You have seen the ads. Here is what a precious metals IRA actually is, what the rules actually say, and the questions worth asking, from a dealer with no IRA to sell you.
United Metals Exchange does not offer IRA products, IRA custodianship, or retirement advice of any kind. We sell coins and precious metals as collectibles for direct personal ownership, and nothing on this page is tax, legal, or investment advice. We wrote it because our clients ask, and a plain factual explanation seemed more useful than silence.
A precious metals IRA is a self-directed IRA holding physical bullion instead of paper assets. The law requires three parties besides you: a specialized custodian to administer the account, an approved depository to store the metal (home storage does not satisfy the rules), and a dealer to supply product meeting IRS fineness standards. You own metal, but you do not hold it; it sits in a vault in the account’s name until distribution.
Here is the fact most relevant to our world: the tax code treats collectibles as prohibited IRA investments, with narrow exemptions for specific bullion meeting fineness standards and certain coins such as American Eagles. In plain terms: the classic numismatic coins we specialize in, Morgans, Peace dollars, pre-1933 gold, error dates, generally cannot go into an IRA at all. Historic coins and retirement accounts are, by law, mostly separate worlds.
Metals IRAs carry recurring costs ordinary coin ownership does not: setup fees, annual custodian fees, storage and insurance fees, and dealer markups on IRA-eligible product. Federal consumer agencies have published warnings about high-pressure IRA-rollover marketing and fee structures in this space, worth reading directly at ftc.gov and cftc.gov before moving any retirement money anywhere. None of that makes every program bad; it makes questions mandatory: total annual cost, buyback terms, and exactly what product, at exactly what markup.
What we offer is the older arrangement: you buy a coin, we ship it insured, and it is yours, in your hand, with no custodian, no annual fees, and no paperwork between you and it, along with collectible character no bullion bar carries. Whether that arrangement or an IRA or neither suits your situation is a question for you and a qualified tax professional. Our job is coins and straight answers, and the phone works for both.