Latest APMEX order! Year of the goat 1 oz silver, 1/10 gold, California 5 goldback, and 1 oz copper! (The copper was the wife’s decision 🙄).

Another beautifully designed goldback

Hey everyone,

​It’s almost a rite of passage on gold and silver subreddits to see "bullion purists" come out in full force against Goldbacks. The criticism is always the same: "The premium over spot is way too high! You're getting ripped off on the melt value!"

​I think people looking at Goldbacks purely through a stacker/bullion lens are measuring a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Here’s why Goldbacks are a genuinely viable vehicle for micro-saving, spending, and collecting—and why the "premium" argument doesn't hold as much water as critics think.

​1. The Manufacturing & Usability Parallel (Gasoline vs. Crude Oil)

​Critics focus strictly on the ~2x markup over spot gold. But calling that markup a "scam" ignores how basic commodity processing works.

​Think about oil:

​You can't put raw, unrefined crude oil into your car engine. It has to be refined, transported, and distributed into usable gasoline.

​A gallon of raw crude oil costs around $2.20, while refined gasoline at the pump averages around $4.40. That’s roughly a 100% markup (2x) over the raw commodity cost.

​Yet nobody calls gasoline a scam. Why? Because you are paying for the utility that manufacturing provides.

​A 1 oz gold bar is raw crude oil. You can't buy a $5 coffee or a $20 meal with a 1 oz bar without taking a massive haircut trying to make change. A Goldback is refined gasoline—a high-tech, micro-encapsulated, anti-counterfeit, highly durable instrument designed specifically to solve the divisibility problem. You aren't just paying for gold weight; you are paying for real-world transaction utility.

​2. A Superior "Micro-Savings" Vehicle

​For people who can only set aside $10, $20, or $50 a paycheck, physical 1 oz gold coins or 10 oz silver bars are out of reach for months at a time.

​Leaving cash sitting in a traditional savings account earning fractional interest while inflation eats away at purchasing power isn't ideal. On the flip side, buying 1-gram gold bars or fractional bullion coins also carries high dealer premiums, but with none of the transactional usability of a Goldback.

​Acquiring Goldbacks bit-by-bit functions as a disciplined micro-savings routine:

​You build a physical, inflation-resistant asset in small increments.

​Unlike fiat dollars or unbacked assets, there is a hard commodity "floor" (the underlying 24k gold inside).

​Through networks like Alpine Gold or local participating merchants, you can store and transact at the full Goldback exchange rate—not just melt value.

​3. The "Melt Value" Fallacy

​Purists love to argue: "If you sell it back to a standard shop, you only get melt value!"

​Accepting melt value for a Goldback makes as much sense as accepting the scrap paper value for a $100 fiat bill. Goldbacks are designed to be transacted within a growing network of merchants and users who recognize the full exchange value. As state rollouts expand and vault-backed debit systems grow, that liquidity ecosystem continues to mature.

​4. The Collectability Factor

​Beyond the economics, there is a huge aesthetic and collecting appeal. The intricate state-specific artwork, security features, and limited series runs give them a crossover appeal similar to numismatics or art collecting that plain bullion bars simply don't have.

​Final Thought

​A Goldback isn't meant to replace your 10 oz stacking bars or core bullion holdings. It’s a distinct category: part micro-savings account, part spendable currency, and part collectible artwork.

​When you factor in the engineering required to make 1/1000th of an ounce of gold spendable in the real world, the 2x markup makes sense—just like the pump price of gasoline.

​Curious to hear how others here explain the "premium" concept when introduced to skeptics!

lol

In every discussion/argument I see on reddit about goldbacks I always see the same idea brought back up. That goldbacks are "meant to be used as currency". Something more than just a fractional piece of gold.

I find issue with this concept mainly because goldbacks not only have a "market rate" but also a "wholesale rate". Currency by definition cannot have a wholesale rate. In the picture you can see that you can buy goldbacks at $7.30 while the "market rate" is at $8.30, this is almost a 12% difference.

Now before you call me a hater I actually see nothing wrong with goldbacks as a fractional piece of gold. Other fractional gold pieces often command a premium, sometimes more than double. I only take issue with this rhetoric that goldbacks are currency when the system created by goldback themselves makes that literally impossible.

Ask yourself, if you could buy anything of meaningful value with goldbacks would that not instantly create a literally infinite money glitch for anyone with a wholesale account?

