Golden State Mint Review

Are you considering investing in precious metals? If so, it’s crucial to find a reliable dealer to assist with your purchase. Golden State Mint is a trusted and reputable dealer in this industry, and sells a wide range of metals. 

Golden State Mint, a highly regarded name in the industry, offers a diverse selection of metals and provides numerous benefits to its customers. These include an extensive range of investment options, secure and prompt metal shipping, a money-back guarantee, and more.

As someone who has worked in the rare metals business for over 20 years, I think it's important to carefully determine whether a company meets your investment needs. It’s essential to remember that even with an array of services, a company might not be the right choice if it doesn’t align with all your investment criteria.

With that in mind, in this review I'll take you through everything Golden State Mint offers, to help you decide if it is the best company to invest with.

Golden State Mint: A Brief Overview

Golden State Mint, situated in Central Florida, offers investment-grade precious metals that you can add to your investment portfolio or IRA account. 

This family-run precious metals investment company founded in 1974, has operated for almost 45 years. Over the years, Golden State Mint has expanded its products and services to provide customer assistance with Bitcoin IRAs. As a professional in the precious metals industry for over two decades, I have hardly found any company in this sector to expand their products into the crypto industry.

Golden State Mint offers a wide range of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium rounds, coins, and bars. It's worth noting, however, that while palladium is mentioned in the website's description, I couldn't find any products provided by the company in this specific category. 

On a separate note, their money-back guarantee stands out as a significant feature.

With all of these offerings, Golden State Mint has gained the trust of numerous customers and established a strong reputation through collaborations with reputable companies. This is exemplified by the company’s long standing affiliations with notable organizations such as the Token & Medal Society (TAMS), the American Numismatic Association (ANA), National Rifle Association (NRA), Florida United Numismatists (FUN), and Polygon Network, among other notable organizations.

What Makes Golden State Mint Stand Out?

Considering my thorough research and extensive track record, I found that Golden State Mint stands out in the precious metals industry for a lot of reasons. Here are some of the main features that attracted me to the company. 

Precious Metals Categories

From what I have explored, one of the best aspects of investing with Golden State Mint is its huge range of investment options. As a company that has been in this industry for years and has made its position stronger over time by expanding its product list, Golden State Mint allows investors to invest in a wide range of gold, silver, platinum, and copper. 

As I mentioned earlier, their website also mentions platinum and palladium, but I didn’t see any palladium products listed there. As for platinum, only bars were listed on the website, and they weren’t available for new orders. 

Despite this limitation in platinum and palladium products, below is a list of the products I found in their gold, silver, and copper listing: 

Silver 

• Silver Bars
• Silver Coins
• Silver Rounds
• Silver Shield Collection
• Fractional Silver 
• 1 oz Silver 
• 2 oz Silver 
• 5 oz Silver 
• 10 oz Silver 
• Kilo Silver 
• 100 oz Silver 
• Antique Silver 
• Monster Boxes of Silver 
• Assorted Weights of Silver 
• Colorized Silver 

Gold

• Gold Bars
• Gold Coins
• Gold Rounds
• Fractional Gold
• 1 oz Gold
• 2 oz Gold
• 5 oz Gold
• 10 oz Gold
• Kilo Gold
• Assorted Weights of Gold

Copper

• ¼ oz Copper Rounds
• ½ oz Copper Rounds
• 1 oz Copper Rounds
• 2 oz Copper Rounds
• 5 oz Copper Rounds
• Colorized Copper

Deals

Besides the wide list of gold, silver, and copper products, you can also explore deals on Golden State Mint's website. This category features products at the best prices, deals, and sales. 

Since GSM claims to continuously compare its offerings with other competitors in the precious metals industry, I found this category ideal for those looking for the best investment options without comparing prices themselves. 

Supplies

I also found a specific supplies category on the company’s website. This section offers a range of specialized products, including tubes, flips, crystals, and other packaging solutions designed to ensure secure shipping and storage for coins, rounds, and bars. These supplies are available in various sizes for silver, gold, and copper, based on the different product sizes. 

Surprisingly, among the precious metals investment companies I’ve worked with, only a few offer dedicated solutions for secure storage and packing. So, this was another standout factor about the Golden State Mint. 

Specifically, the company has plenty of supplies for investors buying gift items or looking for added security and appealing packing of their assets. 

Precious Metals IRA

A Precious Metals IRA is an IRA that allows you to direct the account's investment towards physical precious metals such as gold and silver. However, based on my research over the years, most banks and brokerage businesses do not carry Precious Metals IRAs. 

Fortunately, Golden State Mint is different, as they collaborate with numerous Precious Metals IRA administrators to provide their customers with the option of investing in precious metals through IRAs. 

It is important to note that the IRS forbids retirement plans from purchasing collectibles, including coins. According to IRS criteria, only precious metals with a purity of .999, such as silver or gold, are allowed investments within a retirement plan. Following these rules, Golden State Mint provides customers with silver and gold in rounds, bars, coins, bullion, and other items to add to their IRA accounts. 

Special Collection

If all these products weren’t enough, I was pleased to come across another offering from Golden State Mint. They have a Special Collection that features a wide range of ever-growing product designs. 

