IRA-Approved Gold Bar Brands: The Canonical List

Updated: August 6, 2026

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The bar refiner is the second gate an IRA-eligible gold bar has to clear, after fineness. The Internal Revenue Code does not name individual refiners. It incorporates the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Good Delivery framework and the recognized commodity exchange lists by reference. A bar from any refiner on those lists, at .995 or higher, meets the statutory test.

In practice U.S. self-directed IRA depositories work from a shorter roster of about a dozen refiners whose bars they book routinely. This page lists those brands, notes what each is best known for, and links to a deeper page where OPRS has one available.

The article covers the statutory basis, the canonical brand roster, the fineness and weight formats commonly ordered, the assay-card packaging rule, and how the depository intake step actually works. Every source cited is linked to an official document at the end.

Statutory basis: IRC 408(m)(3)(A) and the LBMA Good Delivery list

The Internal Revenue Code prohibits IRAs from holding collectibles under IRC section 408(m)(1). Paragraph (3) carves out a narrow exception. Subparagraph (A) reaches gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion bars that meet a minimum fineness. Gold and silver require .995. Platinum and palladium require .9995.

The second prong is refiner credentialing. The bar must be refined by a person accredited by the LBMA or by a recognized commodity exchange such as the CME Group COMEX gold and silver contracts, or the NYMEX platinum and palladium contracts. Both prongs apply. A .9999 bar from a non-accredited refiner is not IRA-eligible.

The LBMA Good Delivery list is the authoritative roster. It is maintained by the LBMA and updated as refiners are added, suspended, or removed. The IRS references the framework but does not republish the list. Depositories cross-check every incoming bar against the current LBMA roster and the COMEX approved brand list at intake.

The result is a two-step verification. A bar with an unfamiliar hallmark is not rejected outright. It is checked against the LBMA list and the COMEX list. If it appears on either, and the fineness is met, it books into the IRA under the same rules as a PAMP or Valcambi bar.

The canonical roster of IRA-eligible gold bar brands

Roughly a dozen refiners account for the bulk of gold bars booked into U.S. self-directed IRAs. Their brands are recognized across custodians, dealers, and depositories. Each is LBMA Good Delivery accredited for gold, and most are COMEX-approved for delivery on the CME gold contract.

Two entries deserve a footnote. Credit Suisse exited the gold bar branding business after the UBS-Credit Suisse merger in 2023. Newly minted Credit Suisse bars are no longer produced. Existing Credit Suisse bars remain IRA-eligible when intact in original packaging. The Credit Suisse bars struck by Valcambi under contract also remain valid.

Asahi Refining absorbed the North American gold and silver operations of Johnson Matthey in 2015. Older Johnson Matthey NA bars remain IRA-eligible when the hallmark and assay card are intact. Depositories treat the two brands as a continuous chain, with Asahi as the successor entity for booking purposes.

Fineness: .995 statutory floor, .9999 retail standard

The statutory floor for gold bullion bars under IRC section 408(m)(3)(A) is .995 fineness. This is the London Good Delivery standard for the 400 troy ounce institutional bar used in central bank and interbank settlement. The 400 oz bar is not a retail IRA product. It sits at the far end of the size curve at roughly 12.4 kilograms.

Retail gold bars from every refiner listed above are struck at .9999 fineness. That is sometimes called four-nines fine, or 24-karat. The .995 floor is therefore easily cleared by any retail bar order. The purity test is rarely the binding constraint for IRA buyers. The refiner-credential test does the real filtering.

Silver bars from Sunshine Minting and other LBMA-accredited silver refiners are struck at .999 fineness. IRC section 408(m)(3)(A)(ii) sets the silver floor at .999, matching the American Silver Eagle standard. Platinum and palladium bars must be .9995, matching the CME Group NYMEX contract specifications.

Weight formats: 1 gram to 1 kilogram

Retail bar catalogs from the canonical refiners cluster around six or seven weights. The smallest sizes (1 g, 2.5 g, 5 g, 10 g) are gifting and dollar-cost-averaging product. They carry the highest per-ounce premium. The 1 oz bar is the most widely distributed IRA size. The 10 oz bar and the 1 kilo bar are the cost leaders on a per-ounce basis.

