A dealing screen prints a price for an ounce that nobody has to ship. The object on a counter was poured or struck, branded, insured, and offered by a desk that must later bid for it. The gap between those two numbers is the premium over spot — form, brand, mint, and liquidity.
Screen ounce, object in hand
Spot is a reference print for a paper ounce. In the trade the usual references are the London Bullion Market Association prices — the LBMA Gold Price and the LBMA Silver Price — and the nearby futures prints that move with them. Those numbers describe unallocated metal of a published specification. They do not describe a one-ounce coin in a flip, or a cast bar in a retail safe.
The dealer’s ask is the price of a specific object: a named form, a named weight, a named stamp. Subtract the spot reference and the remainder is the premium. Both sides of the comparison can be .999 or .9999 fine. The premium measures the work and the market around the ounce, not a second chemistry.
The later number is the bid: what a desk will pay for that same object today. An ask far above spot can still be a clean quote for a common coin. A bid close to spot can still be a poor exit if the object is awkward to name. The spread between ask and bid is part of the physical market. The ask alone is half the tape.
Why the gap exists
Fabrication is the first cost that the screen does not carry. Refined metal has to be poured or struck into a countable piece, stamped with weight and fineness, and — above a certain size — given a serial. Dies, molds, inspection, and assay do not vanish because London already printed a number. A large bar spreads that work. A small piece concentrates it.
Then the object has to leave a mint, sit in insured transit, and arrive at a desk that will still be there when someone wants the same stamp back. Freight, insurance, and capital tied up in transit are in the ask, not in the LBMA print.
A dealer who shows a coin or a bar has already paid for it, or borrowed to hold it, and must carry it through a quiet week. The bid–ask is how that book is funded. A wide ask with a thin bid can mean the desk does not want more of that stamp. A tight pair can mean the stamp is easy to turn.
A stamp a stranger can name without a laboratory is easier to bid for. A government mint mark, a well-known refiner, a common weight — those facts cut the next counterparty’s checking cost. Brand and mint are part of how quickly the object changes hands without a melt. That liquidity has a price, and the premium is where it usually shows.
Form and size
The gap moves with how much work sits on each ounce, and with how easy the object is to name later. A wholesale bar can print a smaller premium per ounce because fabrication and assay were spread. A common bullion coin can print a larger one because more work sat on a single ounce and the design is already public vocabulary. Small minted bars sit between those poles. The objects themselves are compared on gold bars vs coins.
Silver often shows a larger percentage gap than gold, for a reason of scale. Striking or pouring a one-ounce silver piece costs labour that is a bigger share of a cheaper ounce. That is fabrication arithmetic.
Mint capacity, transport, and how common a stamp is move the gap from month to month. A familiar coin can tighten when many are offered and widen when retail stock is thin. A large bar can sit near the London print and still be awkward if the only later buyer wants a melt or a brand they do not know. Those moves are a supply of objects. They are not a signal that the metal itself has become a bargain, and they are not a timing tip.
The object, not a second price of the metal
Spot is already a market print for the paper ounce. Adding fabrication and a dealer’s book does not produce a truer price of the metal. It produces the price of a particular object. A low premium is not proof the metal is cheap, and a high one is not proof it is dear. A large markup can be the ordinary cost of a small, well-known coin. A small markup can sit on a bar that is hard to move.