Emami Coin's Premium Hits 14.1 Million Tomans, Nearly Four Times Melted Gold's; Melted Gold Stays the Cheapest Way Into Gold (Monday, October 5, 2026)

The Emami gold coin's premium, the gap between its market price and the intrinsic value of the gold inside it, hit 14,125,800 tomans on the evening of Sunday, October 4, 2026 (12 Mehr 1405), about 5.2 percent of the coin's price, according to Sahmino's own price data. At the same moment, cash melted gold's premium was only 1,515,443 tomans, about 1.3 percent of its price. Relative to each asset's own price, the coin's premium is now nearly four times melted gold's. This morning, Monday, Alanchand.com, using its own calculation method, confirmed the same gap: a 2.89 percent premium on the Emami coin and a negative 1.9 percent premium on melted gold.

Background

The coin premium is derived from the gap between the coin's market price and the value of its pure gold content plus minting cost; Sahmino has previously explained this formula. In recent weeks the premium moved in a very narrow range: Sahmino recorded it at 59,000 tomans (under a tenth of a percent of the coin's price) on August 22, 2026, and at 189,000 tomans on September 3, 2026. In Friday, October 2's report, the Emami coin's premium stood at 9,628,000 tomans; it has grown again over the past three sessions to surpass 14 million tomans now. Moving from a fraction of a percent to over five percent of the coin's price in this short span is an unusual jump.

The numbers

Per Sahmino's price data (sourced from tgju.org), as of Sunday evening, October 4: the Emami coin traded at 271,075,000 tomans (up 1.2 million tomans on the day, or 0.45 percent); cash melted gold at 114,535,000 tomans; the quarter coin at 78,100,000 tomans with a premium of 12,624,000 tomans (about 16.2 percent of its price); the free-market dollar at 268,300 tomans; and 18-karat gold at 26,327,800 tomans per gram. Two other sources corroborate these figures: Donya-e-Eqtesad, at 11:08am that day, put the Emami coin at 271,900,000 tomans and the free-market dollar, at 11:11am, at 270,150 tomans; Tgju.org, in the same window, reported the dollar's daily high at 268,520 tomans and the coin at 271,960,000 tomans. This morning (4:25am, October 5), Alanchand.com, using its own reference price, showed the Emami coin at 271,000,000 tomans against a "real value" of 263,396,000 tomans (a 2.89 percent premium), and melted gold at 114,550,000 tomans against 116,771,000 tomans (a negative 1.9 percent premium), meaning by this site's method melted gold trades even below its own reference value. The half coin (7.72 percent) and the one-gram coin (16.35 percent) also carried double-digit premiums at the same moment.

Drivers

The main driver is the free-market dollar's rise: the rate climbed from 2,350,000 tomans on September 18 to 2,683,000 tomans on October 4, about 14.2 percent in two weeks, per Sahmino's data. Notably, the global gold price has not risen over the same stretch; it has pulled back from its peak of $4,664 on August 25 to about $4,140 on October 3, and was around $4,153 this morning (Alanchand.com). That means almost all of the recent rise in domestic gold and coin prices has come from the dollar, not from the world gold market. Escalating tension in the Persian Gulf has also fed safe-haven demand: Al Jazeera reported on October 4 that the carrier strike group USS Theodore Roosevelt had departed for the Middle East, and UKMTO, as reported by Donya-e-Eqtesad, said a tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz the same day. The coin's price has also outrun melted gold and 18-karat gold, a sign of constraints on the supply of freshly minted coins rather than simply gold demand; domestic coin minting and distribution cannot keep pace with the speed at which demand for currency-risk hedging is rising.

Outlook

On Sunday, October 4, Iran's Currency and Gold Exchange Center announced its 157th gold bullion auction for Tuesday, October 6, 2026, with each applicant able to buy up to 25 bars per week. New bullion supply could ease some of the pressure on melted and 18-karat gold, but authority to mint new coins rests with the Central Bank, and no date has been announced for an increase in coin supply; until that happens, the coin and melted-gold premiums will not move in step.

Bottom line

Right now, for someone who simply wants gold as a store of value, cash melted gold or 18-karat gold, with a premium of about 1.3 percent (or even negative, by Alanchand's method), is a far cheaper entry than the Emami coin at a 5.2 percent premium. But the minted coin has its own advantages: better liquidity in small trades, an official guarantee of weight and purity, and no melting or assay costs of the kind common in melted-gold deals; part of that 5.2 percent is the price of those advantages, not simply a loss. Rasad's reading is that the Emami coin's premium stays above 10 million tomans through the end of this week, through Saturday, October 10, unless fresh coin supply, including from the October 6 bullion auction, closes the gap sooner; a break below the 10-million-toman level before then would invalidate this call.

What to watch

Keep the Emami coin premium and melted gold premium pages side by side; once the two numbers converge, today's gap has closed. The result of the October 6 bullion auction and its effect on melted-gold and coin supply, plus how fast the free-market dollar keeps rising, are the two variables that will decide this gap's path through the week. For more on how exchange-center auctions affect the coin premium, see this related article.