Bullion Dollar-Cost-Average Stack Calculator

Bullion Dollar-Cost-Average (DCA) Stacking

DCA stacking means buying a fixed dollar amount of bullion every month, regardless of price. You buy more ounces when prices are low and fewer when they are high, which averages out volatility over time.

The math: Price per ounce = Spot × (1 + Premium%) Ounces this month = Monthly Budget ÷ Price per ounce

The premium is a percentage, so it multiplies the spot price. It is not a dollar amount you subtract from your budget. At a $30 spot with a 12% premium you are paying $33.60 an ounce, and $200 buys 5.95 oz. Subtracting 12 from 200 and dividing by 30 gives 6.27, which is close enough to look right and wrong enough to matter across a decade of buying.

Premium over melt (typical at retail). This calculator works per troy ounce of metal, so spot and melt are the same figure here and the input above is labelled over spot. These bands match the bullion premium calculator, which is the page for judging one specific asking price on a coin that is not exactly an ounce:

• Generic silver rounds: 8-15%
• American Silver Eagle: 25-40%
• 100 oz silver bars: 4-8%
• Junk silver (90% pre-1965 US coinage): 2-10%
• Generic 1 oz gold bars: 1-4%
• Krugerrand or Gold Maple: 3-6%
• American Gold Eagle or Buffalo: 4-9%

Note the gap between the metals. Silver premiums run in the tens of percent because the premium is a fixed minting cost spread over a cheap ounce; gold premiums are low single digits because the same minting cost sits on top of an ounce worth seventy times more. A 12% premium is ordinary on silver and absurd on gold.

Why DCA works for bullion:

1. Removes timing decisions, no need to predict bottoms
2. A lower average cost per ounce than the average of the prices you paid, because a fixed budget buys more metal on the cheap months. Note the comparison: DCA beats the average price, not lump-sum buying. In a market that only goes up, buying everything on day one beats DCA and always will
3. Builds a meaningful position over years without large upfront capital
4. Forces consistent acquisition through both bull and bear cycles

Stacker math examples (rough):

• $200/month silver at $30 spot + 12% premium = 5.95 oz/month = 71 oz/year
• $500/month gold at $2,300 spot + 5% premium = ~0.21 oz/month = 2.5 oz/year
• $100/month silver at $25 spot + 10% premium = ~3.6 oz/month = 43 oz/year

Premium reduction strategies:

• Buy in larger quantities (10 oz, 100 oz bars have lower per-oz premium)
• Buy from secondary market (estate sales, online forums)
• Stack pre-1965 90% junk silver: usually lowest premium
• Wait for sales: major dealers run premium-cuts during slow markets

This calculator assumes a constant spot price. In a real market the dips are where stacking earns its keep, because a fixed monthly budget buys more ounces when metal is cheap. Flat prices cannot show that, which is the honest limitation of the projection below.