The product page says ₹36,000. Another coin says ₹1,42,000. The second one can still be the better buy.
That sounds wrong until you stop comparing coins and start comparing grams of pure gold. A small coin carries more making charge per gram. A 22K piece has less gold in it than a 24K piece of the same weight. The sticker price hides both of those facts.
If you are trying to find the cheapest gold coin in India, the question to ask is: what am I paying per gram of pure gold, and is that above or below today's 24K market rate?
Makro's Gold Deals ranks listings that way. This post is the reasoning behind the ranking.
Why the sticker price misleads you
Walk through two listings.
A 2 gram, 24K coin at ₹16,000 is ₹8,000 per gram. An 8 gram, 24K coin at ₹58,000 is ₹7,250 per gram. The smaller coin looks "affordable." Per gram of gold, it is the expensive one.
Now change the purity. A 22K coin is 91.6% gold. If you divide the sticker by the gross weight, you understate the price of the gold inside it. You have to divide by the pure-gold weight, not the weight printed on the pack.
That is the whole method:
- Take the price you actually pay, including charges already baked into the listing.
- Convert the weight to pure grams using the purity.
- Divide. That is the rate per pure gram.
- Compare it with a 24K reference for the same day.
A coin "below market" is one whose pure-gram rate sits under that reference. A coin "above market" costs more gold-for-gold than the reference, which is common once making charges are in the price.
This is not the MCX rate
MCX gold is an exchange futures price, quoted per 10 grams. It is the right number for "what is the market doing today." It is the wrong number for "what will this coin cost me on a store page."
A retail coin includes the seller's premium. That premium is not a scam by itself. Minting, assay, packaging, and a shop's margin have a cost. The useful question is how large that gap is, and whether another listing of the same purity is tighter.
Jewellery is a third price again. Making charges and wastage on a bangle can dwarf the gap you see on a coin. If the goal is metal, a coin or a bar is the cleaner comparison. If the goal is something you will wear, you are buying craft as well as gold. Physical gold, ETFs, and digital gold are different tools. Do not rank them on one sticker.
Want to see what hedge funds are actually doing in gold right now?
View Live CFTC Data →What "below the 24K rate" does and does not mean
A listing under the reference is cheaper than that benchmark. It is not a forecast that gold will rise, and it is not a promise the coin is the lowest price in the country tomorrow.
Three limits are worth keeping in mind.
The reference is a market rate, not a jeweller's board. Your local shop can still be higher or lower once you negotiate. The comparison tells you whether an online listing is rich or tight versus the day's 24K yardstick.
Coupons count only when they are already in the price you pay. A code you might or might not get should not be treated as money saved. Compare the net price.
The catalog moves. Store prices change. A useful list is refreshed on a schedule and kept intact when a refresh fails, so you are not looking at a half-loaded page. On Makro that refresh is every 4 hours, and a failed fetch keeps the previous list.
Opening a deal should take you to the store's own page. The comparison is the product. The checkout belongs to the seller.
A simple check before you pay
Before you buy a coin or a bar online, write down four numbers from the listing: price you pay, gross weight, purity, and the day's 24K rate per gram.
Pure grams = gross weight × purity. For 24K, purity is about 0.999. For 22K, use 0.916.
Rate = price ÷ pure grams.
If that rate is far above the 24K reference, you are paying a wide premium for a small piece or a high making charge. If it is near or under the reference, the listing is doing what a "deal" should do: selling gold close to the metal's own price.
Gold Deals does this division across Indian store listings and sorts by the pure-gram rate. The explainer of the method is on the gold deals answer page. The live exchange price, which you still need as context, stays on the free dashboard.
None of this is a recommendation to buy a coin. It is a way to stop comparing the wrong number.