This gold IRA glossary defines the twenty-four terms you meet on a sales call, a custodian application and a vault statement, alphabetically, one paragraph each. Where a word carries legal weight we quote the statute or the IRS text behind it. Where a word means nothing at all, and two of these do not, we name the regulator who says so.
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Five entries carry nearly all the money, and all five sit at the moment metal is priced rather than the moment the account is opened.
Links tagged SOON point to pages publishing later this month.
Three of these first six describe how metal is priced and three describe who holds it. Both halves arrive in the same phone call, which is where the confusion starts.
Allocated means the metal is booked as your property at the vault, identified by weight, fineness and usually serial number, rather than owed to you as a general claim. An unallocated position makes you a creditor of whoever runs the vault instead. IRA metal should always be allocated.
Bid and ask are the two prices a dealer quotes at the same moment. The ask is what you pay for an ounce, the bid is what the dealer will pay to take that ounce back. The ask sits above spot, the bid below it, and the gap between the two is the spread.
Bullion is metal priced on weight and purity rather than rarity. The CFTC describes bullion coins and ingots as sharing "a common investment-grade purity and weight." Inside an IRA it is the low-premium end of the menu: Eagles, Maple Leafs, one-ounce and ten-ounce bars. See coins against bars.
A buyback is the dealer repurchasing what it sold you, usually to fund a distribution or close the account. It is a commercial policy, not a price guarantee. American Hartford Gold publishes no liquidation fee and Goldco markets a buyback commitment (verified Jun 2026). Get the pricing basis in writing. More in our buyback comparison SOON.
Commingled storage pools your metal with identical metal owned by other clients of the same vault, tracking your entitlement by type, weight and fineness instead of serial number. It is ordinary practice and cheaper to run. The commingling restriction in section 408(a)(5) governs the trust holding your account, not the shelf.
The custodian holds the IRA itself. Section 408(a)(2) requires the trustee to be a bank or "such other person who demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary" that it will administer the account correctly. It pays the dealer, instructs the vault and files the tax forms. It is not the dealer. See custodians compared SOON.
Two terms here carry the force of law. One quietly consumes more of a retirement account than every published fee combined.
A depository is the third-party vault that physically holds IRA metal on the custodian's instruction, insured and audited, your holdings recorded apart from the operator's own assets. The names you meet most are the Delaware Depository SOON and the Texas Bullion Depository SOON. A safe at home is not one.
Fineness is purity in parts per thousand, so 0.995 fine gold is 995 parts metal per thousand. The statute admits bullion "of a fineness equal to or exceeding the minimum fineness that a contract market" requires for futures delivery, handing the standard to the exchange rather than the dealer selling to you.
An in-kind distribution takes the metal out instead of the cash: the bars ship to you and the account reports their value. The Form 1099-R instructions tell the payer to "include in box 1 the FMV of the securities or other property on the date of distribution." See taking possession SOON.
IRA-eligible describes what a custodian will actually accept. Anyone asking what is IRA eligible gold is asking about a short statutory list: named government coins such as the American Gold Eagle, plus bullion clearing the fineness floor and held by the trustee. Current lists sit on our approved metals page.
The exception that makes gold IRAs possible. Section 408(m)(1) treats buying a collectible inside an IRA as an immediate distribution, and (m)(2) counts "any metal or gem" and "any stamp or coin" as collectibles. Paragraph (3) carves out specified coins and bullion "in the physical possession of a trustee," which is why home storage schemes fail.
The markup is the dealer's charge for supplying metal: the gap between the spot value of what reaches the vault and the total leaving your account. It appears on no fee schedule and dwarfs every fee schedule. Our research puts it near 5 percent on bullion and near 30 percent on proof coins (fees verified Jun 2026). Detail in our markup breakdown SOON.
Read these six together and the sales vocabulary of this industry becomes noticeably less impressive.
Numismatic means priced as a collectible, on rarity, mintage and grade rather than metal content. The CFTC records that some dealers "have charged spreads of more than 300 percent" and warns that such coins are less liquid than bullion. Several are not IRA-eligible at all. See the warning signs.
The premium is the markup seen from the coin's side: the percentage above spot metal value at which an item trades. If spot were $2,600 an ounce and a one-ounce coin were quoted at $2,730, the premium is 5 percent. Premiums widen on collector product and shrink the moment you sell.
A proof coin is a collector version of a bullion coin, struck from polished dies and sold in a capsule and box. Proof Eagles are generally accepted, because eligibility attaches to the coin the statute authorises rather than the finish. The problem is price: the bid usually comes back figured on weight.
A required minimum distribution is the amount the IRS obliges you to withdraw yearly from a traditional IRA from age 73, the first due by April 1 of the following year. The rules "do not apply to Roth IRAs" during the owner's lifetime, and the total may be taken from one IRA. See RMDs in a metal account SOON.
