24k Gold Coins

24k Gold Coins

24 carat gold is gold with nothing else added. In practice that means 999.9 fineness, sometimes written as four nines: 99.99% pure, with only a trace of anything else. A 24 carat coin's total weight and its gold content are the same figure, which makes it the simplest thing in the bullion market to value.

Most modern bullion series are struck this way. Once a coin is made to be stored rather than spent there is no need to harden it with copper, and refining technology has made four nines purity routine since the early 1980s. The Royal Canadian Mint led the change with the Maple Leaf, and the Royal Mint followed on the Britannia in 2013.

The one thing to be careful of is handling. Pure gold is soft, so a 24 carat coin marks more easily than a 22 carat one. Coins bought for investment are best left in their capsule or tube, and a coin that has been handled will usually still sell on its gold content but may not command a premium as a pristine example.

Like all investment grade gold, these coins are exempt from VAT, so the price you pay reflects the gold content and a small premium rather than being inflated by sales tax.

Gold Britannia coins, along with the Queen's Beasts and Tudor Beasts series, are British legal tender and so exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK residents however many you buy or sell. The Maple Leaf, Philharmonic, Kangaroo, Buffalo, Lunar and Panda are foreign legal tender and do not qualify.

Popular 24 Carat Gold Coins

These are the one ounce versions. On a 24 carat coin the total weight and the gold content are the same, so there is no alloy to account for.

The Chinese Panda is the exception on two counts. It is struck to 999 rather than 999.9, still 24 carat but one nine short of the others, and since 2016 the series has used metric weights, so its largest standard coin holds 30 grams rather than a full troy ounce.

If you would rather have a harder wearing coin, or you are looking specifically at Sovereigns, see our 22k gold coins.