The businesses that sell both coins and precious metals have largely moved online. This trend is principally due to the convenience involved. Many coin and metals dealers operated from print catalogs in the past, so the arrangement is also not particularly novel for those who have been collectors for a while. It’s fairly common to find a rare coin dealer who also sells and buys precious metals in other forms. The ways in which they’re bought and sold are quite different from one another, however.

Start by understanding the basics of the metals market. Metal that is of investment quality is very pure, usually 99.9%, also expressed as .999 fine or “three nines”. This metal is traded on a market, as is any other commodity. The precious metals market includes silver, gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium and a few others from the platinum group. This is separate from the scrap metals market, which includes copper, nickel, zinc and lead. A rare coin dealer will be a specialist in precious metals. Generally, you cannot trade copper or nickel at these dealers, unless it happens to be a very rare penny or nickel coin.

If you have bullion, you can go to a metals dealer or a rare coin dealer, in most cases. They’ll take the mass of your bullion, multiply it by the current market price and give you that amount in exchange for the metal. The bullion market is fast, convenient and straightforward, and has many desirable qualities for those who just want to invest in something simple. Coins are a bit more complex. While you can exchange bullion at both the majority of coin dealers and precious metals dealers, it’s best to only buy and sell rare coins at a store that actually sells rare coins, as well.

A rare coin dealer has a bit more complexity in their work. They sometimes trade based on the going price for bullion and the markup of a coin, but they oftentimes have to buy and sell based on a much more ethereal concept than a market price: collectability. The foundation of collectability is the availability of genuine, verified examples of the desired collectable items. For the coin dealer, this foundation is the numismatic associations that offer coin grading and certification services. This ensures a fair deal for all parties involved.

Certified coins are only one of the complexities that a rare coin dealer has to work with. There are numerous products that are somewhere in between bullion and coinage, such as ornate ingots that have commemorative designs and that come at a higher price than do the standard bullion bars. Understanding all these different pricing models is a bit more refined than what a precious metals dealer does on a daily basis. A metals dealer or a coin dealer is fine for bullion, but go to a shop that specializes in coinage if you want to find something rare and unique.