If your goal is maximum pure metal for minimum money, size choice matters as much as brand. Below is a like-for-like UK premium comparison so you can pick the most efficient size for your budget.
The gold premium curve
Using PAMP Suisse Fortuna minted gold bars as a like-for-like comparison, the typical UK dealer markup over spot looks like:
| Size | Fine gold | Typical UK premium | Extra £/g vs spot* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1g | 1g | 22% | ~£18.70/g |
| 2.5g | 2.5g | 17% | ~£14.45/g |
| 5g | 5g | 13% | ~£11.05/g |
| 10g | 10g | 8% | ~£6.80/g |
| 20g | 20g | 6% | ~£5.10/g |
| 1oz (31.10g) | 31.10g | 4% | ~£3.40/g |
| 50g | 50g | 3.5% | ~£3.00/g |
| 100g | 100g | 2.5% | ~£2.10/g |
| 250g | 250g | 2.1% | ~£1.80/g |
| 1kg | 1,000g | 1.8% | ~£1.55/g |
*Assumes £85/g spot price; figures are typical UK retail premium at major dealers, not specific offers.
The shape: premium per gram falls by an order of magnitude between 1g and 1kg. Every step down the size curve saves real money per gram of metal you actually own.
When to break up
A common stacker question: should I buy one 1kg bar or ten 100g bars?
Argument for 1kg (lowest premium):
- ~0.3–0.5 percentage points lower premium than the equivalent in 100g bars.
- On £85,000 of gold, that’s ~£300 saved.
Argument for 100g bars (more flexibility):
- Can sell or gift in smaller increments.
- Easier to store across multiple locations.
- Lower entry barrier if you want to add gradually.
For most UK retail investors, 100g cast bars are the sweet spot — competitive premium, easy to handle, reasonable resale.
When small sizes do make sense
The high premium on 1g–10g bars looks bad on paper, but small sizes have genuine use cases:
- Gifting — a 1g sealed PAMP bar is more presentable as a present than scribbling a number on a card.
- Inheritance distribution — much easier to split between three children if it’s already in three 100g pieces rather than one 300g piece.
- Liquidity hedge — small pieces are easier to sell quickly if you need to liquidate part of a position.
- Children’s collections — building up a Sovereign-a-year for a child works at the per-piece price.
If any of these matter to you, the premium on small pieces is the cost of optionality.
Coins vs bars at the same size
At the 1oz size, a coin and a bar have very similar premiums but slightly different shapes:
| Item | Typical UK premium |
|---|---|
| PAMP 1oz minted gold bar | 4% |
| Royal Canadian Mint 1oz gold bar | 4% |
| Royal Mint Britannia 1oz gold coin | 4-5% |
| Krugerrand 1oz gold coin | 4% |
| American Eagle 1oz gold coin | 6% |
A Britannia or Sovereign costs a touch more than a generic bar of the same metal weight — but its CGT-free status adds material value on the way out for UK investors.
If you’ll definitely hold for years and your gains will exceed your CGT allowance, pay the small premium for legal-tender UK coins. If you might flip within a year or your gain stays below the CGT allowance, the bar is cheaper.
Silver — premiums work differently
Silver carries 20% VAT on top of dealer premium in the UK. The math:
| Size | Spot premium | After 20% VAT | Effective uplift |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1oz Silver Britannia | ~30% | +20% on full retail | ~56% over spot |
| 100g silver bar | ~20% | +20% on full retail | ~44% over spot |
| 1kg silver bar | ~14% | +20% on full retail | ~37% over spot |
The 1kg cast silver bar wins decisively on per-gram cost. That’s why long-term silver stackers gravitate to 1kg bars (or vaulted silver to dodge VAT entirely).
VAT on silver explainer → · 1kg silver bars →
Buyback impact
Premium isn’t just paid on the way in. Different sizes also have different dealer buyback rates:
| Size | Dealer typically buys at |
|---|---|
| 1g gold bar | Spot − 5% to −10% |
| 1oz gold coin (Sovereign or Britannia) | Spot − 0.5% to −2% |
| 100g cast gold bar | Spot − 1% to −2.5% |
| 1kg cast gold bar | Spot − 0.5% to −1.5% |
Combine both sides:
A 1g gold bar might cost spot + 22% to buy and sell at spot − 8%. Round-trip cost: ~30%. A 1kg gold bar might cost spot + 1.8% to buy and sell at spot − 0.8%. Round-trip cost: ~2.6%.
The 1g bar’s round-trip cost is ~12× higher than the 1kg bar’s. That’s enormous if you might ever sell.
Quick “best value” picks (UK, mid-2026 typical)
For each budget, the lowest-premium reasonable choice:
- £100 budget → 1g PAMP Fortuna or Royal Mint 1g Britannia bar. Premium is high but you’re committing tiny capital.
- £500 budget → 5g Royal Mint Britannia bar or PAMP 5g — break point where small-size premiums get painful.
- £2,000 budget → 1oz Royal Mint Britannia coin or 1oz PAMP Fortuna bar.
- £8,000 budget → 100g PAMP, Metalor or Umicore cast bar.
- £20,000+ budget → 1kg Metalor or PAMP cast bar.
For comparison values at current spot, use the live coin lookup and bar lookup, or run a custom calculation in the calculator.