Market Calendar
The Retail Premium Index

1 oz Gold Bar Premiums Relative to Spot, Month by Month

In August 2026 the Generic 1 oz gold bar (minted) carried 2.4% over spot, or $105.73 an ounce over the metal value, against 2.3% for the gold composite in the same month and the reading sits in the 68th percentile of the product's own history.

Retail Premium Index, August 20262.4%$105.73 per ounce over spot68th percentile of its own history
August 20264 of 10 gold benchmarks this month
1-year average2.0%
All-history average2.2%150 months
Retail Premium Index gold composite, August 20262.3%

The year's range so far0.8% in May 2026 to 2.8% in February 2026

captured 31 Aug 2026 · How these numbers are made

Month by month

Compare against:
-2.5%0.0%2.5%5.0%7.5%10.0%12.5%February 2014September 2015April 2017November 2018June 2020January 2022August 2023March 2025
See the figures
Generic 1 oz gold bar (minted) and Gold composite, by month
CategoryGeneric 1 oz gold bar (minted)Gold composite
February 20141.5%
March 20141.5%
April 20141.5%
May 20141.8%
June 20140.7%
July 20141.6%3.1%
August 20141.6%3.8%
September 20141.7%3.1%
October 20141.8%3.4%
November 20141.8%3.3%
December 20141.9%
January 20151.6%
February 20150.2%4.0%
March 20151.6%3.8%
April 20151.7%3.4%
May 20151.4%
June 20151.7%4.2%
July 20151.7%4.1%
August 20151.9%4.1%
September 20151.9%4.7%
October 20152.0%
November 20151.5%4.4%
December 20151.5%4.5%
January 20161.3%4.1%
February 20161.4%3.6%
March 20161.8%4.2%
April 20161.5%3.6%
May 20161.8%3.6%
June 20161.6%4.0%
July 20161.3%3.4%
August 20161.1%3.5%
September 20161.5%2.7%
October 20161.7%3.2%
November 20162.0%3.9%
December 20161.9%3.8%
January 20172.1%4.0%
February 20172.2%4.0%
March 20171.7%4.2%
April 20171.6%3.7%
May 20171.4%3.1%
June 20171.5%3.3%
July 20171.4%3.5%
August 20171.7%2.8%
September 20171.7%3.0%
October 20171.4%3.5%
November 20171.5%3.6%
December 20171.5%3.5%
January 20181.7%2.8%
February 20182.0%2.5%
March 20181.6%2.5%
April 20181.4%2.4%
May 20181.5%2.6%
June 20181.7%2.7%
July 20181.7%3.1%
August 20182.0%3.2%
September 20182.0%3.1%
October 20181.9%2.9%
November 20181.7%3.0%
December 20182.1%2.7%
January 20191.8%2.9%
February 20191.7%2.2%
March 20191.6%2.4%
April 20191.8%2.3%
May 20191.6%2.4%
June 20191.6%1.9%
July 20191.7%1.6%
August 20191.4%1.6%
September 20191.4%1.5%
October 20191.5%2.3%
November 20191.3%2.0%
December 20191.4%2.0%
January 20201.4%1.8%
February 20201.2%2.0%
March 20203.8%3.6%
April 20205.5%9.8%
May 20204.3%6.8%
June 20203.3%5.4%
July 20203.1%3.9%
August 20203.3%4.4%
September 20202.6%3.8%
October 20202.8%3.7%
November 20202.7%3.9%
December 20202.8%4.0%
January 20213.1%4.0%
February 20214.2%5.4%
March 20214.2%5.5%
April 20213.7%5.4%
May 20213.9%5.4%
June 20213.4%5.0%
July 20213.6%4.5%
August 20213.4%4.1%
September 20213.3%3.9%
October 20213.4%4.2%
November 20213.3%4.3%
December 20213.2%4.4%
January 20223.2%4.1%
February 20223.1%3.8%
March 20223.1%3.8%
April 20223.4%4.1%
May 20223.3%4.2%
June 20223.4%4.4%
July 20223.4%4.3%
August 20222.9%4.3%
September 20223.8%4.6%
October 20224.5%5.3%
November 20224.2%5.0%
December 20222.9%4.3%
January 20232.6%4.1%
February 20232.7%4.1%
March 20233.2%3.8%
April 20233.9%4.8%
May 20233.2%4.4%
June 20232.3%4.4%
July 20232.4%4.1%
August 20232.5%3.7%
September 20232.2%3.8%
October 20232.7%3.5%
November 20232.7%2.8%
December 20232.8%3.2%
January 20242.7%3.3%
February 20242.7%2.9%
March 20242.3%2.7%
April 20242.1%2.5%
May 20242.1%2.2%
June 20242.3%2.4%
July 20242.2%2.5%
August 20242.0%2.2%
September 20241.9%2.4%
October 20241.8%2.3%
November 20241.8%2.6%
December 20241.4%2.4%
January 20251.7%2.1%
February 20251.7%1.9%
March 20251.6%2.3%
April 20252.1%2.1%
May 20252.4%2.3%
June 20252.2%1.8%
July 20252.0%2.0%
August 20252.0%2.0%
September 20251.9%1.9%
October 20252.2%2.3%
November 20252.2%2.6%
December 20251.8%1.9%
January 20261.7%1.8%
February 20262.8%2.6%
March 20261.4%2.1%
April 20262.1%2.6%
May 20260.8%1.7%
June 20262.1%2.1%
July 20262.5%2.5%
August 20262.4%2.3%
Monthly premium over spot, February 2014 to August 2026, against the gold composite. Months with very few sales are drawn like the others here and left out of the averages and the high.

