
Gold rose 1.9% on Monday and closed around $3,947 an ounce, according to TradingKey. By 8:06 a.m. it was about 1% lower over 24 hours in euro terms. Bars do not follow that move one for one: part of the price is minting, packaging and the dealer’s margin, and that part does not change with the market.
So the most useful comparison is not who is cheapest in pounds, but how far above the value of the gold you pay. You owe that premium the moment you buy.
What it means for you
The maths: at £94.20 a gram, 10g of gold is worth £941.99. The cheapest 10g bar (Baird & Co) costs £993.11, which is £51.12 or 5.4% more.
An ounce at spot is £2,929.92. The cheapest 1oz bar (Chards, £2,996.58) is £66.66 or 2.3% above it. The cheapest 1oz Britannia (Chards, £3,005.37) is 2.6% above. A Sovereign holds 7.32g of pure gold, worth £689.76; the cheapest (Baird & Co, £711.29) is £21.53 or 3.1% over.
100g at spot is £9,419.90. The cheapest 100g bar (Chards, £9,601.36) is £181.46 or 1.9% above.
In grams: for every £1,000 you get 10.62g at spot, 10.07g in a 10g bar, 10.38g in a 1oz bar and 10.42g in a 100g bar.
Then there is the way back. Baird & Co sells a 10g bar for £993.11 and buys it back for £911.14, a gap of £81.97 (8.3%). For a 1oz bar the figures are £3,023.06 and £2,833.95: £189.11 (6.3%). For 100g they are £9,620.51 and £9,111.36: £509.15 (5.3%). The percentage is smaller on the big bar, but so is the number of people who can pay £9,600 at once.
See also: live UK gold prices and the gold calculator.
Bottom line
The premium over spot is 5.4% for 10g, 2.3% for an ounce and 1.9% for 100g. The gold price changes daily; these percentages depend on bar size and dealer.
Sources: TradingKey · HawkValue dealer prices at 5:49 a.m., spot price at 8:06 a.m.
Gold prices at UK dealers live →
For information only. This is not investment advice.
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