How to Store and Take Care of Your Bullion

Whether you’re storing your coins and bars professionally or keeping them at home, you’ll need to make sure your bullion is properly protected from theft and damage.

What are my Bullion Storage Options?

Once you’ve bought gold, silver or platinum, the next important question is how best to store your new bullion purchase. Secure and safe storage is one of the most important aspects of owning precious metals.

You basically have two options to store your precious metals. You can either take delivery of the bullion and look after it yourself, or you can entrust a professional to store or vault it for you.

Storage at Home - What do I Need to Consider?

Many people aren’t comfortable keeping gold in their homes in case of theft or damage. However, if your personal preference is to store your bullion at home, you should consider the following:

• The amount of space the coins or bars will take up
• Making sure it is correctly stored in the right environment, away from damp and other corrosives
• Do not discuss its location, even with friends and family; the fewer people who know you are in possession of bullion, the better. However, with home safes it is often suggested that one other person has the information to access your bullion in case anything ever happens to you and you are unable to access it
• Do not store gold and silver together; keeping them together can cause damage and tarnishing of the metal
• Whether or not you have adequate insurance; your contents insurance may not cover your bullion portfolio so you may need to consider specific insurance policies.

I’m Looking to Purchase a Safe – What do I Need to Consider?

Firstly, you need to make sure you have somewhere to position the safe where it will be locked away safely and out of sight. Ideally, it should be a place where you are able to attach it to the floor so that it is not freestanding.

If you are looking at purchasing a safe, you will also need to ensure the value at which it is rated is enough to cover the value of the items that are stored within. Generally, a safe is given a ‘cash rating’. A cash rating is the level of cover that an insurance underwriter will give to the cash contents of the safe. This is usually multiplied by ten times for jewellery and bullion, or similar valuables. A cash rating is therefore also a very good indication of the security level of the safe; the higher the rating, the more security is offered.

You should also consider if you require a safe to be fireproof and waterproof, as these safes can also offer protection for other valuables such as paper documents. Many people choose a fire and waterproof safe due to the heightened level of protection they offer to documents and paper money.

Third-Party Storage - What do I Need to Consider?

1. Security: Make sure security is high enough and that your bullion is protected from theft and damage.
2. Ownership: Do you keep guaranteed possession of your specific bullion?
3. Accessibility: Find out if you can access your coins or bars at any time or withdraw them in some instances.
4. Protection: Make sure your precious metals are protected from contamination.

What are the Benefits of Storing with The Royal Mint’s Storage Facility, The Vault ®?

If you buy any bullion coins or bars from The Royal Mint, you can take advantage of storing them in The Vault ®, a state-of-the-art storage facility. The benefits of doing so are:

• Your physical gold is held in The Vault ®, behind the gates of our highly secure site
• The location is guarded 24/7, 365 days a year by trained security staff, offering you unrivalled security and a service promising absolute confidentiality and discretion
• Your bullion will be given a serial number and will be fully allocated to you
• Your coins and bars will be fully insured
• You can choose to take delivery at any time
• Your Royal Mint gold bullion coins will be fully segregated and stored in individual serialised tubes with a tamper-evident security seal
• You can take advantage of The Royal Mint’s sell feature.

What is the Sell Feature?

If you store any coins or bars you buy from The Royal Mint in The Vault ®, we offer a buy-back facility. This means that when you are ready to sell, you may request that we buy back your coins or bars from you. We will then quote to buy your bullion, which is based on a percentage of the day’s gold price.

Taking Care of Your Bullion

Bullion is not bought for its appearance, but for its intrinsic value, which won’t be affected by any damage. In fact, some bullion coins may have slight imperfections. However, if you are looking to store your bullion at home, it is important to avoid damage as it may affect its resale value.

Handling Bullion

The main way to protect your bullion coins or bars is not to handle them unless it is necessary, but sometimes we appreciate you might want or need to. Gold, for example, is soft, so to prevent your bullion from being damaged by a hard surface when handling it, put a soft, clean towel or cloth on the surface where you want to place it. Also, put something soft on the floor in case it falls.

Wear cotton, lint-free gloves to handle your bullion. Do not use latex gloves as the lubricants in them can damage the metal. If you do not want to wear gloves, always make sure your hands are clean by using sanitiser to remove oil that can cause decay. Be careful when you handle your bullion, and pick up coins at the edge.

Cleaning Bullion

You do not need to clean gold bullion – in fact, doing so may damage a mint finish. Gold does not corrode or tarnish, so it will stay bright forever. However, do not store gold with silver or with any tarnished metal, as it can cause damage. In terms of storage, keeping your bullion in airtight containers or capsules can help protect it.