There are a few companies out there that specialize in low denomination gold but we believe that it is important to note that the one Goldback denomination is the world’s least expensive way to own 1/1000th of an ounce of gold. Despite this prestigious position, occasionally people will ask why the Goldback doesn’t cost exactly 1/1000th of the spot price of gold and the reason is simply because it costs money to split an ounce of gold into a thousand functional pieces.
If you search through APMEX or the sites of other major gold retailers you may notice that the one Goldback is the cheapest gold product on the entire site. It is so difficult to make a gold product with this quantity that the next smallest product with 1/500th of an ounce of gold costs nearly $200 (or about a 6,150% premium). Now, imagine, as you get into smaller and smaller products the premiums go higher and higher. Today’s premium above spot on the one Goldback is under eighty percent. And what’s more is that the premium on Goldbacks only gets lower as gold prices move up. Even the 0.1 gram products which contain (3.2 times as much) more gold than the one Goldback have over a 100% premium.
Part of the reason why the premium is so low is because the One Goldback denomination is produced at a loss. This makes it extremely difficult for anyone else to produce something like this. When the manufacturer is losing on a product then you can be sure that you are getting a good deal.
The same premium is used across all Goldback denominations so that it can be used as a currency. This is important because if you were to barter with say, 0.1 gram bars and 0.3 gram bars, they wouldn’t have the same premium as each other thus making them tricky to trade. The intent behind the Goldback is circulation which really distinguishes it from other gold products.