5 gram gold bar: what it is worth and what it really costs

The 5 g bar sits in an awkward but popular spot. It costs a few hundred pounds or dollars, so it works as a gift or a first purchase, yet it holds five times the gold of the tiny 1 g bars that carry the heaviest markups. The catch is that dealers price it very differently. On the same Monday morning we found one charging less than 7% over gold value and another more than 15%. This page shows why, using live values, the maker's own measurements and prices read automatically from five dealers' sites.

What is 5 grams of gold worth today?

The gold inside a bar is worth its weight times the spot price, the live wholesale price traders use. A 5 g bar of 99.99% gold contains 0.1608 troy ounces. These figures update on their own:

Spot-based melt values, not dealer prices. Last updated: Loading. Try other weights in the gold value calculator.

How big is a 5 gram gold bar?

Very small: shorter than a thumbnail is wide, and thinner than two coins stacked. Mints publish exact sizes on their product pages, and they differ slightly:

The Perth Mint quotes maximum dimensions within its manufacturing tolerances and a minimum gross weight of 5.000 g. The Royal Mint also lists three security features on the bar itself: a latent image, surface animation and micro-text. All sizes side by side: gold bar sizes.

Hatton Garden Metals says its loose 5 g bars come from refiners approved by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), naming Metalor, PAMP Suisse, Heraeus and Baird among others. "Loose" means no sealed card, which is part of why it can charge less. Sealed cards matter more on small bars, because they let a buyer check the serial number without testing the metal; see what an assay card is.

What did 5 gram gold bars cost on 12 October 2026?

Our automated check read the price for one bar (quantity one, cheapest payment method shown, usually bank transfer) on each dealer's product page between 07:29 and 07:32 UTC on Monday 12 October 2026. The premium is how much more than the gold value you pay.

Spot used (gold-api.com): £3,162.72 and A$5,993.09 per troy ounce at 07:29 UTC; US$4,186.50 and C$5,968.27 at 07:31 to 07:32 UTC. Premium = price / (5 g x spot per gram) - 1. Highlighted: cheapest bar that was in stock. Dealers' own spot feeds differ slightly; Gold Stock Canada showed its own premium as 10.43%. More dated checks on the premium tracker.

The cheapest in-stock bar came from a national mint selling direct, the Perth Mint, at 8.44%. The dearest was a Swiss Valcambi bar in the US at 15.26%, and APMEX's card price was higher again (US$808.02). Hatton Garden Metals was lowest overall but had no stock, and its bar is loose rather than sealed. In the UK, the Royal Mint's sealed Britannia cost £35.92 more than that loose bar. Whether a sealed card is worth that much is a judgement call; our best gold bars to buy guide sets out how we weigh it.

Check today's 5 g price at the Perth Mint

How much more per gram is a 5 g bar than other sizes?

Comparing one dealer's own price list removes brand and packaging from the picture. Here is the cost per gram at four dealers, all captured on 12 October 2026.

Single-bar prices divided by grams. Perth Mint figures are from one full Kangaroo minted bar price list read at 06:35 UTC (its 5 g bar was A$1,044.16 then, 8.35% over spot). Other 5 g figures from the 07:29 to 07:32 UTC check above; other sizes from our 1 g, 10 g and 100 g checks the same morning.

The pattern is the same everywhere: the big saving is between 1 g and 5 g, and each step up after that saves less. At the Royal Mint, five 1 g bars would have cost £733.25 against £579.44 for one 5 g bar, £153.81 extra. Two 5 g bars would have cost £1,158.88 against £1,105.69 for one 10 g bar, a smaller gap of £53.19. If your budget stretches to 10 g, one bar beats two.

How does a 5 g bar compare with a Sovereign?

In the UK the obvious rival is the gold Sovereign, which holds 7.32 g of fine gold. On the same Royal Mint page at 07:29 UTC, a 2026 Sovereign in a blister pack was listed at £765.95: a 2.87% premium, or £104.60 per gram of gold, well below the 5 g bar's £115.89. The Sovereign is also exempt from UK Capital Gains Tax because it is legal tender, while a bar is not. Outside the UK the comparison is with quarter-ounce coins, covered in gold coins vs gold bars.

Who is a 5 gram gold bar right for?

How is a 5 gram bar taxed in each country?

When you buy, bars of 99.99% gold are free of VAT in the UK (gold of 995 fineness or more counts as investment gold under HMRC Notice 701/21), free of GST/HST in Canada and free of GST in Australia (both apply the 99.5% purity line). The US has no federal sales tax on bullion, but some states charge sales tax, so check your state first. When you sell, gains on bars fall under Capital Gains Tax in the UK, Canada and Australia, and under the collectibles rules in the US, though gains on a single 5 g bar will rarely be large. Country detail, dealers and local rules are in where to buy gold in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

How do you check, store and sell a 5 gram bar?

1. Keep it in its card. Breaking the seal turns a sealed bar into a loose one, which some buyers will want to test before paying.
2. Match it to the maker's details. The serial number, logo and size (for example 23.2 x 14.2 mm for a Royal Mint Britannia 5 g) should all agree. Simple checks are in how to tell if gold is real.
3. Store it where you will find it. A bar this small is easy to lose; the gold storage guide covers options.
4. Know the sell-back price before you buy. On 12 October 2026 Hatton Garden Metals showed £488.03 for a 5 g bar, 4.01% under spot. Bought at the Royal Mint and sold straight back, you would lose £91.41, about 16%. That gap is the dealer spread. More in selling gold bars.

All the 5 g bars we priced are minted (stamped from a strip and polished); the Perth Mint, for one, does not make cast bars this small. The difference is explained in cast vs minted bars. For other weights and refiners, browse all gold bar guides.

Not financial advice. GoldVetted provides general information to help you compare options. It is not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Gold prices go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you pay. Check tax rules with the official source or a qualified adviser before you act.