Members post from their own experience and some of it will be wrong. Before you move retirement money, read this first.
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Last updated: October 20, 2026
The short answer: an IRA can hold only the coins and bullion the tax code names, and everything else counts as a collectible. Under Section 408(m) of the Internal Revenue Code, any metal or coin an IRA buys is a collectible, and the cost of a collectible is treated as a distribution to the owner in the year of purchase. Two exceptions carve metals back in: specific coins named in the statute, and bullion above a minimum purity held by a bank or an IRS-approved trustee.
The coins named in the statute qualify whatever their purity. Section 408(m)(3)(A) points to the gold, silver and platinum coins described in Title 31 of the U.S. Code, plus any coin issued under the laws of a U.S. state. Publication 590-B puts it in plain words: one, one-half, one-quarter or one-tenth ounce U.S. gold coins, one-ounce silver coins minted by the Treasury, and certain platinum coins. That means the American Gold, Silver and Platinum Eagles. The Gold Eagle is the odd one out: the U.S. Mint strikes it in 22-karat gold, 91.67 percent, so a one-ounce coin weighs about 1.09 troy ounces. It fails the purity test below yet qualifies because the law names it.
Everything else has to pass the bullion test. Section 408(m)(3)(B) covers gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion of a purity at least equal to what a regulated futures exchange requires for delivery. The statute prints no number; the COMEX and NYMEX delivery rules do. Gold: at least 995 fine, 99.5 percent. Silver: 999 fine, 99.9 percent. Platinum and palladium: 99.95 percent. Bars must also come from refiners on the exchange’s approved brand list. There is no IRS list of approved coins, mints or refiners.
The American Buffalo and foreign coins qualify through the bullion test, not the coin list. The Mint’s 24-karat Buffalo, at 99.99 percent, is described in a paragraph of Title 31 that the coin exception does not cite; it gets in because its purity clears the line and a trustee holds it. No Canadian, Austrian, Australian, Chinese or Mexican coin is named in the statute either. Maple Leafs, Philharmonics, Kangaroos, Pandas and Libertads go into IRAs because the issuing mint publishes a purity above the line. Check the mint’s specification sheet for the exact year, since some series have changed alloy.
Purity is not enough; possession matters too. The bullion exception applies only while a bank or an IRS-approved nonbank trustee has physical possession of the metal. The IRS answers the home storage question directly in its IRA FAQ: bullion kept at home does not qualify, and the rule also applies when an LLC owned by the IRA buys it. In McNulty v. Commissioner, a 2021 Tax Court case, a taxpayer bought American Eagle coins through an LLC owned by her self-directed IRA and kept them at home. The court treated the cost of the coins as taxable distributions and upheld accuracy-related penalties. The coins were eligible; the storage was not.
Proof coins are eligible, but watch the price. The statute names gold and silver coins by weight and denomination, never by finish; for platinum it expressly covers both proof and bullion. Custodians accept proof Eagles. The packaging rules in sales scripts, original capsule, certificate of authenticity, “brilliant uncirculated” condition, come from custodians and depositories, not from the tax code. The issue is the premium: a 2020 advisory from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission put the usual premium on bullion at 5 to 10 percent over the metal price and on numismatic coins at 40 to 200 percent.
Three groups of coins do not qualify. Older government gold such as the British Sovereign, the Swiss and French 20 Franc, the Mexican 50 Peso and the Austrian Corona and Ducat: below the 99.5 percent line and not U.S. coins. Pre-1933 U.S. gold such as the Saint-Gaudens double eagle: U.S. coins at 90 percent gold, but not the coins the exception describes. And rare, graded or “semi-numismatic” coins sold at high markups: a grade does not change what a coin is made of, and the CFTC and FINRA wrote in 2024 that “semi-numismatic” is a made-up industry term.
If an IRA buys the wrong coin, the cost is treated as a distribution. For a traditional IRA it is taxed as ordinary income in the year of purchase, the 10 percent additional tax can apply before age 59 and a half, and it is not taxed again when the coin later leaves the account.
Rollovers and custodian paperwork have their own section, Self-directed IRAs, and silver, platinum and palladium questions go in Other precious metals IRAs. If you hold a coin not covered here, or your custodian told you something different, add it below and we will correct this post.
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