Precious Metals Guides
Long-form guides on the questions that come up before, during and after a precious metals purchase: coin or bar, how the price is formed, what tax applies, how to store and insure your holdings. Fact-based, without dealer recommendations and without price forecasts.
We sell no gold and recommend no dealers — only verified expertise from official sources, tied to live prices. No purchase recommendations, no forecasts.
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Like what you see and read?
We pour our heart into keeping preciousmetalprices.com fast, clean and free — no paywalls, no clutter, just reliable facts and live prices. If it helps you, the nicest way to say thank you is to pass it on. Every share helps a fellow investor discover us and keeps the project alive. 💛
Gold
2Buying gold in 2026: coin or bar, unit size, premium and spread, storage, authenticity and the German tax rules — neutral, with live prices and calculators.
How the gold price is formed: spot price, LBMA fixing, COMEX, supply and demand, real interest rates, central bank buying and the currency effect — explained ne...
Silver
2Buying silver in 2026: why VAT applies to silver but not to investment gold, coins versus bars, premium and spread, the volume problem, authenticity and tax — n...
Why the silver price moves the way it does: industrial demand, by-product supply, the LBMA auction, COMEX futures, the gold-silver ratio and the VAT effect — ex...
Platinum & Palladium
1Platinum and palladium as an investment: catalytic converters, substitution, concentrated supply, extreme volatility and why — unlike investment gold — neither...
Storage & Security
2Where to keep gold and silver and how to insure it: home safes to EN 1143-1, safe deposit boxes and liability caps, allocated versus unallocated vaulting, cover...
Burying gold or silver, honestly assessed: the loss of insurance cover, corrosion, the legal position on finds and treasure, and why heirs so often never recove...
Tax & Law
1How physical gold and silver are taxed, using German law as the reference case: VAT exemption for investment gold, the one-year holding period, the 1,000-euro t...
From the guide straight to the numbers
Every guide links to the matching live prices and calculators. A few popular starting points:
General information — not investment or tax advice and not a purchase recommendation. Sources and the date of the last review are stated in every guide.