Based on SD Bullion transaction data. Figures before March 2019 are historical estimates.

Some months of this series were revised at the latest publish. See Revisions

Gold premiums | Compare with 10 oz Gold Bar

Look up a month

The month's premium
2.4% · $105.73/oz
2026 range
0.8%-2.8%

What moves this premium

One-ounce .9999 fine gold bars in assay packaging from recognised refiners. The bar has usually been the lowest-premium one-ounce gold product in this index. Its premium is mostly fabrication and distribution cost, and movement in it has usually signalled retail tightness in gold, the way the silver round does for silver. The benchmark takes standard 1 oz gold bars of every refiner, minted or cast; themed and collector designs and graded pieces are left out where they can be identified.

What miners pay to produce an ounce is the other half of the picture: see what the tracked producers spend against the metal price.Miner margins

About the Generic 1 oz gold bar (minted)

Manufacturer
Various private and government refiners
Product type
Bullion bar
Gold content
1 troy oz
Fineness
.9999, typically
Legal tender
No
Face value
None
Form
Cast or minted, varies by refiner

Premium benchmark: standard 1 oz gold bars of every refiner, minted or cast, sealed in assay packaging or loose; themed and collector designs and graded pieces are left out where they can be identified.

The Retail Premium Index

Questions buyers ask

Why does a 1 oz gold bar carry a lower premium than a 1 oz gold coin?

A bar is gold with a refiner's stamp, not a coin with a government behind it. There is no mint fee and no legal-tender standing to pay for, so the premium covers producing the metal, striking the bar, its packaging and the dealer's handling, and that stack has usually been thinner than the Gold Eagle's. The series averages standard bars across refiners, so it reads as the market for plain gold rather than for one brand.

What is the difference between a minted gold bar and a cast one?

A minted bar is struck from a rolled strip to a uniform finish and usually arrives sealed in assay packaging with a serial number; a cast bar is poured into a mould and each one looks a little different. This benchmark averages standard 1 oz gold bars of every refiner, minted or cast; themed and collector designs are left out where they can be identified.

Do all 1 oz gold bars carry the same premium?

This series averages standard 1 oz gold bars across refiners, so the figure here is the market for a plain ounce of gold in bar form, not a quote on one refiner's bar.

How to read this page

The Retail Premium Index publishes the average premium paid on retail orders at SD Bullion, month by month, for each benchmark bullion product. A premium is what a buyer pays above the metal value of the piece, as a share of that value; a dollar figure is shown only where the record carries it. It includes the mint's and the distributor's charges as well as the dealer's, so it is not a measure of dealer margin.

A premium can also be negative: when the metal price moves very fast, some products have sold for less than the metal in them, and the series shows that as it happened.

Where next

The Retail Premium Index is a free public resource published for educational purposes only. It is compiled from real transaction records and from market data we license, using the methods described on the methodology page, and we correct it when we find errors. It is not a price quote, an offer to buy or sell, or investment advice, and it may not match figures compiled by other dealers or from other sources, whose products, pricing and methods differ from ours. The methods, the products covered and the period covered may change over time; nothing about the continuation, consistency or method of the index is guaranteed, and any figure may be revised or withdrawn. Past premiums do not indicate future premiums. The figures come from one retailer's own records of completed orders, and for the months before March 2019 from estimates of what the metal was worth at the time of each sale.

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