Selling inherited gold, silver and coins: the tax position in plain terms

01

Selling as the executor, or selling as the beneficiary

Start by working out who is selling. If the item still belongs to the estate, the executor is selling it. If it has been passed to you, you are. The personal representative is the executor, or the administrator where there is no will; a legatee or beneficiary is the person who inherits.

Selling as the personal representative

The estate still owns the item and you are selling it as executor or administrator. While the estate is being dealt with, the personal representatives may have to pay Capital Gains Tax on anything the estate sells, and the gain falls on the estate rather than on the person who will inherit, as long as the item has not been formally passed to them (HMRC helpsheet HS282).

Selling as a legatee or beneficiary

The item has been passed to you and it is now yours. HS282 treats anything a legatee receives after a death as though it had been acquired on the date of death, at its market value on that date. From then on any gain is yours and goes on your own tax return, not the estate's.

In practice this decides whose tax-free allowance is used, which rate applies and whose return the sale goes on, and there is a timing question underneath it that only an accountant can answer for your estate. What matters is to know which of the two sales you are making before you agree it, and to say so in writing. The guide for executors covers what can and cannot be done before the grant is issued. If you are selling for a business or other organisation, none of the personal and estate rules on this page describe its position; ask its accountant.

02

The chattels rule, and what counts as a set

Personal possessions, which the law calls chattels, have their own rules within Capital Gains Tax, and they are generous. GOV.UK says you may have to pay the tax if you make a profit when you sell a personal possession for six thousand pounds or more, and gives jewellery, paintings, antiques, coins and stamps as examples. The law itself (section 262 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992) says there is no taxable gain if the sale price is six thousand pounds or less. Above that, the taxable gain is capped at five-thirds of the amount by which the price goes over six thousand pounds, so a possession sold for a little more carries only a small gain.

The rule works item by item. Sell a ring for six thousand pounds or less and the question is closed. It gets harder when what you hold is several things that belong together, because the law counts those as one.

A set sold to the same buyer, or to buyers who are related or working together, counts as one item sold for the total price (section 262(4)). GOV.UK's examples are chessmen, books by the same author, matching vases and sets of china.

Two cases come up often in a family's box, and they behave differently.

• A canteen of cutlery is the classic set. Twelve place settings by one maker in one pattern form a set, and selling them to one buyer is one sale of one item for this purpose. Splitting the canteen between buyers who are related or working together does not change that, whether the sales happen on the same day or years apart. Selling parts to genuinely unrelated buyers is a different matter, and exactly the point to ask an accountant about.
• A run of sovereigns minted in 1837 or later never raises the set question, because of the coin rule in the next section. Sovereigns minted before 1837, and bars, are ordinary possessions, so the set rule can apply to them. Foreign coins such as Krugerrands get no chattels exemption at all, set or no set.

There is also an annual tax-free allowance. For the 2026 to 2027 tax year GOV.UK gives it as three thousand pounds for an individual, and the same for the personal representatives of an estate, who have it for the tax year of the death and the two tax years after. It changes in Budgets, so check the current figure on GOV.UK's Capital Gains Tax pages before you rely on it.

03

Why sovereigns and Britannias sit outside the charge

A sovereign is money as well as gold, and it says so on its face. Sterling currency is not a chargeable asset for Capital Gains Tax (section 21 of the 1992 Act), and HMRC's Capital Gains Manual applies that to sovereigns minted in 1837 and later years and to Britannia gold coins. Older sovereigns are no longer legal tender, so HMRC treats them as ordinary possessions under the chattels rule instead.

The Royal Mint says the same: its gold, silver and platinum bullion coins, including Britannias, Sovereigns and the Queen's Beasts range, are free of Capital Gains Tax for UK residents because they are UK legal tender. It is equally clear on the other side of the line. Gold, silver and platinum coins not produced by The Royal Mint are not UK legal tender and are chargeable, and so are gold and silver bullion bars.

Where the things in a typical tin stand for Capital Gains Tax

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The Krugerrand is worth naming because it is the foreign coin most often found in a family tin, and it is easily assumed to be treated like a sovereign. It is South African currency, so it is chargeable, and HMRC's manual says the chattels exemption does not apply to foreign currency coins at all. Whether a gain actually arises is a separate question, and for an inherited coin sold not long after the death there is often little or none, for the reason in the next section.

