Selling Gold in Australia
No compulsory hallmarks, licensed second-hand dealers, GST rules that split bullion from jewellery, and one national mint that buys back its own products — selling gold in Australia has its own map. Here is the whole of it.
Testing is the Australian purity culture
Unlike Britain, Australia never adopted compulsory hallmarking — a 9ct or 750 stamp on Australian-bought jewellery is the maker's claim, not an assay office's verdict. The practical consequence runs through every sale: serious buyers test everything, and sellers should welcome it. The test protects the honest piece as much as it exposes the dishonest stamp. Expect electronic or X-ray testing done in front of you, and treat a buyer who tests openly — readout visible — as signalling honesty about the whole transaction.
The venues, and what each is for
Capital-city gold buyers and refiner-linked counters run the sharpest scrap offers; pawnbrokers — licensed second-hand dealers with state-regulated ID and holding requirements — offer speed and negotiability; coin dealers are the right counter for sovereigns, pre-decimal coins and anything collectable; and Perth Mint's buyback covers its own bars and coins at bullion-lane rates. The channel choice follows the piece: scrap to the scrap specialists, bullion to the bullion lane, collectable to the collectors. Whatever the venue, arrive with melt value already computed on the calculator — the preparation that measurably moves offers.
GST and CGT: where the tax lines run
Two separate systems touch Australian gold. GST splits at the bullion line: investment-grade precious metal — 99.5%+ gold in investment form — trades GST-free, while jewellery attracts GST when bought; selling your own pieces as a private individual is not a GST event either way. Capital gains tax is the second system: gains on investment gold are assessable like other investments, while personal-use items have their own thresholds and rules. Both regimes are long-standing but not frozen — confirm current ATO guidance before selling a large holding, and treat this as orientation rather than advice.
The counter, Australian edition
Bring photo ID — second-hand dealer laws require it in every state, and some impose holding periods before purchased items can be melted or resold. What to require back: weighing in grams on a visible scale, carat groups priced separately, traditional 22ct pieces weighed net of stones and cores, and an itemised offer you can divide by your melt figure. The universal red flags — whole-bag offers, now-or-never prices, percentages with no base — cross oceans unchanged; the field guide applies here in full.
What should never reach the scrap scale
Perth Mint bars and coins, sovereigns from the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth branch mints, and anything with collector interest all carry markets above melt. Australia's sovereign heritage is easy to overlook in an inherited box — the Sovereign value page prices the standard piece live, and a coin dealer's opinion costs nothing before a melt decision that cannot be reversed.
Questions people ask in Australia
- Do I pay tax when I sell gold in Australia?
- Selling is not a GST event for private individuals. Capital gains tax can apply — clearly to investment bullion gains, with separate personal-use thresholds for jewellery — so the honest answer depends on what you sold and what it gained. Check current ATO guidance for anything substantial.
- Where is the best place to sell gold near me in Australia?
- The method beats the venue: compute melt value first, phone two or three buyers for per-gram quotes at a stated carat, and sell to the best percentage of melt. That procedure finds the best counter in any Australian city better than any list of names could.
- Can I sell gold jewellery that has no stamp at all?
- Yes — Australian buyers test rather than trust stamps anyway. Unmarked pieces simply start from a conservative estimate until the test speaks; the metal's value is untouched by the missing mark.
- Does Perth Mint buy gold from the public?
- Its buyback covers Perth Mint products — bars and coins it issued — which is exactly why those belong in the bullion lane rather than the scrap pile. Ordinary jewellery and scrap go to gold buyers and refiners instead.