IRA-Eligible Precious Metals: The Complete Eligibility List

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TL;DR: IRA eligibility for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium runs through two separate legal pathways in IRC § 408(m)(3), a named-coin exception and a bullion-fineness pathway, not a marketing label. A coin or bar qualifies if it is one of the specific U.S. coins named in the statute, or if it meets the minimum fineness the futures markets require for delivery (gold .995, silver .999, platinum and palladium .9995) and is held by an approved trustee rather than the owner. Popular products such as the South African Krugerrand, the British Gold Sovereign, and pre-1933 U.S. gold coins fail both tests and are not IRA-eligible, regardless of what a dealer page claims.

The short answer: two IRC pathways decide eligibility

Eligibility for a self-directed IRA is governed entirely by two subsections of the tax code, and a product qualifies through one pathway or the other, never through general reputation or purity alone.

Section 408(m)(1) treats an IRA’s purchase of a “collectible” as a taxable distribution, and section 408(m)(2) defines “collectible” broadly enough to include any metal or coin. Section 408(m)(3) then carves out two narrow exceptions. The first, § 408(m)(3)(A), is a named-coin exception listing specific U.S. gold, silver, and platinum coins described in 31 U.S.C. § 5112, plus any coin issued under the laws of a U.S. state, and those coins qualify regardless of their exact metal purity. The second, § 408(m)(3)(B), is a bullion-fineness pathway covering gold, silver, platinum, or palladium bullion that meets “the minimum fineness that a contract market … requires for metals which may be delivered in satisfaction of a regulated futures contract,” provided the bullion sits in the physical possession of an approved trustee.

That second clause is worth reading closely, because the fineness numbers it generates do not come from the IRS. They come from the futures exchanges the statute references, primarily CME Group, which operates the COMEX and NYMEX metals contracts. CME’s own COMEX rulebook sets the deliverable-grade minimum at .995 for gold and .999 for silver, and its platinum and palladium education materials put both metals at .9995. Those four numbers, not any IRS-published list, are what § 408(m)(3)(B) points to. Palladium appears only in the bullion-fineness clause, not among the named coins in § 408(m)(3)(A), so every palladium product on the market qualifies through fineness alone.

IRA-eligible gold products

Every IRA-eligible gold coin or bar on the market qualifies through the named-coin exception or the .995 fineness pathway, and the American Gold Eagle is the one widely sold product that clears the bar through the coin exception alone.

The table below lines up the major gold products against their fineness and the statutory route each one relies on.

Product	Fineness	Issuing mint	Eligibility pathway
American Gold Eagle	.9167 (22-karat)	U.S. Mint	Named-coin exception, § 408(m)(3)(A)(i)
American Gold Buffalo	.9999	U.S. Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .995)
Canadian Gold Maple Leaf	.9999	Royal Canadian Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .995)
Austrian Gold Philharmonic	.9999	Austrian Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .995)
Australian Gold Kangaroo	.9999	The Perth Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .995)
Gold bars, LBMA Good Delivery or COMEX-approved brand	.995 minimum	Accredited refiner	Bullion pathway

The American Gold Eagle deserves its own footnote, because it is the product most often described incorrectly. At 22-karat, .9167 fine, it sits well below the .995 bullion bar and does not qualify by meeting that standard. It qualifies because it is one of the gold coins named directly in 31 U.S.C. § 5112(a), which § 408(m)(3)(A)(i) exempts by name. The coin still contains its full stated weight of pure gold, with the balance of the alloy made up of silver and copper for durability, according to the U.S. Mint. Every other coin and bar in the table above earns its place by clearing the fineness bar instead.

IRA-eligible silver products

Silver eligibility mirrors the gold framework, with the American Silver Eagle qualifying under both pathways at once and every other silver product relying on the .999 fineness bar alone.