None of this affects what a coin is worth or how it should be sold. A sovereign with a scarce date or mint mark can be worth considerably more than its gold, and the sovereigns guide explains how to tell before anything is treated as metal.

04

Your cost is the value at the date of death

Most writing about gold and tax assumes you bought something, know what you paid, and that the gain is the difference between then and now. An executor or a beneficiary is in a different position, and under the rule that applies, many of these sales produce little or no taxable gain.

The law treats the personal representatives as having acquired the person's possessions on the day they died, at what they were worth that day (section 62 of the 1992 Act). HS282 says the same for a legatee: anything received after a death is treated as acquired on the date of death, at its market value on that date.

That is also a practical reason to have the estate's possessions valued properly rather than estimated. A probate valuation is the starting cost any later sale is measured against, and an estate that recorded a vague figure, or none, leaves its beneficiaries with nothing to measure from. Which kind of valuation you need, and who produces it, is set out in our guide to valuations, appraisals and offers.

An estate that counts as an excepted estate, usually because it is below the Inheritance Tax threshold and no tax is due, does not send HMRC a full account of its contents. If probate is needed, the estate's estimated value is still given in the probate application. Either way, the estate should keep a record of how the possessions were valued, because a beneficiary who later sells will need it.

GOV.UK's guidance on working out a gain on a personal possession points the same way: use the market value where you inherited the item and do not know the Inheritance Tax value, and deduct costs such as fees for valuing.

05

What to keep, and what an accountant will ask you for

The paperwork that answers a tax question also answers a beneficiary's question, and it is easier to keep as you go than to rebuild afterwards.

• The probate valuation, or whatever figure the estate used for household goods and personal possessions, with the date it was prepared and who prepared it.
• The date of death, because that is the date the item is treated as acquired.
• The itemised list of what was sent to a buyer, so that a lot can be broken back down into the pieces it contained.
• The written offer as it was made, and the payment record, so you can show what you were paid.
• Any valuation or selling fees, which GOV.UK's guidance allows to be deducted when the gain is worked out.
• A note of whether the sale was made by the estate or by you personally, and when the item was passed to you if it was.

An itemised list matters here. A single offer for a mixed lot is one figure, and a tax question may need to know which part of the lot was sovereigns and which was scrap jewellery. The offers and returns page explains what the written offer contains.

06

Seller risks and exceptions

• Assuming all gold is exempt because sovereigns are. The exemption is about legal tender, not about metal. A Krugerrand, a bar and a bracelet are all chargeable assets.
• Assuming nothing is due because the item was a gift from a relative who is still alive. This page is about inheritance. A lifetime gift is acquired at its market value on the date of the gift, which is a different calculation.
• Splitting a set to get under the threshold. The set rule exists to catch sales of a set to the same buyer, or to buyers who are related or working together, and it treats them as one.
• Not reporting a large year of sales. If you are registered for Self Assessment and the total you sold assets for in a tax year is more than fifty thousand pounds, GOV.UK says you must report your gains in your return even if they are within your allowance. Check with GOV.UK or an accountant what counts towards that total.
• Selling before the grant and sorting the tax out later. You may not yet have the legal right to sell, which matters before any tax question. The executor's guide explains.
• Treating an offer as a probate valuation. Probate needs the open market value at the date of death, and a buyer's offer made months later is not that. It cannot be used as your starting cost either.
• Relying on a figure found on a page. Thresholds, allowances and rates change at Budgets. Check GOV.UK, and ask an accountant where the amounts are large.

07

When not to rely on this page

Assaypost does not calculate, deduct or report anybody's tax, and does not need to know your tax position to make an offer. Your own reporting duties are yours, and the guide to what gets reported when you sell gold sets out the rules that can reach a seller and a buyer. What you are given is a list of what arrived, what each piece was found to be, and one written offer for the lot, which is the evidence an accountant will ask for. The probate and estate page explains how an estate sale is handled, and the inherited jewellery page is the place to start if there is no estate and the piece is simply yours.