Can you use your coin collection as part of your retirement plan?
If you are an American with a self directed IRA, you may be interested in making a coin collection part of your portfolio. However beware, the IRS will not necessarily approve. The agency will allow your IRA to invest in gold, silver, platinum and palladium, but not collectibles. In other words investing in the metal is acceptable, but not if it’s in the form of an attractive coin worth more than the value of the metal.
Coin categories that the IRS generally allows include:
- Coins specifically listed in the Internal Revenue Code and minted by the US.
- American Gold Eagles
- American Gold Buffalo coins, although the specially processed proof version of this coin is not acceptable because the value of the coin is grater than value of the metal.
- American Silver Eagles.
- American Platinum Eagles.
Note that if the coins have been graded by certification organizations and placed in “slabs”, they will probably count as collectables and not be premitted in IRAs.
- Some coins issued by mints of other nations that also meet the fineness requirements to be an IRA investment:
- Australian Nugget (Kangaroo) Gold coins..9999 fine.
- Australian Kangaroo and Kookaburra Silver coins .999
- Australian Koala Platinum coin .9995 fine
- Austrian Philharmonic Gold coins .9999 fine
- Austrian Philharmonic Silver coins .999 fine
- Canadian Maple Leaf Gold coins .9999 fine
- Canadian Maple Leaf Silver coins .9999 fine
- Canadian Maple Leaf Platinum coins .9995 fine
- Canadian Maple Leaf Palladium coins .9995 fine
- Mexican Libertad Silver Coins .999 fine
- Isle of Man Noble Platinum coins .9995 fine
Sadly though you can’t hold the coins personally if they are part of an IRA. Your IRA custodians will require that the coins are held in a depository and you probably won’t get to see them unless you take them as a distribution upon retirement.
