coin guide

What Is IRA-Eligible Silver?

IRA-eligible silver is silver that an IRA can buy without the purchase being taxed as a withdrawal. Section 408(m) of the tax code lets in two kinds: the 1 oz American Silver Eagle, which it names, and any silver bullion at least 999 fine (99.9%) that the IRA's trustee holds. COMEX, the silver futures exchange, sets the 999 figure as its delivery standard, and the tax code adopts it by reference. Coins, rounds and bars all face the same number.

Those two tests apply to everything listed as IRA-eligible silver in our catalog. Three cases catch buyers out: a Britannia with the wrong date, old U.S. silver coinage in any quantity, and a bar of the right purity kept in the wrong place.

What the IRA-Eligible Label Means

No agency publishes a list of approved silver coins, bars or mints. According to the IRS, there's no list of approved investments for retirement plans, and where the agency describes the metal an IRA can hold, it stops at categories. IRS Publication 590-A allows "one-ounce silver coins minted by the Treasury Department" and certain silver bullion, and names no product beyond that.

Congress wrote the rule as an exclusion. Section 408(m) counts every metal and every coin as a collectible that an IRA can't buy, then carves out exceptions. Every eligible piece, from a Silver Eagle to a 100 oz bar, gets in through one of those exceptions.

When a seller marks silver "IRA eligible," the label is the seller's reading of section 408(m). No IRS designation stands behind it, and no label can promise that your custodian will take the product. IRS guidance says IRA trustees are permitted to impose additional restrictions on investments, so a custodian is free to turn down silver that section 408(m) allows. Get its yes on the specific product before you order.

How the Fineness Rule Works for Silver

For silver that Congress didn't name, section 408(m)(3)(B) asks two things. First, the silver must be bullion "of a fineness equal to or exceeding the minimum fineness" that a regulated futures exchange requires for metal delivered against a futures contract. Second, it must be "in the physical possession of a trustee." No number appears in that text.

COMEX supplies the number. Rule 112.03 of its silver futures rules, as filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2009, reads: "Silver delivered under this contract shall assay to a minimum of 999 fineness." Fineness counts parts of pure metal per thousand, so 999 equals .999 or 99.9%. Gold's COMEX minimum is 995, which leaves room for five parts of other metal where silver gets one. Pages that call .999 an IRS rule have the number right and the author wrong.

Purity can't satisfy the possession half. A .999 bar in your own safe meets the first condition and fails the second. Deciding McNulty v. Commissioner in 2021, the U.S. Tax Court read section 408(m) the same way: "an IRA's bullion that is not in the physical possession of a trustee is a collectible."

The American Silver Eagle Qualifies by Name

Congress wrote one silver coin into the exception: "a silver coin described in section 5112(e) of title 31," in the words of section 408(m). Only one coin fits that description, the 1 oz American Silver Eagle. Gold gets four named coins, one for each size of American Gold Eagle. Silver gets this one.

Section 5112(e) fixes what the Silver Eagle is: 31.103 grams of .999 fine silver, with a reeded edge and the inscriptions "1 Oz. Fine Silver" and "One Dollar." Two checks on American Silver Eagles follow from that. Read the inscription, then weigh the coin. A troy ounce is about 31.1 grams, so a genuine Silver Eagle should read 31.1 on a gram scale.

Congress built the rule in stages, which explains the name: a ban on all metals and coins in 1981, an exception for the new American Eagles in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, another for state-issued coins in 1988, and bullion by fineness only in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Eagles got in before any purity test existed, and section 408(m) still names them.

Other Silver Coins That Meet the .999 Minimum

No foreign coin is named in section 408(m), so every silver coin other than the Eagle comes in as bullion. Each one meets COMEX's 999 or doesn't, and a custodian still has to accept it. Fineness figures in the table are the ones stated by the law, the issuer or NGC, with sources in the sections around it.

Silver Maple Leaf and Vienna Philharmonic

Royal Canadian Mint specifications put silver Maple Leafs at one troy ounce, 31.11 grams, of 99.99% fine silver, a step above 999. Austrian Mint figures give the silver Vienna Philharmonic a purity of 999, exactly on it.

