Spot gold price and the price you'd actually pay for a physical coin or bar are two different numbers, and the gap between them isn't fixed. That gap, the premium, reflects real-world supply and demand for physical product that has nothing to do with the futures or spot market's minute-to-minute pricing.
1. What the premium actually pays for
Minting costs, distribution and dealer logistics, and dealer margin all get built into the premium over spot. A widely recognized, easily resold coin generally carries a higher premium than an equivalent weight of gold in a large bar, since the minting and packaging cost is spread across less metal.
2. Why premiums spike independently of spot
During periods of high retail buying interest or mint supply disruptions, physical premiums can widen sharply even while spot price stays flat or falls, since dealers are competing for limited physical inventory rather than just quoting a paper price. This has happened often enough that premium spikes are treated as their own, separate market condition from spot price moves.
3. Where paper gold differs
Futures, spot CFDs, and unallocated trading accounts settle against the quoted spot price and carry none of this physical premium, since no metal is being minted, shipped, or held in the trader's own possession. That's a meaningful structural difference for anyone comparing the cost of trading gold versus owning it physically.