How unallocated bullion works

Unallocated bullion is the cheapest way to buy metal from us. You buy silver or gold at the live metal price, with no premium on top, and we store it in our vault for you free of charge. When you want it, you can sell it back, or take it as a physical bar or coin and pay only the difference.

How it works

You buy at the metal price. Choose a size — from half an ounce of silver up to a kilo of gold — and buy it like any other product in our shop.
We hold real metal against it. Your holding is backed by physical bullion kept in a dedicated section of our vault, insured through Lloyd’s of London.
Storage is free. No monthly fee, no minimum term, no charge for however long you leave it.
You can see it any time in your account, with what it is worth at the current metal price.

Buying

Add the size you want to your basket and check out as normal. You will need to be signed in, because we hold the metal in your name.

Nothing is posted to you, so there is no delivery charge and no delivery address needed for an unallocated order. Your holding appears in your account as soon as the payment clears, and the order is marked complete straight away — there is nothing to pack.

You can buy unallocated bullion in the same order as physical items. The physical items are posted to you as usual; only the unallocated part stays in the vault.

What it costs

You pay the live metal price. Prices move with the market through the day, so the figure on the product page is the figure at that moment.

There is no premium when you buy, no storage fee while you hold it, and no fee to sell it back. We make our margin on the difference between what we sell at and what we buy back at, which is how the programme pays for itself.

Selling it back

Go to your account, choose the holding and how much of it you want to sell, and send us the request. You will see what we will pay before you confirm.

We buy back slightly under the live metal price. We will be in touch to arrange payment to your bank account, and your holding stays exactly as it is until that payment is made.

Converting it to a physical product

You can turn your unallocated metal into something you can hold.

Your metal covers the metal in the piece, so all you pay is the premium on top. If you hold an ounce of silver and want a one ounce coin, you pay the coin’s premium over the metal price — not the whole coin. You never pay for the metal twice.

Tell us what you would like and we will confirm the difference before you pay anything. Once it is paid, the piece is yours and comes out of the vault.

Unallocated metal can be converted into bullion products only — bars, rounds and bullion coins. It cannot be redeemed for collectable or proof coins, even where those contain the same weight of metal, because what you are holding is metal rather than a collectable.

Shipping

Nothing ships while your metal is unallocated. It stays in the vault.

When you convert to a physical product, that piece is posted to you with insured delivery, charged at the normal rate, or you can collect it from our Tingalpa office by appointment at no charge. We will confirm the options when you convert.

Things worth knowing

Your metal is pooled. We hold a dedicated, insured stock of physical bullion covering every holding, but you are not assigned one specific numbered bar. That is what lets us sell it to you at the metal price with no premium. If you want specific pieces held in your name, our vault storage does exactly that.
The value moves. What your holding is worth rises and falls with the metal price, like any bullion.
You need an account. The metal is held in your name, so unallocated bullion is only available to signed-in customers.
There is no time limit. Leave it as long as you like.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or you want to talk through whether unallocated or allocated vault storage suits you better, get in touch.