The Silver Britannia Before and After 2013

On a Britannia, the year decides the answer. The Royal Mint struck its first silver Britannias, in 1997, in 958 fine silver, and in 2013 the coin moved from 958 to 999 fine silver. A silver Britannia dated 2013 or later meets the 999 minimum. One dated before 2013 is 41 parts per thousand short and isn't a named coin, so it fails whatever its condition. Years of 958 coins came before the change, so read the date first on any Britannia you're offered.

Silver Rounds and Bars Qualify on Purity, at Any Size

Congress used the word "bullion" and stopped there. A privately minted round, which has no face value and isn't legal tender, gets exactly the treatment a bar gets. Silver rounds and silver bars marked .999 or better meet the fineness requirement, and nothing in section 408(m) sets a minimum or maximum weight.

Size is worth spelling out because COMEX wrote its rule for very large bars. Its 2009 filing defines a contract unit as 5,000 troy ounces, delivered as five bars of 1,000 troy ounces, each from an officially listed brand. Congress took the fineness from that rulebook and left the bar size and the brand list behind. A 1 oz round, a 10 oz bar and a 100 oz bar face the same test.

So a rule that a bar must come from a particular refiner, carry a serial number or arrive in sealed packaging isn't tax law. Custodians set policies like that, as the IRS allows. A round or bar has to clear the custodian's list as well as the 999 test, and only the fineness is stamped on the metal.

Silver That Doesn't Qualify

Silver under .999 fails however much of it there is. Pre-1965 U.S. coinage is the common case: the dimes, quarters and half dollars sold as junk silver, a name that refers to the lack of a collector premium and not to quality. NGC lists the Washington quarter at 90% silver until the composition changed in 1965, which is 900 parts per thousand against a minimum of 999. A bag of these coins can hold many ounces of silver and still fail, because section 408(m) tests the fineness of the metal, not the ounces of silver in the bag.

Rarity isn't a route in either. Outside the named Eagle and bullion, a coin stays a collectible, which is why numismatic (rare or collector), graded and most commemorative coins generally don't qualify. A joint CFTC and FINRA bulletin draws the line this way: bullion coins and ingots "share a common investment-grade purity and weight," while numismatic means rare or collectible.

A proof or graded Silver Eagle sits between the two, so confirm with the custodian before the IRA pays for one. A 2020 CFTC advisory adds a practical caution: "the market for proofs or rare coins is not very liquid," which counts when IRA silver later has to be sold.

How an Ineligible Silver Purchase Is Taxed

Buying ineligible silver doesn't void the purchase. Section 408(m) treats it as a distribution "in an amount equal to the cost to such account of such collectible," so the taxable amount is everything the IRA paid, including the premium charged over the spot price. Per the IRS, the amount is considered distributed in the year invested, and a 10% additional tax on early distributions may apply.

Tax falls on that one purchase and stops there. IRS Publication 590-A says an amount already included in your income isn't included again when the collectible is actually distributed from the IRA.

Finding IRA-Eligible Silver in Our Catalog

Many of the silver products in our catalog are eligible when they meet IRS requirements, and we can help you choose a custodian and a storage option. Fineness is the figure this whole test rests on, and our authenticity guarantee covers it: we verify every item we sell and guarantee it contains the weight, fineness and purity advertised. Gold follows the same two-route structure with its own named coins and a lower minimum, and we list IRA-eligible gold separately.

We're not a registered investment advisor and can't give individual investment or tax advice, so speak with a tax professional or financial advisor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you use a 401k to buy silver?

Only if your 401(k) plan offers it, which is the plan's decision and not yours. Participant-directed 401(k) accounts fall under the same collectibles rule as an IRA. A direct rollover is the other way in: the plan administrator pays your money straight to an IRA, no tax is withheld, and the IRA's custodian buys eligible silver with it.

How much silver can you buy without reporting to the IRS?

No amount of silver is a reporting line by itself. What triggers a report is how you pay or what you sell. A cash payment of more than $10,000 leads the business to file Form 8300, and installments that pass $10,000 within a year count together. On a sale, Form 1099-B applies only to silver in a form approved for regulated futures trading, in at least the contract's minimum quantity, with one customer's sales inside 24 hours combined.

Can I put silver I already own into an IRA?

No, even when the silver would pass the 999 test. IRS Publication 590-A says "Contributions must be in the form of money (cash, check, or money order). Property can't be contributed." Selling your coins or bars to your own IRA doesn't work either, because the IRS lists selling property to an IRA among prohibited transactions. Your IRA has to buy its silver with its own cash and have it delivered to the trustee.