Depositories accept bars in any size that appears on the refiner’s official catalog. A depository will not book a bar with a custom-cut weight or an unofficial finish. The bar has to be a standard product line for the refiner.

The 400 oz Good Delivery bar and the 1 kilo COMEX-eligible bar are institutional formats. They can be held in an IRA in principle, but the ticket size and the storage-fee structure make them rare in retail retirement accounts. Most IRA orders sit in the 1 oz through 10 oz range, with a kilo bar reserved for allocations above roughly $60,000 at typical 2026 spot prices.

Assay card packaging: the depository acceptance rule

Every retail bar from 1 g through 100 g ships sealed inside an assay card. The card is a tamper-evident plastic blister bearing the bar’s individual serial number, fineness, weight, and the assayer’s signature. Refiner-specific brand names for the assay card vary. PAMP calls its card CertiPAMP. The Perth Mint uses the CertiCard format. Argor-Heraeus and Metalor use similar sealed-blister packaging.

The 10 oz and 1 kilo bars ship in their own sealed plastic envelope with an accompanying paper assay certificate carrying the same serial-number match. The larger bars sometimes ship in a rigid case rather than a blister card, but the sealed integrity requirement is identical.

IRS-approved depositories require that bars arrive in original sealed packaging. That includes Delaware Depository, IDS of Delaware, Brink’s Salt Lake City, and others on the standard custodian-recognized network. A bar that arrives in a third-party slab, a custom collector capsule, or with the assay card removed will typically be rejected on intake and returned to the dealer.

The rejection is not an IRS rule. It is a depository risk-control rule. A rejected shipment delays trade settlement and can expose the IRA owner to a price move on the gap. The safest instruction to the dealer at order time is a written note to ship in original refiner packaging, unopened.

Custodian acceptance: how a bar actually gets booked

The self-directed IRA custodian is the party of record on the account. The custodian does not physically hold the bar. The IRS-approved depository holds it. The custodian records the bar on the account, tracks its serial number, and handles the paperwork for distributions and transfers.

At order time the custodian wires settlement funds to the dealer under the trust title of the IRA. The dealer ships the bars in sealed refiner packaging directly to the depository. The depository verifies the serial numbers against the dealer’s manifest, matches them to the custodian’s purchase authorization, and books the bar into the account under segregated or commingled storage.

The IRA owner never takes physical possession. Direct possession triggers a deemed distribution under IRC section 408(m). The bar value is taxed as ordinary income in the year of receipt. Under age 59 1/2 the 10 percent early-distribution penalty applies. The chain is dealer to depository, mediated by the custodian. It never routes through the IRA owner’s home.

The refresher on the depository step is on the OPRS gold IRA depositories overview. The custodian side is covered in the custodian selection framework. Bars from any refiner on the canonical roster above route through this same three-party structure.

Refiners on the LBMA list not commonly seen in U.S. IRAs

The LBMA Good Delivery list runs to more than seventy accredited gold refiners globally. Most of the entries beyond the canonical dozen serve regional wholesale markets rather than U.S. retail retirement accounts. They are IRA-eligible on the statutory test, but their bars are rarely seen by U.S. depositories.

Examples include Kazakhmys Smelting (Kazakhstan), Almalyk MMC (Uzbekistan), Chimet (Italy), Aurubis (Germany), and Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo (Japan). A depository will accept an IRA order of Tanaka or Aurubis bars in principle. In practice a U.S. dealer would need to source such bars specifically. The added acquisition friction is why domestic retail flow concentrates in the dozen brands listed above.

The full current list is maintained on the LBMA Good Delivery page. It updates when a refiner joins, is suspended, or leaves the list. Any refiner marked as suspended has bars that remain IRA-eligible if they predate the suspension date and are intact in original packaging. Depositories consult the current LBMA list at intake.

Sovereign mint bars: Perth, Royal Canadian, U.S., and Royal Mint

Four sovereign mints produce gold bars that regularly appear in U.S. IRA orders. The Perth Mint in Western Australia is government-owned and LBMA-accredited. Its bars carry the Perth Mint guarantee and the state government backing.