The American Silver Eagle is a one troy ounce, .999 fine coin authorized under 31 U.S.C. § 5112(e), so it is named directly in § 408(m)(3)(A)(ii) and it independently clears the § 408(m)(3)(B) fineness threshold, according to the U.S. Mint’s own product specification.

Product	Fineness	Issuing mint	Eligibility pathway
American Silver Eagle	.999, 1 troy oz	U.S. Mint	Named-coin exception and bullion pathway
Canadian Silver Maple Leaf	.9999	Royal Canadian Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .999)
Austrian Silver Philharmonic	.999	Austrian Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .999)
Australian Silver Kangaroo and Kookaburra	.9999	The Perth Mint	Bullion pathway (meets .999)
Silver bars and rounds, accredited refiner	.999 minimum	Accredited refiner or national mint	Bullion pathway

IRA-eligible platinum and palladium

Platinum and palladium both clear IRA eligibility at a .9995 minimum fineness, but platinum has a second route through the named-coin exception that palladium does not.

Platinum coins described in 31 U.S.C. § 5112(k) are named directly in § 408(m)(3)(A)(iii), so the American Platinum Eagle qualifies both as a named coin and as bullion that meets the .9995 standard. Palladium was never added to the named-coin list, so every palladium product, including the American Palladium Eagle, qualifies solely through the § 408(m)(3)(B) bullion pathway.

Product	Fineness	Issuing mint	Eligibility pathway
American Platinum Eagle	.9995, 1 oz	U.S. Mint	Named-coin exception and bullion pathway
Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf	.9995	Royal Canadian Mint	Bullion pathway
Austrian Platinum Philharmonic	.9995 (999.5)	Austrian Mint	Bullion pathway
Platinum bars, accredited refiner	.9995 minimum	Accredited refiner	Bullion pathway
American Palladium Eagle	.9995, 1 oz	U.S. Mint	Bullion pathway only
Canadian Palladium Maple Leaf	.9995	Royal Canadian Mint	Bullion pathway
Palladium bars, accredited refiner	.9995 minimum	Accredited refiner	Bullion pathway

What is not IRA-eligible

Several widely traded coins fail both statutory pathways at once, and the South African Krugerrand is the single most common product mistakenly advertised as IRA-eligible.

The Krugerrand is .9167 fine, the same purity as the American Gold Eagle, but it is not one of the coins named in 31 U.S.C. § 5112, and .9167 sits below the .995 bullion threshold. It fails the named-coin test and the fineness test at the same time, so it does not qualify under either clause of § 408(m)(3).

The British Gold Sovereign fails for the identical reason. It is also .9167 fine, it is not a U.S.-minted coin described in § 5112, and it does not meet the .995 bar, so neither pathway applies.

Pre-1933 U.S. gold coins, including the $20 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, present a different failure mode. These coins are .900 fine, a 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper alloy, which is well below the .995 bullion standard. They are also collected chiefly for their numismatic rarity rather than their bullion content, which places them squarely in the “collectible” category the statute is designed to exclude under § 408(m)(1) and (2).

Rare, graded, or “slabbed” collectible coins fail on the same principle as pre-1933 gold, regardless of the metal underneath the grading label. If a coin’s value is driven by rarity, condition grade, or numismatic premium rather than its bullion content or its status as a named statutory coin, it does not clear either pathway. Eligibility has to rest on the statute, not on how a dealer markets the coin’s collectible appeal.

Coins, bars, and rounds: how the eligibility test applies to each

The § 408(m)(3)(B) fineness test applies the same way to a coin, a bar, or a round, and the deciding factor for bars and rounds is refiner accreditation rather than shape.

A bar or round must be produced by an accredited refiner, assayer, or manufacturer, or by a national government mint, and it must meet the fineness minimum for its metal. The London Bullion Market Association sets the Good Delivery standard most COMEX-approved gold brands are measured against, requiring a minimum acceptable fineness of 995 parts per thousand. A round, by definition, is a privately minted disc that resembles a coin but carries no face value and is not legal tender, and it is eligible on the same terms as a bar provided the refiner is accredited and the fineness clears the bar for that metal.

