Where to Buy Gold by the Pound

Reviewed by the Gold by the Pound Editorial Team · Updated November 3, 2026

Prices on this page use gold spot at $3,929.50/troy oz ($57,305/lb) · updated November 3, 2026

Quick answer. You can buy gold by the pound from four kinds of seller: online bullion dealers, local coin shops, full-service precious metals companies, and marketplaces. None of them sells a one-pound product. You order a pound's worth, 14.583 troy ounces, as coins and bars, and at today's spot price that is $57,305 before the seller's premium. For an order of that size, and for gold held in an IRA, we point readers to Goldco, a full-service company with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. For an ounce or two, an online dealer with posted prices is usually the better fit.

Key takeaways

• A pound of gold is 14.583 troy ounces: $57,305 at spot today, and roughly $58,165 to $59,884 once typical premiums are added.
• The usual order is fifteen one-ounce coins, or a ten-ounce bar plus five coins.
• Where you buy matters less than what you're quoted. Compare every seller on price per piece.
• Gold for an IRA must be held by the account's trustee at a depository, and only some products qualify.
• Avoid any "1 lb gold bar" priced far below $57,305. Real gold isn't sold at a discount to spot.

Advertising disclosure: this site is paid a commission when a reader who clicks our Goldco links becomes a customer. Your price is the same either way. Goldco has no say over our figures, our premium ranges or this guide, and the section on who should look elsewhere is written as plainly as the section on who Goldco suits. Full disclosure.

Can You Buy Gold by the Pound?

Yes. You just can't buy it as a single thing called "a pound of gold".

Gold is made, priced and traded in troy ounces and grams. A pound, the everyday 453.59-gram pound, works out to 14.583 troy ounces. So a dealer hearing "I'd like a pound of gold" hears "about fifteen ounces", and will offer you coins and bars that add up to it.

It helps to arrive already speaking that language. Say "fifteen one-ounce Gold Eagles" or "a ten-ounce bar and five Maple Leafs" and you'll get a price per piece you can check. Say "a pound" and you leave the product choice, and with it the premium, to the seller.

One warning before going further. Search for "1 lb gold bar" on a marketplace and you'll find bars for a few dollars. Those are brass or tungsten with gold plating, sold as novelties. A real pound of gold costs $57,305 plus a premium, today, everywhere. A lower price for "a pound of gold" is never a bargain.

The Four Kinds of Seller

Each kind of seller is good at something different. For a pound-sized order the differences are practical ones.

Online bullion dealers are where most experienced buyers go. The price of every product is on the page and updates with the market. The trade-off is that you're on your own: you pick the products, lock the price, and get a bank wire out before the deadline. For a first order of five figures, that can feel like a lot to get right alone.

Local coin shops let you hold the product and walk out with it. The limit is inventory. A shop may have six Eagles and a few bars in mixed sizes, which is fine for an ounce and awkward for fifteen. Many will order what you need; ask what the price will be based on, and when it's fixed.

Full-service companies work by phone. You talk to a specialist, they propose an order, and they handle the steps around it: opening a self-directed IRA and moving funds into it, or arranging insured delivery. The value is the hand-holding. The cost is that the price isn't on a web page, so the comparison is yours to do.

Marketplaces are where the fake pound bars live. For gold in this quantity, skip them.

What to Order

There are three sensible ways to assemble a pound, and they're set out on our homepage with live values:

• Fifteen one-ounce coins. 15 troy ounces, $58,942 of gold at spot. Easiest to sell in parts later. See a pound of gold in coins for how the common coins differ.
• A ten-ounce bar and five coins. The same gold in six pieces, usually at a lower premium.
• Bars only. A kilo bar is the cheapest gold per ounce but holds 2.2 pounds ($126,336), and it can't be divided. Gold bars by the pound lists every size.

If you think you'll ever want to sell part of it, favor more, smaller pieces. If you're certain you're holding the lot for years, larger bars save money on the way in.

What It Costs Over Spot

Every seller charges a premium over the spot price. Typical ranges from 2026 dealer guides run from about 1–2% on kilo bars to about 3–6% on American Gold Eagles, with fractional coins higher still. On a pound, each percentage point is about $573.

That makes the quote the thing to compare. Ask any seller for the price per piece, for each product, plus shipping and insurance. Then enter it in our premium per pound calculator, which turns it into a premium per ounce, per pound and as a percentage. A premium near the typical range is ordinary. One far above it needs a reason you can verify, and "this coin is rarer" is a reason to ask for the bullion version instead.

We say the same about our sponsored partner. Goldco does not post prices, so its quote should go through the calculator like anyone else's.