The Royal Canadian Mint produces LBMA Good Delivery gold bars alongside its Maple Leaf bullion coins. Its bars are distinguished by the embedded DNA Anti-Counterfeit feature, a microscopic mint mark verified by RCM-licensed dealers. The RCM bar catalog spans the same 1 g to 1 kg retail range as the private Swiss refiners.

The United States Mint does not produce gold bars for retail sale. It produces bullion coins (American Gold Eagle and American Gold Buffalo) that are IRA-eligible under separate statutory carve-outs in IRC section 408(m)(3)(B) and (A). U.S. Mint gold bars would fall under 408(m)(3)(A) if produced, but the Mint has not entered the retail bar market.

The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom produces LBMA Good Delivery gold bars branded as Britannia bars, with the same portrait design as the Britannia coin. These bars are IRA-eligible and routinely accepted, though U.S. dealer distribution is thinner than for Perth Mint or Royal Canadian Mint bars.

Why the LBMA list is the operative reference, not a dealer catalog

A dealer’s own catalog of IRA-eligible bars is a subset of the LBMA list, filtered by what the dealer stocks and can source at short notice. A dealer catalog is not the statutory reference. If a bar appears on the dealer catalog but not on the LBMA list or a recognized commodity exchange list, the depository will not book it into an IRA.

The reverse case matters too. A bar can be LBMA-accredited and IRA-eligible even if a specific dealer does not stock it. An IRA owner who wants a Rand Refinery kilo bar, for example, can ask the dealer to source one from a wholesale supplier. The eligibility is settled by the LBMA credential, not by the dealer’s normal inventory.

IRS Publication 590-A summarizes the framework for taxpayers without republishing the LBMA list. The publication points to the statutory text at IRC section 408(m)(3) and describes the fineness and refiner-credential prongs in general terms. It does not name individual brands.

What to check before authorizing an IRA bar order

• Refiner name is on the current LBMA Good Delivery list or a recognized commodity exchange approved list. Check the LBMA page directly; do not rely on a dealer’s word.
• Fineness is .995 or higher for gold, .999 for silver, .9995 for platinum and palladium. Retail bars are typically .9999 gold or .999 silver, well above the floor.
• Bars ship in original sealed refiner packaging, unopened. Assay card or sealed envelope with matching serial number.
• Chain of custody runs dealer to depository, mediated by the custodian. The IRA owner never takes physical delivery.
• Depository is on the IRA custodian’s approved list. Delaware Depository, IDS of Delaware, Brink’s Salt Lake City, and a small number of others.

Each of those checks is a one-line confirmation with the dealer or the custodian. Getting all five in writing before the wire is the cleanest way to avoid an intake rejection or a deemed-distribution error.

More on OPRS

• LBMA Good Delivery bars explained. The 400 oz institutional format, the .995 statutory floor, and how the LBMA list actually governs IRA eligibility for retail bars several sizes down.
• PAMP Suisse gold bars in IRA. Deep page on the most widely distributed private-refiner brand, with premium gradient by size, CertiPAMP packaging rule, and cast versus minted format decision.
• Valcambi gold bars in IRA. Deep page on the Swiss refiner that also strikes Credit Suisse bars under contract, the CombiBar format, and the size premium curve.
• American Gold Eagle coin IRA eligibility. The statutory carve-out for the one coin named in IRC section 408(m)(3)(B)(i), and how the four-size premium gradient compares with a bar allocation.

Sources cited

1. London Bullion Market Association, Good Delivery framework and accredited refiner lists
2. IRC section 408 (Individual retirement accounts, including 408(m)(3)(A) bullion bar carve-out and fineness prongs)
3. IRS Publication 590-A (Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements, including approved precious metals framework)
4. The Perth Mint (Government of Western Australia, LBMA-accredited sovereign refiner)
5. Royal Canadian Mint (Government of Canada, LBMA-accredited sovereign refiner)
6. The Royal Mint (United Kingdom, LBMA-accredited sovereign refiner)

OPRS is not a tax advisor or licensed financial advisor. This material is general educational information about IRA-eligible bullion bar refiners, not a recommendation to buy or sell any specific bar brand, size, or format, nor to allocate retirement assets to precious metals. Consult your tax advisor and licensed financial advisor on your specific situation before placing an IRA bullion order. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.