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

Under R.I. Gen. Laws chapter 6-11.1, any business that buys gold, silver, platinum group metals, precious stones or items containing them from the public for resale, including pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers, needs a license from the attorney general. Coins bought for their collector value rather than their metal content are outside the chapter. The shop must post the per-ounce prices it is paying where you can see them and weigh your items in front of you.

You show photo ID with your date of birth and current address and sign a statement that you own the items (or are the owner's authorized agent) and how you got them. A minor must come with a parent or legal guardian. The dealer records the date and hour, your name, address, phone number and date of birth, a copy or digital image of your ID, and a description of each piece with any serial numbers or marks, sends those reports weekly to the local police chief and the attorney general, and keeps them for one year.

Everything bought is then held unaltered for 14 days from the day police or the attorney general receive the report, whichever is later, and police can extend that by 15 days if they have probable cause an item was stolen. Bullion coins, bars and medallions without serial numbers or other identifying marks are exempt from the hold. Breaking these rules is a misdemeanor, and the chapter sets no cash or check limit on how you are paid.

Rhode Island charges a flat 7% sales tax with no local add-on. R.I. Gen. Laws 44-18-30(24) exempts precious metal bullion, defined as refined metal "in a state or condition that its value depends upon its content and not upon its form," and 44-18-30(43) exempts "coins having numismatic or investment value." Metal fabricated for "artistic uses" is not bullion, which leaves jewelry taxable.

Sales tax is a buyer's cost. You pay no Rhode Island sales tax when you sell your gold, silver or platinum, to a local shop.

Rhode Island starts from your federal adjusted gross income, so a gain on gold, silver or platinum you sell flows onto your state return and is taxed at the regular rates of 3.75%, 4.75% or 5.99% (R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-2.6). The state's list of income modifications in 44-30-12 has no subtraction for precious metals.

Federal rules still apply: the IRS taxes physical precious metals as collectibles, with gains on metal held over a year capped at 28% and gains on metal held a year or less taxed as ordinary income. Inherited metal generally uses its date-of-death value as cost basis. We are not tax advisers, so check with yours before you file.

A 2012 bill that would have made federal gold and silver coin legal tender in Rhode Island was not enacted, and no such statute is on the books. That has no effect on selling: buyers price your coins and bars off the live metal market, not face value.