Precious-metals pricing can look complicated, but three ideas explain nearly all of it.
Spot price
The spot price is the market price of a metal for immediate delivery, usually quoted in United States dollars per troy ounce. It moves throughout the trading day. It is a reference price for large wholesale quantities of metal, not the price of a finished coin or bar.
Premium
A finished product costs more than the metal inside it. The difference is the premium, and it covers the work of turning metal into a product and bringing it to you: refining or minting, packaging and assay, distribution, and the dealer’s costs. Premiums vary from product to product and change with supply and demand.
As a general pattern, smaller items carry a higher premium per ounce than larger ones, because the cost of making and handling each piece is spread over less metal.
Spread
The spread is the difference between the price at which a dealer sells a product and the price at which the dealer would buy the same product back at that moment. It matters because it is part of the real cost of owning metal: you buy at one price and eventually sell at another.
Putting it together
- What you pay is roughly the spot value of the metal plus the premium.
- What you receive when you sell depends on the spot price at that time and on the buy price offered for that product.
- Comparing two offers means comparing the whole price for the same product, not the spot price alone.
This is why Citizens Gold Reserve confirms the price with you before you pay, rather than treating a displayed figure as final: the market may have moved. See the Pricing and Price-Lock Policy.