EXCLUSIVE Royal Mint reveals one investor banked a £70,000 tax-free profit buying and selling gold... inside eight months

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

Record numbers of investors sold gold bullion coins back to the Royal Mint between April and June for tax-free gains as the gold price hit all time-highs, This is Money can reveal.
The value of gold coins sold back to the Royal Mint reached an all-time high, up 75 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 55 per cent year-on-year.
The Royal Mint operates a buyback scheme where customers can sell their gold coins.
In one case, an investor purchased gold coins from the Royal Mint in October 2024, when the gold price was £1,972.40, and sold them in June 2025 for a £70,000 Capital Gains tax-free profit, by which time the gold price had risen to £2,447.74.
Driving the rise in investors selling back precious metal was the gold price, which set five new all-time highs in sterling, peaking at £2,611.66 in April.
This lead to 'unprecedented engagement from UK investors,' according to The Royal Mint.
There has also been record demand because bullion and coins from the Royal Mint are exempt from capital gains tax, as they are classified as legal tender. Gold bars and coins bought outside of the Royal Mint are not free from capital gains tax.
Despite record sell-back activity, gold coin purchases still outweighed sales by a 6:1 ratio, according to the Royal Mint.
Online gold bullion coin sales reached the second-highest levels on record, with revenue up 117 per cent from the same period last year, despite a 11 per cent decline quarter on quarter.
Last year, customers bought a record £750million worth of gold bullion coins from the Royal Mint.
There was a 329 per cent jump in gold coin sales in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2024.
Sales of all precious metals from the Royal Mint continued to grow, up 55 per cent from the same period last year.
Sales of silver and platinum saw the most dramatic growth in this quarter as gold's rally prompted broadened interest in silver and platinum from investors
Silver sales rose 51 per cent while platinum sales were up 188 per cent in the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year..
Stuart O'Reilly, market insights manager at The Royal Mint, said: 'We're seeing strategic behaviour from investors to rebalance portfolios and rotating into silver and platinum.
'The fact that silver and platinum activity has surged alongside gold's rally shows UK investors are becoming increasingly aware of the value of other precious metals, with silver and platinum often following gold's lead during major rallies.'
The Royal Mint's vault operations delivered substantial quantities of bullion bars including 400oz gold bars and 1,000oz silver bars to meet record customer demand, while also processing the highest levels of customer sellbacks on record.
The Royal Mint's VAT-free DigiGold range - where investors can buy fractional amounts of gold bars stored in the Royal Mint's vault - saw huge growth across all metals, with the most dramatic growth in silver and platinum.
Digital Gold sales rose 103 per cent year-on-year, while Digital Platinum sales soared 798 per cent and Digital Silver sales rocketed 1,158 per cent compared to the first three months of 2024.