About · Founded 2026
A spec sheet for one question: what may an IRA hold?
IRA Gold Coins Guide covers a single topic: which metals, coins, and bars a US individual retirement account may hold. The question looks like a shopping list and is actually a statute — [IRC §408(m)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/408) declares most physical property a "collectible" that an IRA cannot buy, then carves narrow exceptions whose numbers (.995, .999, .9995) come from somewhere most dealer pages never mention. The desk exists because most of what is written about it online is written by companies selling the metal.
What this site is. An independent editorial publication. Every spec on every page is sourced to a primary document — the statute, an IRS publication, a mint spec sheet, an exchange delivery standard — and every page carries the month the specs were last verified (currently October 2026). When a mint changes a spec or Congress amends the rule, the page changes with it.
What this site is not. We are not affiliated with the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Mint, or any government agency, and we do not speak for them. "IRA approved" and "IRS approved" are market phrases, not official status — the law sets standards and names coins; it approves nothing. We are not tax advisers, lawyers, or investment advisers, and no guide should be read as personal advice — where a question needs a licensed professional, the guides say so. We do not sell gold, and we accept no payment from any company described on this site until that relationship is disclosed on the disclosure page.
The editor
Elena Marsh works from Denver, CO. Her method is the one described in her bio: read the primary document first — the mint spec sheet, the exchange delivery standard, the statute — then write. Corrections go through the contact page and are credited. The editorial standards behind every guide are written down on the methodology page.