Precious Metals & Coins Merchant Account

Operational Overview

Precious metals and coin dealers process transactions in an asset whose price moves daily, creating a real credit-risk window between card authorization and physical delivery — a buyer who locks in a price today but doesn't receive coins or bullion for one to several weeks has every incentive to dispute the charge if spot prices drop in the meantime. Average ticket sizes in this category run far above typical retail, which alone triggers fraud-scoring alerts at standard banks regardless of legitimacy. There's a real compliance layer too: under the Bank Secrecy Act, dealers who buy and sell more than the regulatory threshold in covered precious metals, stones, or jewels in a year are required to register as a BSA-regulated 'dealer in precious metals' and maintain a written AML program, which most mainstream acquirers have no process to evaluate. Dealers who sell on a leveraged or margin basis without arranging actual delivery within the short window the Commodity Exchange Act requires can also find their sales treated as a regulated commodity contract subject to CFTC oversight, a structure most payment processors want no part of. Layer in genuine counterfeit exposure — tungsten-filled fake bars and clad coins are a documented problem in the industry — and it's clear why this category needs acquirers who evaluate the business rather than decline it on ticket size alone. Gray Merchants is a payment ISO providing merchant services to precious metals and coin dealers, with banking relationships built around high-ticket authorization and extended delivery timelines.

Underwritten Features & Solutions