🥇 2026 Precious Metals Calculator: Gold Melt Value, Junk Silver & IRS Tax

A troy ounce (ozt) is the standard unit for precious metals and weighs 31.1035 grams. A regular avoirdupois ounce (the one you use to weigh food) is only 28.3495 grams. If you confuse the two you will overstate your gold’s value by about 9.7%.

Always select “Troy oz” in Tab 1 when entering bar or coin weights. Use “gram” for jewelry weighed on a kitchen scale.

Hallmarks are the millesimal fineness — the number of parts per thousand that are pure metal. They map directly to karats and purity percentages used in the calculator.

Breakeven spot price is the future gold (or silver) spot price at which your all-in purchase cost equals zero profit — the minimum price the metal must reach before you are in the money.

Formula: Breakeven = Purchase price ÷ Fine metal weight (ozt)

These are regional weight units still actively used in specific jewelry and bullion markets. The calculator supports all four so you can price items priced in any global market.

A brand-new 90% silver quarter has a theoretical silver content of 0.18084 troy oz. But circulated pre-1965 coins have been handled for decades and lose a small amount of metal to wear. The industry-standard 0.715 factor accounts for this and reflects the actual recoverable silver per $1 of face value from a typical circulated bag.

Yes, but they are 40% silver — not 90%. Kennedy halves from 1965–1969 are a different, often-overlooked category. They contain 0.14792 troy oz of silver each versus 0.36169 ozt for a Walking Liberty half. Post-1970 Kennedy halves are clad (no silver) and worth face value only.

It depends heavily on the date, mint mark, and grade. Common-date Morgans in lower grades (VG–F) typically trade at or near melt value with a small premium. Key dates (1893-S, 1895, 1903-O) can trade at 10x to 100x+ melt. Tab 2 gives you the melt floor — always check PCGS or NGC population reports before selling any Morgan or Peace Dollar purely at spot.

The IRS classifies physical gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and collectible coins as “collectibles” under IRC Section 1(h)(4). Long-term capital gains on collectibles are taxed at a maximum rate of 28% — regardless of your income bracket — which is higher than the 0%/15%/20% long-term rates that apply to stocks and real estate.

The 28% collectibles rate applies to all physical precious metals — gold, silver, platinum, and palladium — in any form: coins, bars, rounds, ETFs backed by physical metal, and jewelry sold as an investment. It is not limited to coins.

Yes. Capital losses on any precious metal can offset capital gains on any other collectible or capital asset in the same tax year. If your silver position is down and your gold position is up, selling both strategically can reduce your net taxable gain — a technique called tax-loss harvesting.

The ratio tells you how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold at current prices. A higher ratio means gold is expensive relative to silver (or silver is cheap). A lower ratio means silver is expensive relative to gold. Historically the ratio has averaged around 55–65:1 over the 20th century.

In Tab 4, you enter your holdings for each metal (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper) by weight and purity. The calculator fetches live spot prices, multiplies by fine metal weight, sums them up, and shows each metal as a percentage of your total portfolio value in a donut chart.

A typical Gold IRA involves four separate fee layers that most promotional materials downplay: an initial dealer markup (5–15%), an annual custodian fee ($75–$300), an annual storage fee ($100–$300 depending on segregated vs commingled), and a liquidation spread when you eventually sell (2–5%).

The IRS requires gold held in an IRA to be at least 99.5% pure (.9950 fineness or better) under IRC Section 408(m). This means American Gold Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, Australian Kangaroos, and .9999 bullion bars all qualify. Standard 22K (.916) coins like the South African Krugerrand do not qualify.

DCA means investing a fixed dollar amount at regular intervals (e.g., $200 every month) regardless of price. When gold is cheap you automatically buy more ounces; when gold is expensive you buy fewer. Over time this lowers your average cost per ounce versus trying to time lump-sum purchases.

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) age is 73 for anyone born between 1951–1959, and 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later. A Gold IRA is subject to the same RMD rules as a traditional IRA — the custodian must liquidate or distribute metal to satisfy the RMD each year.

Spot prices are fetched from a market data feed on page load and typically reflect a short delay from the live market. The timestamp is shown next to each spot price in the calculator. For financial transactions, always confirm prices with your dealer or broker at time of execution.

No. All calculations happen 100% in your browser (client-side JavaScript). No weights, prices, portfolio values, or personal information you enter are transmitted to, collected by, or stored on USFinanceCalculators.com servers. You can even use the calculator offline once the page loads.

Click the 📄 PDF Report button inside any tab to generate a business-grade valuation report that includes the spot prices used, your inputs, all calculated outputs, and a timestamp. The WhatsApp share button generates a formatted text summary you can send instantly from any device.

Use Tab 1. Select your metal (Gold), choose the hallmark (usually 14K = 585 or 18K = 750 on US/European jewelry), enter the weight in grams, set the dealer buy premium to 0% to see melt value, then enter the typical scrap dealer discount (usually −20% to −40% below melt) to see what a pawn shop or refiner actually offers.

Yes. Tab 1 supports all five metals: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, and Copper — each with their own live spot price feed. Tab 4 tracks all five metals in the portfolio tracker simultaneously. The 28% collectibles tax rate in Tab 3 also applies to platinum and palladium held physically.