One ounce gold Britannia, delivered. Dealer figures below are an example layout — live collection begins once our checks with each dealer are complete.
The cheapest ounce of gold you can actually buy today
Enter a budget to see what it buys.
| Size | Gold content | Typical price | Markup | Cost per gram | CGT |
|---|
Spot price is live. Prices here are that spot multiplied by typical UK dealer markups — so they move with gold, but the markups themselves are observed ranges, not collected from each dealer. That part arrives when dealer collection is built. The tax column is explained and sourced below.
| Dealer | You pay | Markup | They buy back at | Spread | LBMA | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example Dealer A1oz Britannia · delivered | £3,224 | +4.0% | £3,038 | 5.8% | Approved | Example |
| Example Dealer B1oz Britannia · delivered | £3,255 | +5.0% | £3,069 | 5.7% | Approved | Example |
| Example Dealer C1oz Britannia · delivered | £3,348 | +8.0% | £2,976 | 11.1% | Approved | Example |
| The Royal Mintawaiting first check | — | — | — | — | — | Pending |
| BullionByPostawaiting first check | — | — | — | — | — | Pending |
| Chardsawaiting first check | — | — | — | — | — | Pending |
Spread is the gap between buying and selling. Buy at £3,224 from a dealer who buys back at £3,038 and gold must rise 5.8% before you break even. It is the number that decides whether you actually made money — and the one least likely to be on a dealer's website.
Small budgets pay more per gram. Here is how to lose less of it.
A 1g bar is real gold and a real start. It also carries the worst markup of anything on this page. If you can hold the cash three months instead, the same money buys noticeably more metal.
A tenth-ounce coin looks like the obvious entry point and is one of the dearest ways in. A full Sovereign holds seven times the gold for a markup several points lower, and sells anywhere in Britain.
Sovereigns stay the flexible choice — you can sell one without breaking up a larger holding. Once you can reach a full ounce comfortably, the markup drops again and stays there.
One-ounce coins are the liquid standard: easy to sell, CGT-exempt, fair markup. Bars go cheaper per gram still, but you cannot sell a third of one, and they lose the tax exemption.
The one number worth knowing. Every £1,000 spent a gram at a time buys about 8.5g of gold. The same £1,000 spent on Sovereigns buys about 9.5g. Same money, a gram more metal — roughly £100 — purely from how you bought it.
And a warning about silver. Silver looks like the obvious cheap way in at around £40 an ounce. The VAT exemption for investment gold is gold-only — there is no equivalent for silver, so it carries 20% VAT you will not get back when you sell. For a small budget that difference matters more than the metal you choose.
Checked against the legislation and HMRC, not a dealer's blog. Verified 7 October 2026.
Capital gains: UK legal tender coins are not chargeable assets. The Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, section 21(1)(b), defines assets as including “currency, with the exception (subject to express provision to the contrary) of sterling”. A Sovereign and a Britannia are sterling legal tender, so a gain on them is not a chargeable gain — at any size. HMRC's Capital Gains Manual lists “currency in sterling” among the exemptions from the charge.
Bars are chargeable. A bar is not currency, so it is an ordinary chargeable asset and a gain on it can be taxed. Small disposals may fall under the chattels rules, but do not plan around that — if you expect to hold a large amount, the coin route and the bar route are not the same decision.
The trap: foreign coins are not exempt. A Krugerrand or a Maple Leaf is legal tender in South Africa and Canada, not here. The sterling exemption does not reach them, and they sit on dealer shelves beside Britannias at a similar markup with nothing drawing attention to the difference.
VAT: investment gold is exempt. HMRC's notice on investment gold coins (701/21A) exempts a coin that is “a gold coin minted after 1800”, of “purity of not less than 900 thousandths”, which “is, or has been, legal tender in its country of origin”, and normally sells at no more than 180% of its gold content. Britannias at 999.9 and Sovereigns at 916.7 both clear that comfortably.
Sources: Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 s.21(1)(b) · HMRC Capital Gains Manual CG12602 · HMRC VAT Notice 701/21A and Group 15, Schedule 9, VAT Act 1994. This is the law as we read it on the date shown, not tax advice. Your own position may differ and rules change — check before a large purchase.
The four things that actually catch people out. None of them is the gold price.
Gold-plated tungsten bars exist and they fool a scratch test. The practical defence is not a gadget, it is who you buy from: dealers on the LBMA list have their supply chain audited. We mark every dealer's status in the table above.
Everyone looks at the buying price. Almost nobody checks what the same dealer pays to take it back. A wide spread means you start thousands down on day one. We publish both numbers next to each other.
Standard UK contents cover usually caps or excludes bullion entirely. Before the coin arrives, either add a specified-item endorsement or arrange vault storage — which has its own annual cost worth counting into the price.
And the one that surprises everyone: the paperwork. A reputable dealer will ask for your passport and a utility bill, sometimes on purchases of only a few thousand pounds. That is UK anti-money-laundering law doing its job, not suspicion of you. A dealer who does not ask is the one worth worrying about.
One promise about our numbers. If we have not checked a dealer today it reads Pending — never yesterday's price, never an average, never a guess dressed up as a fact.
Example series Markup moves with demand. Buy in a panic and you pay for the panic.
The historical series is the asset. Once it exists it cannot be bought anywhere else.
Why Professional costs what it does. It carries leveraged-market data — futures, basis, derivatives. Those instruments can lose you more than you put in, and they are not something a first-time buyer should wander into from a £29 subscription. The price and the application are both deliberate friction. If that tier is genuinely for you, the cost will not be the obstacle.