While exploring their Special Collection, I discovered a variety of unique designs within each category of special products, with different sizes for each design. According to the website, these offerings include .999 fine copper bullion rounds and proofs, .999 fine silver bullion rounds, and .9999 gold bullion rounds.

Specifically, Golden State Mint’s special collection features the following categories: 

• Antiqued Silver
• Aztec Calendar
• Colorized Copper and Silver
• Frank Frazetta
• Cryptocurrency
• Holiday-Event-Items
• Buffalo Rounds
• Incuse Indians
• Chinese Zodiac
• Walking Liberty
• American Indian
• Silver Shield Collection
• Crescent City Silver
• Second Amendment | Right to Bear
• United States Mint
• Royal Canadian Mint

Additional Services

Expanding its range of offerings to customers, Golden State Mint offers some additional services to its customers. This includes: 

• Shipping Cost Estimator: To help you estimate your total expense when investing with Golden State Mint, you can use the smart cost estimator tool. You can evaluate real-time shipping costs by adding the shipping country, zip/postal code, and ounces of the metals you will purchase from the company. Here, it is worth noting that shipping charges can change based on the shipping method you choose at the time of delivery. The shipping rates, gas prices, location, and weights/amount of boxes can affect these charges. Hence, I suggest you get an estimate just before placing your order, while keeping room for slight changes in the charges until you receive your assets.
• Military Discount: Golden State Mint doesn’t just serve their regular customers but also those that serve in the military. With a military discount, GSM allows you to save 10% on the total price of non-precious metal products you purchase, such as Copper and/or Supplies. This 10% discount also applies to the premium/spot price of precious metals like silver or gold. According to their website, all active and veteran military members of the United States of America are eligible for this discount.
• Newsletter: You can sign up for their newsletter and get the latest updates on precious metals news, and find the latest products and discounts on offer. This is a great feature for investors that wait for special offers or discounts to explore more affordable options for diversifying their investment portfolios.

How to Invest with Golden State Mint?

From my experience, the process of investing with GSM is quite straightforward. This is a major reason why I recognise GSM as an ideal option for both beginner and experienced investors — especially after working with many companies with a complex investment process. 

To be precise, here is the step-by-step process for investing with Golden State Mint:

Step 1: Create an Account

To create an investment account, go to the top right corner of their website and click the "My Account" button. After this, you can create a customer account on the website by providing basic details. When you complete the process, you'll get an email letting you know you have a new account.

Step 2: Make a Purchase

After creating an account, navigate through the products GSM offers (if you haven’t already). Add the products you like to your shopping cart, and then proceed to checkout. Considering my experience, the best thing about investing with the company on their website is that they allow you to place orders 24/7. There’s no limit to when you can purchase with Golden State Mint.

Step 3: Make Payment

Once you place your order online or over the phone and get a confirmation email, the price of your assets will be locked. According to their website, this price will only be locked until GSM receives your payment within the time limit for your payment type. 

However, the company will charge you a market loss policy cancellation fee if you don't release the funds by that time. From what I've experienced, here are the time limits for making payments based on the different ways Golden State Mint accepts payments:

• Bank wires should be made within thirty-six (36) hours of placing the order.
• Checks sent by mail must be received within ten (10) days after placing the order.

In terms of pricing, GSM accepts the following payment options based on the order value: 

• Sending Checks (all orders)
• Debit cards from Visa, Mastercard, or Discover (only for sales under $10,000)
• PayPal (only for sales less than $5,000)
• Bank Wires (only for sales of $1,000 or more)

Once you've paid for your order, you'll have to choose a delivery method to get your valuable metals to the address you provided. GSM sends out orders by UPS, USPS, or FedEx, and they take between one and ten working days to arrive.

Golden State Mint Fees

When you make a purchase from Golden State Mint, you are buying directly from the mint, cutting out the middleman and saving you money. The company focuses on cost-efficiency and waste reduction by utilizing its equipment and streamlining methods.

This no-nonsense payment structure is an outstanding factor for investors wanting to secure their hard-earned money without spending much on additional costs. 

But make sure to remember that the prices of gold, silver, and other valuable metals can change frequently. I suggest you keep checking the market before preparing funds for a suitable investment option.  

Apart from this, the company charges a $20 bank fee to buyers who pay for an order by check, but their funds are not immediately available.

Coming to the delivery charges, Golden State Mint ships all domestic orders of $199 or more for free. As for orders under $199, the cost will vary based on the shipping location and the weight of the order. You can estimate this cost using the shipping cost estimation tool I mentioned earlier. 

Golden State Mint Rating on Consumer Sites

Pros & Cons

The Verdict 

Golden State Mint is undeniably a trustworthy precious metals investment partner that offers a diverse range of items to meet your rare metals and IRA investment needs. More significantly, they offer customers a secure transaction method. This means you can be certain that your assets will arrive in excellent condition.

While there are some limitations — like no precious metals in the palladium or platinum category — it is worth considering how this will affect you before choosing GSM as your investment partner. I suggest you decide based on the investment options you want from your chosen company. For further options, I invite you to explore my article on the best precious metals companies. Ultimately, I trust that this review has addressed any inquiries you may have had about Golden State Mint.

Frequently Asked Questions