Gold and Silver Between Individuals: Discount Rules Over Spot Price

Selling Gold and Silver Between Individuals: The Discount Reigns

How much is that ounce of silver you have in a drawer really worth? Less than the price shown on metal trading platforms and considerably more than the seven euros you'd get for it at some gold-buying shops. Between these two figures lies a private market for buying and selling coins, ingots, and medals that has operated for almost eight years with a single compass: the international price of the metal. The key isn't the spot price. The key is how much you're willing to lower it to sell the piece today rather than in three months.

The Price of Silver: Purity, Fine Grams, and Spot Price

The arithmetic governing this market is simple and ruthless. The gross weight of the piece is multiplied by its purity to obtain the fine grams, and then the current quotation is applied. An advertisement for 162.45 grams of silver pesetas with 835 purity translated into 135.64 fine grams which, at 0.434 euros per gram, came to 58.87 euros. No more, no less.

From there, everything is negotiation over that number. Sterling silver medals (925 purity) traded at 60 cents per gram, well above the metal's value, because the buyer also pays for the piece, the design, and sometimes the history. A lot of 800 German five-mark coins, containing 5,600 grams of fine silver, was offered for 2,500 euros: about 0.446 euros per gram, barely above the benchmark.

The formula works for everything, even what seems like junk. 100-peseta silver coins circulated for years without anyone paying them much attention and ended up being one of the most liquid assets in the entire Spanish private market. Pocket change, they said. Pocket change with a metal content no one had counted.

From 0.434 Euros Per Gram to 74 Euros Per Ounce

At the beginning of this series of exchanges, silver was trading at 0.434 euros per gram, and 100-peseta coins were offered at 6 euros each. Years later, the same ads spoke of an ounce at 64.3 and 74 euros. The jump changed everything: what was once loose change from a drawer became an asset viewed with a calculator in hand.

The surge reordered the offers. At one point, silver ounces were found for less than 25 euros and gold ones for 2,500 euros, while 12-euro coins sold for 16 euros apiece. With the metal price soaring, selling below the reference price ceased to be an exception and became the only way to close a deal.

12-Euro Coins: The Refuge Sold at Face Value

There's a trick hardly anyone knows that debunks half the narrative of gold-buying shops. 12-euro coins have face value, and any Banco de España branch is obliged to buy them for those 12 euros. The difference with what private establishments offer is notable: for their silver content, one of those pieces barely reaches seven euros in the best-case scenario.

The private market reflected this floor. 100-peseta coins traded in a range from 6 to 10.5 euros each over the years, and 12-euro coins climbed to 16 euros when the metal price tightened. Those who had bought them for pennies suddenly discovered they had an asset with two prices: that of the metal and that of the paper stating its value.

The Liquidity That Doesn't Exist

This is where the narrative of metal investment cracks. The promise was immediate liquidity, buyers waiting on the other end of the phone. The reality seen in advertisements is different: you have to lower the price, break up the lot, and still wait weeks or months.

The circulating calculation put it plainly: if you truly need the money, you'll end up selling at a giveaway price at a shop or, slightly better, to another individual, but always below what you paid. The conclusion, repeated endlessly, is that the metal doesn't sell when you want it to, but when someone willing appears.

Against this, the shop's argument gains ground: at an equal price, with an invoice in your name, certificate, and possible return, why take the risk with a stranger? Sellers know this, and that's why they push the price down. The informed buyer holds all the cards and plays them mercilessly.

Is ITP Paid When Selling Gold Between Individuals?

This is the question that reappears periodically and is never definitively settled. There is divergence among judicial rulings on whether the sale of investment gold between individuals should be subject to the Property Transfer Tax (Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales - ITP). For high-value transactions—starting from 10,000 euros was mentioned—the tax administration may have a real interest in the matter.

The most common answer is from the resigned payer: we all pay it here, asking the question is offensive. The least common is from those who claim the obligation is unclear. And the intermediate, most sensible one, is from those who warn that the problem isn't the tax itself, but what it uncovers: a transaction without an original invoice opens the door to a much more uncomfortable inspection.

It's worth remembering that the taxation of these transactions depends on the autonomous community and the type of piece, and no generic answer replaces consultation with a professional.

The Invoice as an Object of Faith

In a market where nothing is verified, paper acquires almost superstitious value. Yet, the invoice proves to be a fragile piece of evidence: there are companies that sold gold and silver and no longer exist, leaving no records, so any document from a defunct firm is impossible to verify.

The detail has two interpretations. For the distrustful buyer, an invoice certifies nothing. For the seller, it's the only guarantee they can offer. The exchange of distrust ends with a tacit agreement: the metal is bought, not the paper.

Some argue that, with high net worth, presenting an invoice that an inspector suspects is fake—even if they can't prove it—opens the door to a thorough investigation for money laundering. For the small saver, however, the risk is proportional to their assets. The advice, depending on who gives it, changes direction.

How to Detect a Fake Gold Coin?

The practical advice circulating is from the neighborhood workshop: scale, caliper, and home tests. The weight gives the first clue. A silver ounce weighing 31.5 grams instead of the theoretical 31.1 raised all alarms: with gold coins, the same scale got the weight exactly right, so the problem didn't seem to be with the apparatus's precision.

Then come the sound test, the conductivity test, and a check at a nearby jewelry store. They work, but they aren't infallible: fake coins and ingots are increasingly well-made, and it won't be the last time someone falls for it.

The most useful clue, however, isn't technical but documentary. An advertisement offered sovereigns from 1919, a year in which the London mint did not strike any, and from 1917, a year in which almost all pieces were destroyed. Adding that the coins appeared melted and without a mint mark suggested jewelry imitations. Numismatics, at times, detects fraud better than a scale.

Selling Below Spot: The Only Strategy That Works

When the market tightens, serious sellers do what nobody wants to do: lower the price before it gets lowered for them. Some lots are offered slightly below the reference price, with the argument that with silver at 74 euros an ounce, a discount of 3% to 5% closes a deal in days that a catalog price wouldn't close in months.

Patience also pays off. One-gram gold bars, those many looked down on as a marketing product with a brutal markup, went from being bought at 180 euros to having a repurchase price of 495 euros at the same shop. That shift exposed those who called them a scam and those who failed to see the profit margin.

And when the piece is collectible, the discount works in reverse: a silver ounce can be sold above the metal price if the buyer is looking for that specific year and not another. A lot of 176 collectible series ounces sold for 55 euros per ounce, below the starting price, but it sold. In this market, quantity doesn't pay; detail does.

In the end, the sarracena of almost eight years of operations is simple: gold and silver are not as liquid an investment as claimed, nor as illiquid as some predict. It all depends on the price you're willing to part with the piece for. In a market where the only guarantee is fruta, the discount is the best collateral. The rest—the paper, the narrative of eternal appreciation—we'll see when the next buyer appears.