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

Virginia's precious metals dealer law (Va. Code 54.1-4100 and following) is built around local shops: a dealer gets a permit "from the chief law-enforcement officer of each county, city, or town in which he proposes to engage in business," must operate "only from the fixed and permanent location specified" in that permit, and holds each purchase in "the county, city, or town in which the purchase was made." The only provision about buying by mail is an exemption for industrial refiners buying "by mail originating outside the Commonwealth," which does not describe a package sent from Virginia, and the law never says whether it reaches a refiner with no Virginia location. Coins are outside the law entirely (54.1-4109). We have no Virginia 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.

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.**

Anyone in the business of buying secondhand precious metals or gems in Virginia is a dealer under Va. Code 54.1-4100. Before opening, the dealer gets a permit from the chief law-enforcement officer of each locality where it buys, files fingerprints, has its scales approved by weights and measures officials, posts a bond or letter of credit and renews every year. It can only do business from the fixed location named in the permit.

When you sell, the dealer checks an unexpired government photo ID showing your current address plus a second form of ID, keeps a digital image of it, and takes your statement of ownership. It records each item's marks, weight and price with your name, address, date of birth and physical description, keeps that record for 24 months and delivers a copy of the bill of sale to local police within 24 hours. The dealer then holds what it bought for 15 calendar days from the day police receive that copy, without selling, altering or moving it out of the locality. No dealer may buy from anyone under 18.

Coins are outside the law completely: neither the statute nor any local ordinance applies to buying or selling them (54.1-4109). Pawnshops follow a separate law; they record your photo ID and file a daily report of everything they buy with local police by noon the next day (54.1-4009 and 54.1-4010).

Va. Code 58.1-609.1(19) exempts refined gold, silver or platinum whose value depends on its mass and purity, and legal tender coins of any metal, from Virginia sales and use tax. Jewelry and works of art do not qualify. The exemption runs on a sunset that the General Assembly keeps extending through the state budget; the 2026 Appropriation Act (Item 3-5.22) carries it through July 1, 2028. Everything else pays the 4.3% state rate plus local tax, for a combined 5.3% to 7% depending on where you shop.

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

Virginia starts from your federal adjusted gross income (Va. Code 58.1-322), so a gain on gold, silver or platinum is taxed along with your other income at graduated rates from 2% to 5.75% (Va. Code 58.1-320). The state offers no subtraction or credit for precious-metals gains.

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

No section of the Code of Virginia makes gold or silver coins or bullion legal tender. The state's only special treatment of precious metals is the sales-tax exemption above. Buyers in Virginia price your coins off the live metal market either way.