Methodology

Spot price sources

Live spot prices come from metals.dev as the primary provider, with Yahoo Finance futures data (GC=F, SI=F, PL=F, PA=F) as an automatic fallback if the primary source is unavailable.

Prices are quoted in USD per troy ounce, consistent with COMEX and LBMA conventions. We do not modify, smooth, or adjust prices before displaying them — the number you see is what the provider returned.

If both providers are unreachable, the site returns the last cached value rather than showing a $0 price. Over-the-weekend and holiday prices reflect the last traded value.

Refresh cadence

Live prices are fetched on demand when you load a page, cached for up to 5 minutes on our servers to avoid hammering the upstream provider, then refetched. During active market hours you’ll see prices updated within that 5-minute window on any new page load.

Historical sparklines, 52-week high/low, and 24-hour percent change are computed from daily snapshots we record to our own database at 00:00 UTC. Over time this gives us an independent history series we can plot without depending on a paid history API.

Coin melt calculator

Melt value = fine weight (troy oz) × live spot price per troy oz. Fine weight is derived from the coin’s gross weight and fineness — e.g. a pre-1965 US 90% silver quarter is 6.25 g × 0.900 ÷ 31.1034768 g/ozt = 0.18084 troy oz of pure silver.

We use standard mint specifications sourced from the issuing mint’s published specs (US Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, Perth Mint, etc.). Melt value is theoretical — actual sale prices include a premium over melt that varies by dealer, coin, and market conditions.

Gram / ounce converter

We use the troy ounce (31.1034768 grams) exclusively, as is standard for precious metals. We do not use the avoirdupois ounce (28.3495 grams), which is used for everyday weight but never for bullion. If another site gives you a different answer to a gold conversion, check which ounce they’re using first.

Portfolio tracker

Holdings are valued at quantity (troy oz) × current spot price. The tracker does not estimate dealer premium, numismatic value, or resale spread — the figure is a clean spot-value floor, useful for checking how your stack has moved with the market.

Signed out, holdings are stored only in your browser’s localStorage and never leave your device. Signed in, they’re saved to our database solely to sync across devices. See the Privacy Policy.

Price alerts

Alerts are evaluated once per day at the same time as the daily price snapshot, against the spot price we just fetched. When a threshold is crossed (e.g. gold above $2,400/ozt), we send one email to the address on your account and mark the alert as triggered to prevent re-firing until you reset it. Email is the only channel — no SMS, no push, no phone calls.

Dealer compare page

The compare page shows an estimated total cost per coin, computed as live spot × coin fine weight + dealer premium. Dealer premiums are maintained by hand based on each dealer’s typical over-spot pricing for 1–9 unit quantities; they are not scraped live from dealer sites.

That means a dealer’s real checkout price on any given day may differ from ours — especially during promotions, volume-tier discounts, or payment-method-specific pricing. Treat our number as a “what you’d typically pay here right now” estimate, not a locked quote. We revisit the premiums regularly and when market conditions shift materially.

Rankings sort strictly by estimated total cost. Outbound dealer links are affiliate-tagged (disclosed on the page, per FTC) and commissions do not affect rank.

Corrections and feedback

If you spot a number that looks wrong, a coin spec that’s off, or a calculation that disagrees with another source, please tell us: hello@lode.rocks. We’d rather fix it than have it linger.