Proof versions of American Eagle coins are eligible on the same footing as their bullion counterparts, since the named-coin exception covers the coin type itself, provided the coin is held by the trustee rather than the owner. The same caution applies to any proof or special issue marketed chiefly on rarity or grade, since eligibility rests on the statute, not the premium a dealer attaches to a limited mintage.

Cost and liquidity differences between coins, bars, and rounds are a separate, non-legal question. As a general market observation, sovereign-minted coins tend to carry higher premiums over spot for the broadest recognition and liquidity, large bars tend to carry the lowest premium per ounce but are less divisible, and rounds typically price between the two. Fractional coins carry a higher premium per ounce than a full one-ounce coin but add divisibility that can matter for a partial in-kind distribution later. None of that changes eligibility, only what a given purchase costs relative to the metal it contains.

The custody rule: why the metal cannot go home with you

A product can pass every fineness and named-coin test and still trigger a fully taxable distribution if the owner takes physical possession of it, because IRA metal has to remain in the custody of an approved trustee.

Section 408(a) requires the IRA trustee to be a bank or a custodian the IRS has approved as a nonbank trustee under 26 CFR § 1.408-2(e), and § 408(m)(3)(B) itself conditions bullion eligibility on the metal being “in the physical possession of a trustee.” In practice, the coins or bars sit at a third-party depository the custodian selects, never in a safe the owner controls.

The U.S. Tax Court settled the “home storage IRA” question directly in McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10 (Nov. 18, 2021). The taxpayer had used a self-directed IRA to form a single-member LLC, directed the LLC to buy American Eagle coins, and stored the coins in a safe at her home. The court held she received taxable distributions equal to the cost of the coins in the year she took possession, because she had “complete, unfettered control” over the metal, inconsistent with the fiduciary custody the statute requires. The court rejected the argument that the LLC structure created an exception to the custody rule and upheld accuracy-related penalties on top of the tax owed. The taxable distributions totaled $374,000 for 2015 and $37,380 for 2016, the amounts the opinion itself states.

A promoter selling a “checkbook IRA” or a home-storage arrangement is selling a structure the Tax Court has already rejected. Eligible metal held the wrong way still produces a taxable outcome, so the custody question deserves the same scrutiny as the fineness question before any purchase.

FAQ

Is the South African Krugerrand IRA-eligible? No. It is .9167 fine, below the .995 bullion minimum, and it is not one of the U.S. coins named in 31 U.S.C. § 5112, so it fails both statutory pathways.

Does the American Gold Eagle meet the .995 fineness standard? No. It is 22-karat, .9167 fine. It is IRA-eligible only because it is named directly in § 408(m)(3)(A)(i) as a coin described in 31 U.S.C. § 5112(a), not because it meets the bullion fineness bar.

Is palladium IRA-eligible? Yes, but only through the § 408(m)(3)(B) bullion pathway at a .9995 minimum fineness. Palladium coins are not named in § 408(m)(3)(A), so there is no coin-exception route for palladium the way there is for gold, silver, and platinum.

Can IRA-owned metal be stored at home? No. The statute requires the metal to be in the physical possession of an approved trustee, and the U.S. Tax Court’s decision in McNulty v. Commissioner treats home possession, even through an IRA-owned LLC, as a taxable distribution.

Are graded or numismatic coins IRA-eligible? Generally no. Coins collected primarily for rarity or grade are treated as collectibles under § 408(m)(1) and (2) regardless of their metal content, and eligibility has to rest on the named-coin or bullion-fineness test rather than a numismatic premium.

This article is educational only and does not constitute individualized tax, legal, or investment advice. Always weigh eligibility rules against your own plan, and consult your own tax and financial professionals before directing an IRA purchase.