Delivery or an IRA

Delivery means you buy with your own money and the gold is shipped to you, insured. You may order any product, and storage is your decision.

A gold IRA means the gold is bought with retirement funds. Federal law treats metals and coins in an IRA as collectibles, which count as a distribution, unless they meet an exception: American Gold Eagles, or bullion that is at least .995 fine, held "in the physical possession" of the account's trustee. In practice that means Eagles, Buffalos, Maple Leafs and .9999 bars qualify, Krugerrands don't, and the gold sits in a depository until you take a distribution. The IRS says the same in its IRA FAQs.

Full-service companies exist largely because the IRA route has paperwork: a self-directed account, a custodian, a transfer or rollover, a depository. Our comparison, gold at home or gold in an IRA, goes through both paths.

Goldco: The Company We'd Call for a Pound

Goldco is a precious metals company that sells gold and silver coins and bars, either delivered to you or placed in a gold or silver IRA. These facts come from Goldco's own website and its Better Business Bureau profile, read on October 1, 2026. We have not bought from Goldco as a customer.

• Record. The BBB lists Goldco as accredited since December 2011, with an A+ rating.
• Reviews. Goldco reports more than 8,000 five-star customer reviews across review platforms. That is the company's own count; read the BBB profile yourself, complaints included.
• Scale. Goldco says it has helped customers place more than $3 billion in gold and silver.
• Buyback. Goldco says it will buy back metals it sold you. Its "highest price" promise applies once three years have passed, and it publishes no rate. Treat it as a convenience, not a price guarantee.
• Offer. Up to 5% back in free silver on qualified orders of $50,000 to $99,999, and up to 10% at $100,000 or more.* At today's spot, $50,000 is 0.87 lb of gold and $100,000 is 1.75 lb, so a single pound of gold falls in the first tier. On a qualifying $50,000 order, 5% would be up to $2,500 in silver. Whether an order qualifies is Goldco's decision; ask the representative to confirm it in writing.

What the button does. Our green button goes to Goldco's page for its free Gold & Silver Kit: a printed guide, an audio guide and a video guide, mailed at no charge. The form asks for your name, phone number and email, and by submitting it you agree that Goldco may contact you by phone, text and email. A specialist then calls. That page talks mostly about retirement savings, so if you want gold delivered to your home, say so at the start of the call.

What we couldn't find. Goldco's site doesn't publish a minimum order, the name of the custodian it works with, or the depository it uses. Third-party sites quote minimums, and they disagree with each other. Ask Goldco for all three before you decide.

GET THE FREE GOLD & SILVER KIT

How Goldco Measures Up

Who Goldco Suits, and Who Should Look Elsewhere

Goldco suits someone placing a pound-sized order or larger who wants a person to walk them through it; anyone moving retirement funds into physical gold, where the paperwork is the hard part; and buyers whose order is big enough for the free-silver offer to apply.

Look elsewhere if you want one or two ounces; if you want to see a posted price and click "buy" without a phone call; or if you already know exactly which bars you want and only care about the lowest premium. An online bullion dealer with live prices will serve all three better.

Red Flags When Buying Gold by Weight

• A "pound of gold" priced under spot. Plated bars are sold by the pound; real gold isn't sold below $57,305.
• A quote with no weight or fineness. Every piece should be stated in troy ounces with its purity.
• A steer toward collectible coins. Proof, graded and "limited" coins carry premiums many times those of ordinary bullion. US regulators have warned about this sales pattern for years. If you asked for bullion, buy bullion.
• "Store your IRA gold at home." The law requires a trustee to hold it.
• Pressure to decide today. The price changes by the minute, not the opportunity.
• A price built on 16 ounces. A pound is 14.583 troy ounces. Spot times 16 overstates it by $5,567.

Reporting and Tax, Briefly

This is general information, not tax advice. The IRS treats gains on collectibles, a category that includes coins and bullion, differently from gains on shares: its Topic 409 gives a maximum 28% rate on long-term collectibles gains. Sales tax on bullion depends on your state. Gold inside an IRA follows the account's rules instead. Keep every invoice: your cost, premium included, is your basis.

Glossary

• Troy ounce: 31.1035 grams. The unit gold is priced in.
• Spot price: the wholesale price of one troy ounce for immediate delivery.
• Premium: what you pay above spot, as dollars per ounce or a percentage.
• Fineness: purity in parts per thousand; .9999 is 99.99% gold.
• Depository: a vault business that stores metals for owners and IRA trustees.
• Custodian: the bank or trust company that administers a self-directed IRA.

Frequently Asked Questions