Monetary Gold Review

Short on time? The essentials

• Monetary Gold headquarters is at 21800 Oxnard Street, Suite 1120, Woodland Hills, CA 91367-7937. Main phone is (888) 411-4653; a secondary line is (818) 462-8050 (source: BBB profile 1216-350988 and monetarygold.com, checked July 2026).
• The president named on the BBB profile is Miro Darakjian. The registered entity is a Limited Liability Company, and the alternate legal name is Monetary Gold Inc. California Secretary of State entity number is C3773897.
• Business start date on the BBB profile is July 14, 2000, and the business was incorporated on July 14, 2014. Monetary Gold has been a BBB Accredited Business since September 29, 2014, with an A+ rating.
• The BBB customer review section shows a 4.89 out of 5 average score across 38 reviews. The complaints section shows 3 total complaints in the last 3 years and 1 complaint closed in the last 12 months (source: bbb.org/us/ca/woodland-hills/profile/precious-metal-dealers/monetary-gold-1216-350988, checked July 2026).
• The archived Monetary Gold FAQ states a minimum investment of $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the self-directed custodian chosen. Named compatible custodians are Equity Trust, Kingdom Trust, Gold Star Trust Company and Entrust.
• The captured Monetary Gold pages do not publish a specific dollar figure for the setup fee, the annual custodian fee, the annual storage fee, or a written fee schedule PDF. Delivery outside of IRA storage carries a flat $30 shipping fee via FedEx, USPS or UPS.
• IRA-designated metal is stored at Delaware Depository Service Company in Wilmington, Delaware, which Monetary Gold describes on its site as insured by Lloyd's of London.
• The product mix explicitly includes proof coins and semi-numismatic U.S. and foreign coins, in addition to government bullion. Proof coins carry a premium over their metal content, which affects long-term buyback economics.
• The captured pages do not name a Texas office, a Texas Bullion Depository partnership, or a Texas storage default. The Texas Bullion Depository routes IRA storage through Equity Trust Company. If you want Texas-vault storage, ask Monetary Gold in writing which custodian it will use.
• Site content quality is uneven. The archived FAQ still states a $5,000 annual contribution cap for savers under 70½, a figure that has been outdated for years. Treat the site as marketing, not as current tax guidance.

Who Monetary Gold is and how long it has been in business

Monetary Gold is a Los Angeles County precious metals dealer operating out of Woodland Hills, California. The BBB profile records the business start date as July 14, 2000 and the corporate incorporation as July 14, 2014, when the entity was re-registered as a Limited Liability Company. The California Secretary of State entity number on record is C3773897 (source: bbb.org profile 1216-350988, checked July 2026).

The president named on the BBB profile is Miro Darakjian. The BBB page lists Miro Darakjian as both principal contact and customer contact. A second registered domain, monetarygoldgroup.com, points to the same operation. Monetary Gold is not one of the well-known national television brands, but 25 years of continuous operation is a longer track record than many of the dealers a Texas reader will see on late-night cable.

The homepage brands the operation as "the #1 Gold IRA Company in the US," though no third-party ranking is cited to back that claim. That kind of self-referential top-billing is common in the sector. A Texas reader should not weight the "#1" tag as an external assessment; the BBB grade and the 25-year business start are the two facts that are actually verifiable.

Business hours on the BBB profile are Monday through Thursday, 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., all Pacific time. A Texas caller from San Antonio or Houston should note that the phone line closes at 2 p.m. Pacific on Fridays, which is 4 p.m. Central. Plan account conversations early in the week, not late Friday.

The proof coin and semi-numismatic focus, and why it matters

The single most distinctive fact about Monetary Gold is what it sells. The BBB products list explicitly includes gold, silver and platinum government bullion, but also Semi-Numismatic Coins and Foreign Coins. The Monetary Gold "Open an IRA" page devotes a full section to Proof Coin availability and to how proof coins differ from bullion (source: web.archive.org snapshot of monetarygold.com open-ira page, checked July 2026).

Proof coins are specially struck coins with limited mintages, and they trade at a premium over their metal content. Semi-numismatic coins are graded collector coins that also trade above spot. In an IRA context, two things matter about that mix. First, only bullion and specific proof-eligible coins qualify under the IRC Section 408(m) precious-metals exception. Second, the dealer spread on proof and semi-numismatic coins can be several times higher than on plain bullion.