A rollover moves retirement money out of one plan or IRA and into another by way of you. The IRS allows "60 days from the date you receive" the distribution, imposes "mandatory withholding of 20%" when a plan pays you directly, and permits one IRA-to-IRA rollover per 12 months. Deadlines in full on our rollover rules page.
Segregated storage keeps your metal physically apart, in its own container tagged to your account, so the exact items you bought are the items returned. Worth paying for if you expect an in-kind distribution or want serial numbers on a statement. Priced side by side in segregated against commingled SOON.
The last six cover the structure metal lives inside and the two routes money takes to reach it. One route is quietly safer than the other.
A self-directed IRA is an ordinary IRA at a custodian willing to administer assets beyond listed securities, metal included. The tax treatment is identical; the asset menu and your role in directing each purchase are what differ. Every gold IRA is self-directed, though many self-directed custodians never touch metals. Our process page walks it through.
Semi-numismatic has no legal or market definition. The CFTC puts it flatly: "Semi-numismatic is a made-up industry term that really has no special meaning." It exists to justify a collector premium on a coin the wholesale market treats as bullion. Ask what that same coin is bid at today.
Spot is the price of the metal itself, defined by the CFTC as "the cash price for immediate delivery of physical metal" and as something that "should be easy to get from financial news or quote providers." Nobody sells you metal at spot. It is the yardstick every quote should be measured against.
The spread is your round trip: the distance between the ask you pay today and the bid you would be offered selling the same item back this afternoon. A 5 percent spread means metal must appreciate 5 percent before you are level. That number, not the annual fee, decides performance. See our fee breakdown.
A troy ounce is the unit precious metals are weighed and quoted in, 31.1035 grams, about 10 percent heavier than a kitchen ounce. The Eagle statute specifies a fifty dollar gold coin that "weighs 33.931 grams, and contains one troy ounce of fine gold," the surplus being alloy. Confirm quotes are stated per troy ounce.
A trustee-to-trustee transfer sends money straight from one IRA custodian to another without touching your bank account. The IRS is explicit that "this type of transfer isn't a rollover," which removes the 60-day clock, the withholding and the annual limit at once. See transfer against rollover.
Definitions turn useful once a figure is attached. Here is a single $50,000 order run through the four words that price it, first as low-premium bullion and then as proof coins.
| THE WORD | WHAT IT NAMES | BULLION, ABOUT 5% | PROOF COINS, ABOUT 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spot price | The metal you end up owning, at the exchange reference price | About $47,500 of metal | About $35,000 of metal |
| Markup, or premium | The dealer's charge for supplying it, absent from every fee schedule | About $2,500 | About $15,000 |
| Spread | How far metal must rise before selling back leaves you level | Roughly 5 percent | Roughly 30 percent, often wider |
| Buyback | What the exit is worth on the day, priced off the bid | Close to spot on liquid coins and bars | Figured on weight, not the collector story |
Illustrative arithmetic on the markup bands in our gold IRA fee research, about 5 percent on low-premium bullion and about 30 percent on proof and collectible coins, applied to a $50,000 purchase. Not a quote from any provider. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
A glossary entry settles a word. Four of ours are arguments, and those live elsewhere.
Spot is the reference price of the metal itself, defined by the CFTC as the cash price for immediate delivery of physical metal, quoted per troy ounce. It is not what you pay. Every dealer sells above spot and buys back below it. Divide the total you are quoted by the metal value of the order, subtract one, and you have your premium as a percentage.
IRA eligible gold is the narrow set of coins and bars a custodian will accept under section 408(m)(3): named government coins such as the American Gold Eagle, plus bullion whose fineness matches or exceeds the minimum a contract market requires for futures delivery, held in the physical possession of the trustee. Statute and custodian policy decide it, never a sales script.
Segregated storage keeps the exact bars you bought apart from other clients' metal, tagged to your account, so the same items come back to you. Commingled storage pools identical metal and tracks your entitlement by weight, type and fineness. Both are recorded as your property. Segregated costs more every year, and earns it mainly if you plan an in-kind distribution.
No. The custodian is the regulated entity that holds the account: section 408(a)(2) requires an IRA trustee to be a bank or another person who demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary that it will administer the account properly. It receives your transfer, pays the dealer, instructs the depository and files the tax forms. The dealer sells you metal and sets the markup.
Keep four entries open during the call: spot price, premium, spread and buyback. Ask for the live spot price, the order total as a percentage above spot, the bid on those same items today, and who repurchases them when you sell. Any word used to widen a premium, semi-numismatic above all, will not survive those four questions.
Related reading: the gold IRA guide, the 2026 rules, and the provider rankings.
Every legal definition quotes the statute or federal guidance behind it. Definitions of market practice describe how the vaults used by the providers we track operate. Company terms verified Jun 2026.
This page defines terms and does not rank providers; nothing here overrides the scores on our rankings page. Not tax advice.
Our free kit carries the fee and minimum comparison behind these definitions, plus the questions that turn a pitch into a priced quote. Already fluent? Go to the provider rankings.