Sell gold bars and bullion by post across the UK

A question costs nothing

Before you decide anything, send a few clear photos of your gold bullion on WhatsApp, or call. You will get a rough estimate and a straight answer about hallmarks, the postal cover, the XRF assay or the free return if you decline. None of it commits you to posting.

GoldPaid is a UK-wide postal gold and silver buying service with no branches. Our main page on selling gold by post in the UK sets out the label, the XRF test, the written offer and the payment in one place.

Gold bullion we buy

• Gold bars and ingots of any weight, 1g, 1oz, 100g, 1kg and larger
• 999.9 fine gold
• Branded bullion, PAMP, Metalor, Umicore, Royal Mint and others
• Cast, poured and minted gold bars
• Gold bullion coins, Britannias and Sovereigns

Bars are accepted with or without their original assay cards or sealed packaging. We pay for confirmed fine-gold content, not the card.

Gold bar sizes and fine-gold content

Keep any assay card, certificate and purchase paperwork with the bar. Photograph its faces, markings and packaging. A stamped weight or surface reading alone does not establish the contents of a bar. GoldPaid does not publish a price list or calculator. Send photos for a rough estimate where possible; your written offer follows inspection of your own items.

Cast bars and minted bars, what changes when you sell

A cast bar is poured into a mould and left to cool, so the face is uneven and the edges rounded. A minted bar is cut from rolled strip and struck, so it has sharp edges, a flat face and usually a sealed card.

• Cast bars are more common from 100g to 1kg, with refiner, weight, fineness and serial number stamped into the face.
• Minted bars are usual below 100g and normally arrive sealed in a tamper-evident card repeating those details.

When you sell for metal the distinction largely stops mattering: both are paid on confirmed fine-gold content and weight. One 1kg cast bar and ten 100g minted bars hold the same gold, and the premium paid on a small minted bar is not recovered in full on a metal sale. See gold bar values for size-by-size figures.

Assay cards, serial numbers and what to send

Every recognised investment bar carries a unique serial number, stamped into a cast bar or printed on the card of a minted one. Photograph it before posting: it records exactly what left your hands, and it lets the bar in the parcel be matched to the one you described.

• The bar itself. Do not clean, polish or file it, surface marks do not reduce the gold content.
• The assay card or certificate if you still have it. Helpful, never required.
• Sealed bars still sealed. Cutting a bar out removes the packaging that ties the printed serial number to the bar inside.
• Copies of any paperwork, invoice or dealer receipt. Keep the originals.

How a gold bar is verified

1. Photo check first. We look at the stamps, the serial number and the form of the bar, and say honestly if anything looks wrong, before it is posted.
2. Opened at our Bristol office. The parcel is signed for on arrival, opened and checked against what you described, so the bar being valued is the bar you sent.
3. Weighed and measured. A recognised bar is 999.9 fine, so its weight is its fine-gold content. Gold is unusually dense, so size and weight are checked against each other.
4. XRF-assayed. The assay reads the fineness directly, at more than one point on the bar rather than a single spot.
5. Written offer. You see the weight, the confirmed fineness and the figure in writing before anything is settled.

Where the figure comes from

We measure purity with XRF, weigh every item, and value it against the live precious-metal market on the day we test, with our margin already inside the figure. Every one of those numbers appears in the written breakdown you receive before deciding. The full method is on how we value gold.

Gold bullion is the most direct thing to value: each bar is weighed and XRF-assayed to confirm the fineness, then valued on the confirmed weight and 24ct purity and the live gold market, with our margin already inside the figure.

One parcel gets one written figure, itemised piece by piece. Your offer reflects the weight and purity we measure and the live precious-metal market on the day, with our margin already inside the figure, so nothing further is taken off. For coins, watches and signed or collectable pieces, send a photo on WhatsApp first and we will tell you how we would value them before you post anything.

Postage, tracking and cover

Every parcel uses Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, tracked from the counter to our door and signed for on arrival. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post. For anything you think is worth more, contact us first and we split it across more than one prepaid label rather than send it in one parcel. The detail sits on postage and cover and is it safe to post gold?. If a parcel is lost on its way to us, the compensation claim goes to Royal Mail from you, the sender, using your Post Office receipt, and we give you our tracking records and help you make it. Lost parcels, step by step.

Changing your mind is free

Declining costs you nothing. If the written offer does not suit you, say so, and your items come straight back by tracked, signed-for Royal Mail Special Delivery at our expense. No fee, no questions, no chasing. See what happens if I decline the offer for the step by step.

The written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses before you decide, we re-run it against the live precious-metal market on the day, at no charge. You can also accept part of a parcel and decline the rest, with no minimum and no penalty for splitting it.

Who this helps

This page is for an investor releasing part of a holding, and for a family that has inherited bars and wants the sale documented. Each bar is checked against its serial number and stamped weight, then weighed and assayed before any figure is written. Posting a sealed, tracked parcel also tends to feel safer than carrying high-value bullion into a high-street buyer.

When storing bullion stops feeling worth it

A bar bought as a long hold can quietly become a chore. The gold does its job; storing it does not. The reasons are familiar: home insurance that caps cover for valuables kept at home, a storage fee that renews every year, a house move, a spell abroad, or not wanting a relative to be the one who finds bars in a drawer. Selling part of a holding is a normal answer, and nobody has to send everything. Each bar is valued on its own line, so you can release two and keep the rest.

Tax on bars, and why coins are treated differently

This is the one point where bars and coins genuinely part company, and for anyone holding both it can change the order things are sold in. UK legal-tender gold coins, Sovereigns and Britannias among them, are exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK residents whatever the gain. Gold bars are not legal tender, so a gain on a bar can be chargeable above the annual exempt amount. Investment gold is generally VAT-exempt. GoldPaid is not a tax adviser and this is general information, not advice, so check your position with HMRC or a qualified accountant.

Getting paid

Once you accept your written offer, we aim to pay by Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, directly to your account. No cheques to wait on, no conditions attached.

What backs the offer up

• XRF spectrometry on every item, not a counter estimate
• A written, itemised breakdown before you decide anything
• Free tracked postage in, free tracked return out
• No countdowns, no pressure, no fabricated reviews
• An owner-run business whose founder, Rocco Clayfield, answers questions himself

Common questions