By Rocco Clayfield, Founder & Director, GoldPaid Ltd · Published 6 August 2026
The exemption is about currency, not gold
HMRC’s Capital Gains Manual is blunt about it. At CG76881, on coins and bank notes, the rule is that coins and bank notes which are sterling currency are not chargeable assets, and that only coins and bank notes which are legal tender are currency. A chargeable asset is the thing Capital Gains Tax bites on. Sterling is not one. So when a UK legal-tender gold coin changes hands, the disposal sits outside CGT entirely, whatever the gain and whatever the amount.
Notice what is doing the work there. Not purity, not weight, not the fact that it is gold. A sovereign is exempt because the Royal Mint struck it as money and it is legal tender. A 999.9 bar poured by the same refiner that supplied the coin blank is not money, so it gets no such treatment. Two objects, near-identical gold content, entirely different tax boxes.
Which gold coins are UK legal tender
The Royal Mint’s own guidance lists the UK bullion coins it regards as exempt from Capital Gains Tax, and the list is a legal-tender list rather than a gold list.
- Sovereigns minted in 1837 and later, including half, quarter and double sovereigns. The date qualification is real: earlier sovereigns from the 1817 to 1837 issues are not current legal tender and fall under the chattels rules instead.
- Gold Britannias, from the 1987 introduction onwards, at every fractional size and across both the pre-2013 22ct and post-2013 24ct specifications.
- Royal Mint Lunar and Queen’s Beasts gold, and other Mint-issued legal-tender bullion series.
- Silver Britannias and other UK legal-tender silver, on exactly the same currency reasoning.
The face value is irrelevant to the test. A one-ounce gold Britannia carries a £100 face value and holds gold worth many multiples of it. The exemption does not require the face value to be realistic. It requires the coin to be legal tender at all.
Why bars and foreign coins sit in the chattels rules instead
Everything that is not currency is a chattel: items of tangible, movable property, in the words of HMRC’s helpsheet HS293. Gold bars and wafers, Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, Eagles, Philharmonics and gold jewellery all live here. Chattels are chargeable assets, but with a threshold. HS293 states that you only need to include in your tax return a gain on the disposal of personal possessions where the disposal proceeds were more than £6,000, and it frames the marginal-relief calculation for proceeds between £6,000 and £15,000.
Illustrative arithmetic, not a market figure. Take HS293’s own worked example and read it as a bar. Sold for £7,500, cost £1,500, selling costs £250. The excess over £6,000 is £1,500, and five-thirds of £1,500 is £2,500, which is the maximum chargeable gain. The actual gain is £7,500 less £250 less £1,500, or £5,750. HMRC says to use the lower of the two, so £2,500 is the chargeable gain before the annual exempt amount is applied.
One trap worth knowing about bars in particular: the chattels rules also restrict losses. HS293 says that where disposal proceeds were less than £6,000, the loss is recalculated by treating the proceeds as £6,000. A bar sold at a loss below that figure therefore rarely produces a capital loss you can actually use.
When does a collection become a set?
This matters because where items form a set and go to the same buyer, or to connected buyers, the £6,000 limit applies to the set as a whole rather than to each piece. HMRC addresses collections directly at CG76881: a collection of coins or banknotes is unlikely to be regarded as a set, but if it contains examples of all the values or denominations issued in one year, or during one reign or government, those will themselves form a set.
A drawer of assorted Krugerrands bought at different times over twenty years is not obviously a set. A complete date run, or a full denomination series, is a different conversation and one worth having with an accountant before anything is sold.
The position on one page
| What you hold | UK CGT treatment | Reporting trigger |
|---|---|---|
| UK legal-tender gold and silver coins | Not a chargeable asset. No CGT arises. | None for CGT purposes |
| Gold bars and wafers | Chattel, chargeable above the £6,000 rule | Proceeds over £6,000 for the item |
| Foreign bullion coins | Chattel, chargeable above the £6,000 rule | Proceeds over £6,000 for the item |
| Gold jewellery and scrap | Chattel, chargeable above the £6,000 rule | Proceeds over £6,000 for the item |
For 2026 to 2027 the annual exempt amount is £3,000 for individuals and personal representatives, and £1,500 for most other trustees. Gains above it are charged at 18% within your remaining basic-rate band and 24% above it, with personal representatives and trustees at 24% flat. Those figures are set at Budgets and have moved sharply in recent years, so check the year of your own disposal on gov.uk rather than relying on a remembered number.
VAT is a separate question and rarely arises for a private seller. Investment gold, which HMRC defines as gold of a purity not less than 995 thousandths in the form of a bar or wafer of a weight accepted by the bullion markets, together with qualifying coins minted after 1800, is an exempt supply. In any event VAT applies to supplies made in the course of business, and someone selling their own coins is not making one. For the jewellery side of this, see how CGT treats gold jewellery.
Sources
- HMRC Capital Gains Manual CG76881, chattels: coins and bank notes: gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg76881
- HS293, personal possessions and Capital Gains Tax 2026: gov.uk HS293 (2026)
- Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances: gov.uk/guidance/capital-gains-tax-rates-and-allowances
- Gold imports and exports, VAT Notice 701/21: gov.uk VAT Notice 701/21
- The Royal Mint on which bullion coins are CGT exempt: royalmint.com
Common questions
Is the sovereign exemption capped at any amount?
No. A coin that is UK legal tender is not a chargeable asset at all, so the size of the gain does not create a CGT charge. The idea of a cap comes from the chattels rules, which apply to bars, foreign coins and jewellery instead.
Are pre-1837 sovereigns exempt?
The Royal Mint lists sovereigns minted in 1837 and later as the exempt ones. Earlier sovereigns are not current legal tender, so they fall under the chattels rules. If you hold an early sovereign of any real value, that is a question for an accountant rather than a general guide.
Does the exemption apply to silver Britannias as well?
The same reasoning applies: they are UK legal tender, so they are currency rather than chargeable assets. The rule turns on legal-tender status, not on which metal the coin is struck in.
Does GoldPaid handle the tax side of a sale?
No. We are a buyer, not a tax adviser. What we provide is the paperwork: a written, itemised offer showing what each item assayed at, its weight and the rate used, which is the kind of record HMRC guidance asks you to keep.