Straight answers to what we are asked most
Fourteen questions clients ask before and after their first purchase, from tax and storage to grading and selling back. For anything else, a specialist is one short call away.
Before you begin
How the first call works, what we need from you, and how quickly things move.
As long as you want it to. The first call takes about fifteen minutes. After that, some people approve a plan within days and others take a few months; both are normal, and you set the pace. The one fixed rhythm comes at the end: once you have bought, delivery is next-day and fully insured.
You can start from scratch. Most clients arrive with questions rather than knowledge, and plain answers are the whole point of the first call: coins, prices, grading, storage and tax, ask anything. If you would rather read first, the Gold Investment Guide covers the ground at your own speed, and Learn goes deeper.
Starting small is common. Whether that means a single coin or adding a little each month, the plan is sized to your budget, and your specialist will be straight with you about what a given budget realistically buys.
It is a legal requirement. UK anti-money-laundering and fraud rules require proof of identity from every new client before a first purchase, and our compliance team approves it. It is quick, and our team guides you through the documents.
Ask us for a quote and we will make a firm offer at prevailing market rates, with settlement typically within 48 hours of your coins being verified. You can sell one coin or the whole collection. How selling back works.
Price, tax and storage
Where the gold price stands, how the tax position works, and where your coins are kept.
Gold moves in both directions. The gold price was £3,142 an ounce on 30 Sept 2026, 20.7% below its record of 2 Mar 2026. Whether that proves a good entry point or the start of a longer fall is impossible to know in advance. Two things help more than timing: buying for a decade rather than a month, and buying in stages rather than all at once. A specialist can talk through both.
Yes, when they qualify, and every coin we supply does. Gold coins that meet HMRC's investment gold tests are exempt from VAT: in broad terms, at least 900 parts in 1,000 pure, minted after 1800 and legal tender in their country of origin. UK legal-tender coins such as the Sovereign and the Britannia are also free of Capital Gains Tax. How the VAT exemption works.
Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and can change. This is information, not tax advice.
Your choice. Fully insured next-day delivery to your door, or segregated storage with Sharps Pixley, held in your name and insured for its full value, with delivery on a date you choose. Either way the coins are allocated to you. How storage works.
Yes. Every client can sell back to us at prevailing market rates, with settlement typically within 48 hours of your coins being verified. How selling back works.
Grades and holders
What a grade certifies, who awards it, and what it means when you come to sell.
Graded coins are almost always worth more than their ungraded twins, because the buyer is no longer guessing at condition or authenticity. What grading cannot do is improve the coin. A modest coin in a holder is still a modest coin; the label simply says so honestly. How grading works.
Nothing happens to the gold, but the certification stops applying. The grade belongs to the sealed coin, not to the coin loose on a table, and a broken holder is treated as an ungraded coin from that moment on. It can be sent back and graded again, though it will be judged on whatever condition it is in by then.
They are the two independent grading companies whose scores lead the coin market. Their word carries because they are paid to give a verdict, not to buy or sell the coins they judge, so a generous score gains them nothing. Every coin they seal is listed by serial number on their own website, so anyone can check their work.
To your eye, almost never. A 69 has a flaw or two visible only under magnification, and across a room the two coins look identical. The difference is scarcity rather than beauty: far fewer coins come back perfect than come back very nearly perfect, and the market prices that shortage. Whether the step up is worth paying for depends on the coin, and your specialist will tell you when it is not.
Easier, usually. A sealed coin describes itself: grade, year and serial are all on the label, so a buyer does not need to inspect it or take anyone's word for it. When the day comes, the same desk that built your collection will quote to buy it back, with settlement typically within 48 hours of your coins being verified, and you can sell a single coin rather than the whole collection.
A specialist is one short call away
Fifteen minutes covers most of what people want to know: what a given budget buys, how grading and storage work, and how selling back works. Bring any question you like.