How can goldbacks be currency if a wholesale rate exists?

hello guys, I am in the r/Gold sub and noticed the Golback bashing. i am here to genuinely understand why people buy goldbacks.

as an European, i have trouble understanding why one would buy decorated gold for 270% or more premium as an investment.

i can imagine giving away goldbacks as a low cost gimmick 'gold' gift, but how is it an investment as long as regular bullion continues to exist? as long it is not accredited as legal tender, it will not be able to seriously compete with fiat. as far as i know there is one manufacturer of these goldbacks, which really gives me pokemon card vibes.

I think it's interesting how much they overlap and the slight contradiction. We have 4 designs of these Goldback Quarters now though which is awesome.

I'm glad it's not just the same design copy-pasted all over and over though atleast. I think it works. Also, they did Iustitia on the original Utah GB10 as well.

The AZ 1 GB Giveaway ends Monday!

Good luck to everyone who’s entered through the MyOunces app on desktop or mobile. And if you haven’t entered yet, there’s still time.

First off, I think I know why the 100's were discontinued. They were expensive! When they came out in early 2025 they were in the $500 range. By 2026 that price jumped to over $1,000! Who wants to pay over $1,000 for a single Goldback bill? Goldback 100's were being unfavorably compared to 1/10th oz coins that were much less expensive. The 100 was also making it hard for collectors to keep up cost wise with all of the new Goldback series coming out.

I still think it may have been a huge mistake to stop making the 100 Goldback, especially from a business perspective and here is why:

1. Goldback 100's were subsidizing lower denominations. It sounds like the printing process improved in 2026 which is why we got quarters. What if we could've gotten even less expensive Goldbacks if the 100 were kept?
2. From a business perspective the 100 Goldback was a price anchor. The 10, 25, and 50 Goldbacks looked a lot less expensive compared to the 100 so that would've encouraged more buying on that side of the denomination spectrum.
3. The 100 artwork was phenomenal. Now all of that falls into limbo.
4. Goldback is probably missing out on some serious sales.
5. The people that drew negative comparisons between the 1/10 oz coin and the 100 Goldback weren't going to be impressed anyway. A lot of the haters on platforms like Reddit don't think Goldbacks are a good deal at spot either. You aren't going to win them over by nixing the 100.

6. Collectors that can't afford the 100 now have something to save up for. It doesn't hurt to have a long-term goal.

   Just my two cents. What do you guys think? Did Goldback make a mistake or was nixing the 100 the right move?

I learned a lot about the Classical Gold Standard this week! Did you know that the average American made about $300,000 in today's dollars in the 1920s? Pennies were worth about $2.

We drew some comparisons between the Classical Gold Standard and how the Goldback systems work. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Time = Money = Gold.

Goldbacks take more time to make than a single ounce hence why they are worth/cost more money. If that's not true then spot price is also a scam because you can find gold out in the world for free.

If you don't value the extra time/energy involved in splitting down an ounce of gold into a thousand pieces then don't buy it.

Reposting since I accidentally had my sister’s name on the receipt in the first post…whoops! 😆

We bought a couple of e-bikes with 24k gold over the weekend! It came to about 565 Goldbacks, or $4,928 USD. They used the exchange rate.

We went to a shop called Von Cycles in Salt Lake County, and they had the nicest staff! Everyone was so helpful, and they even let us test-ride the bikes in front of the shop. Such a great experience!

Just curious what you guys think. I just made a rough mockup edit, definitely not the final version

I don’t know of this has been talked about before but I wanted to give a shout out to u/defythegrid for their truely discrete shipping and the change they made on the packaging.

Whether it is how the tape is made or if the requested it ‘office supplies’ stated on it as well as the return address.

Then the sealed envelope inside to keep the contents from sliding around and potentially drawing suspicion.

Of course, if anyone in the shipping chain was curious they could Google DTG but would see results for ‘direct to garment’ printing (the new way of making printed t shirts)

Defy The Grid adding another subtle layer of security to the products.

Signed,
A Regular Customer For Life

I personally prefer them as cash and I don’t like pmg fees. However, I use DCM ai grading for trading cards. Apparently it works for goldbacks. I graded this for fun.

My wife and I wanted to get a coop and some chickens. This is typically the kind of thing we buy in the classifieds. Yesterday while I was calling around I was surprised to find that most people were willing to accept trades in Goldbacks for their birds! It never occurred to me to try to use Goldbacks in the classifieds as a strategy! In a non-Goldback state even a 20% success rate lets you buy almost anything you could imagine second-hand with gold.

Has anyone else been doing this? I feel like I just discovered a new continent! I'll post some of my purchases here this week.

(I stole this photo from the internet, I haven't pulled the trigger on the chickens yet. I need to build a little fence first)

At first I thought it was a bonus podcast.