How much is a Quarter-ounce Eagle worth?
Specification
| Gross weight | 8.483 g |
|---|---|
| Fineness | 916.7 (91.67%) |
| Fine gold content | 7.776 g |
| Fine gold, troy oz | 0.25 |
| Diameter | 22 mm |
| Mint | United States Mint |
| Country | United States |
| Face value | $10 |
| First issued | 1986 |
About this coin
Almost exactly the diameter of a sovereign, which catches people out - the quarter Eagle holds slightly more gold and is worth noticeably more. Check the face value stamped on the reverse rather than judging by size.
The gift coin
Graduations, weddings, a grandchild's birthday - the quarter-ounce Eagle is the size Americans give. It is substantial enough to feel like gold in the hand, small enough that giving one does not require a conversation with a spouse first. Dealers know this, which is why quarter-ounce stock runs low every December.
The $10 face value on it is a historical wink: $10 was the denomination of the original gold eagle coin from 1795 to 1933, the one this whole family is named after. That coin held just under half an ounce; its modern namesake holds a quarter.
Read the premium before you buy two
Here is arithmetic worth doing in the shop: quarter-ounce premiums routinely run two to three times the percentage charged on a full ounce. Four quarters can cost meaningfully more than one ounce coin holding identical gold. If the pieces are for giving, that spread is the price of the gesture and worth paying. If they are for stacking, the seller is quietly collecting a fee for cutting your gold into quarters.
How this size compares
| Fine gold | 7.776 g |
|---|---|
| In troy ounces | 0.25 ozt |
| In pennyweights | 5 dwt |
| Equal to | 1.06 gold sovereigns |
| Bars per kilo | 128.6 of these make one kilo of gold |
Questions people ask
- How much is a Quarter-ounce Eagle worth today?
- Its gold content is worth $1,031.35 at the current spot price of $4,125.39 per troy ounce. That is the melt value - it contains 0.25 troy ounces of fine gold. A dealer will pay under this figure when buying and charge over it when selling. At a quarter ounce the premium starts doing real damage to the arithmetic.
- How much does a Quarter-ounce Eagle weigh?
- 8.483 grams gross at 916.7 fineness, which is 7.776 grams of actual gold. The gross weight is what your scale reads; the fine weight is what it is worth. Multiplying the gross weight by the spot price would overstate this coin by about 9.1%.
- Who makes the Quarter-ounce Eagle and is it legal tender?
- It is struck by the United States Mint in United States, first issued in 1986. It carries a face value of $10, which is symbolic - the gold in it is worth many times that.
- Why does the quarter-ounce cost more per gram than the one-ounce?
- Minting, packaging and distribution cost nearly the same per coin regardless of size, so the fixed cost lands on less gold. Expect roughly two to three times the percentage premium of a full ounce. Selling works the same way in reverse: the buyback spread per gram is wider on small coins.
- Why does it say $10 on a coin worth over a thousand dollars?
- The $10 echoes the original 1795-1933 gold eagle, which carried that denomination. On the modern bullion coin the number is symbolic legal tender - it makes the piece a coin in law, but nobody has ever sensibly spent one.
- How current is this valuation?
- It is calculated live from the spot price, currently $4,125.39 per troy ounce from swissquote, read at 18:45 UTC. Nothing on this page is a cached daily figure.