Where to Sell (or Buy) Gold, Silver & Platinum in Colorado

Colorado's law on purchasers of valuable articles (C.R.S. 18-16-101 and following) applies to anyone "holding himself out to the public as being engaged in the business of buying valuable articles," with no words limiting it to Colorado. Its 30-day hold and weekly police report, though, run to the police in "the locality in which the purchaser makes the purchase," which assumes a shop inside the state. And C.R.S. 18-16-109 exempts articles "purchased exclusively in interstate commerce and paid for by check mailed to the seller in another state" when the buyer keeps that record for three years; a purchase paid any other way does not get that exemption. No Colorado statute or court decision we found settles how the law treats a buyer with no Colorado location. We have no Colorado premises; your items travel to our refinery in Oregon and the purchase happens there.

After you accept, you complete a simple online verification before we pay. Send only items that are yours to sell. In Colorado, knowingly giving a buyer false identity or ownership information is a class 6 felony (C.R.S. 18-16-108).

You get an itemized offer listing each piece with its weight and purity. Turn it down and we mail everything back with free return postage.* Accept and payment goes out the same day.**

Colorado's Purchasers of Valuable Articles law (C.R.S. 18-16-101 to 18-16-110) covers anyone in the business of buying items made in whole or part of precious metals or stones, including jewelry, household goods and gold and silver bullion, and anyone who buys five or more such items in 30 days. The buyer must see a Colorado driver's license or ID card, a photo driver's license from another state, a military ID, a passport or an alien registration card; a government ID without a photo works only with a print of your right index finger. No one under 18 may sell.

The buyer records your name, address, date of birth and ID number, plus a description of each piece by its marks, weight and design, and you sign the register along with a written statement that you own the items, how long you have had them and whether they were found. Records are kept three years, and a weekly report with your physical description and the price paid goes to local police and to the police where you live. Each piece is then held unaltered for 30 days. Stamped and assayed gold and silver bullion and gold coins skip the hold. Silver coins are not named in that exemption, so a shop may hold them the full 30 days. Pawnshops follow their own article, which also sets a 30-day hold on outright purchases (C.R.S. 29-11.9-103).

Breaking these rules is a class 6 felony for the buyer. The article sets no state license or payment-method rule; cities and counties may add stricter rules of their own.

C.R.S. 39-26-706(4) exempts all sales of precious metal bullion and coins from Colorado sales and use tax. Counties and cities whose sales tax the state collects must give the same exemption. Home-rule cities and counties that collect their own tax decide for themselves; a 2021 State Auditor review found only Aurora, Broomfield and Centennial among the 15 most populous had exempted bullion and coins at that time. Jewelry gets no exemption.

When you sell: sales tax is a buyer's cost, not yours. You pay no Colorado tax when you sell your gold, silver or platinum, whether to a local shop or to us by mail.

Colorado starts from your federal taxable income and applies a single flat rate (C.R.S. 39-22-104), so a gain on gold, silver or platinum is taxed like other income. Colorado once let long-held tangible property gains be subtracted, but since tax year 2022 that subtraction covers only Colorado agricultural land sold by taxpayers who file a federal farm schedule (C.R.S. 39-22-518), not metals.

The IRS taxes gains on physical precious metals as collectibles: up to 28% on metal held more than a year, and as ordinary income when held a year or less. Inherited pieces generally use the value on the date of death as their cost basis. We are not tax advisers, so check with yours before you file.

C.R.S. 11-61-101 says gold and silver coin issued by the United States is legal tender for debts between citizens of the state contracted on or after April 5, 1893, and must be received for debts owed to Colorado citizens and for state taxes. It covers only U.S.-issued coin, not bars, rounds or foreign coins, and it does not set what a coin is worth. When you sell, buyers price your coins off the live metal market, not their face value.