What are awards, and what role do coins and premium awards play in the ecosystem?

Reddit's awards system has undergone a significant redesign since the platform's early history, and the legacy coin-and-award system was fully retired in September 2023. Under the old system, users could purchase Reddit Coins with real money and use those coins to give awards to posts and comments they found exceptional. The original award was Reddit Gold, which gave the recipient a month of Reddit Premium and some coins of their own. Silver and Platinum awards followed, along with a sprawling ecosystem of more than 50 award types including community-specific awards, meme awards, and themed seasonal awards. Some awards were purely cosmetic badges displayed on the post; others gave the recipient temporary Reddit Premium access, extra coins, or other perks. This system was deprecated because it was complex, confusing to new users, and not generating sufficient value relative to its complexity. In its place, Reddit introduced a simplified awarding system built around Reddit Gold as the single premium acknowledgment. Under the current system as of 2024 and 2025, Reddit Gold can be purchased and given to posts or comments a user finds particularly valuable. When a post receives Gold, the creator earns a small monetary payout through the Contributor Program if they meet the karma eligibility thresholds, with standard contributors earning approximately $0.009 per Gold received and top contributors earning $0.010 per Gold. Reddit Premium, the paid subscription tier that removes ads and provides access to premium features, continues to exist independently of the awards system. Reddit also shut down its Collectible Avatar shop and Reddit Vault (its blockchain-based avatar trading system) in January 2026, signaling a broader retreat from speculative virtual goods toward simpler monetization.