The Monetary Gold open-account page states that "the IRS permits certain proof coins to be included in self-directed IRAs, provided they meet specific purity and storage requirements." That statement is defensible in the narrow case of certain U.S. Mint proof coins, such as Proof American Gold Eagles, that meet the fineness and purity conditions. It is not a green light for every proof or semi-numismatic coin on the Monetary Gold catalog.

Any Texas reader who is offered proof or semi-numismatic coins for an IRA account should insist on two written confirmations before wiring funds. Ask, in writing, which specific product qualifies under IRC 408(m) with a purity certification, and ask for the exact dealer spread over the current spot price on that specific coin. If the sales rep will not put those numbers on paper, walk away.

What Monetary Gold publishes and what it does not

The table below inventories what a plain-fetch reader can screenshot from the Monetary Gold site and its BBB profile. Corporate identity items sit on the left of the industry: things a real business should be willing to state in plain text. IRA cost items sit on the right: the numbers a saver actually pays every year.

The pattern in this inventory is more transparent than at many national dealers, but only in one direction. Monetary Gold discloses more about the corporate structure than most competitors do, including a named president, entity type, and a state entity number. Corporate identity is well documented.

The gap is the fee stack. Monetary Gold names a specific vault and specific compatible custodians, which is a real signal of legitimacy. Neither the specific setup fee nor the specific annual custodian and storage fees are on any captured page, and the dealer spread on proof and semi-numismatic coins is nowhere to be found. The full price of the product is set on the phone.

The BBB record, and what it does and does not answer

The Monetary Gold BBB profile is A+ rated and lists BBB accreditation since September 29, 2014. That is more than a decade of continuous accreditation. On the customer reviews page, Monetary Gold shows a 4.89 out of 5 average score across 38 published reviews, most of which describe positive interactions with named account executives (source: bbb.org profile 1216-350988 customer-reviews page, checked July 2026).

On the complaints page, the BBB records 3 total complaints in the last three years and 1 complaint closed in the last twelve months. For a business with 25 years of continuous operation, that complaint volume is low, but it is not zero. The BBB does not publish the substance of the resolved complaints on the summary page, so the specific dispute categories are not visible to a plain-fetch reader.

A BBB record answers one useful question and leaves several others open. It confirms that a business is registered, accessible, and responsive to disputes routed through the BBB. It does not confirm that the pricing on any specific coin is competitive, and it does not audit whether a given proof coin actually qualifies for an IRA under IRC 408(m).

The BBB grade is a floor, not a ceiling. A Texas reader should read the accreditation date, the years-in-business figure and the complaint history as one input among several. The other required inputs are the written fee schedule, the named IRS-eligible product, and the dealer spread on that specific product on that specific day.

How Monetary Gold serves Texas investors

Monetary Gold is a California operation with no Texas office. The BBB profile lists the Woodland Hills, California address as the sole headquarters. The stated service area on the BBB page is Los Angeles County, California. A Texas resident in Austin, Dallas, Houston or San Antonio is served remotely by phone at (888) 411-4653, in Pacific business hours (source: bbb.org profile 1216-350988, checked July 2026).

The captured Monetary Gold pages do not name a Texas Bullion Depository partnership. The IRA-designated metal is routed to Delaware Depository Service Company in Wilmington, Delaware, per the archived delivery-and-storage page. The Texas Bullion Depository is a state-run vault in Leander that stores IRA assets only through Equity Trust Company as the self-directed trustee (source: texasbulliondepository.gov IRA storage page, checked July 2026).

Monetary Gold does name Equity Trust as one of its compatible custodians, along with Kingdom Trust, Gold Star Trust Company and Entrust. A Texas reader who wants storage inside the Texas Bullion Depository should therefore ask Monetary Gold two written questions before signing. Which custodian will hold the account, and will the metal ship to the Texas Bullion Depository instead of the default Delaware Depository?

Texas has no state income tax on individual retirement account distributions, per Texas Comptroller guidance. That structural advantage applies to any qualifying self-directed IRA held by a Texas resident, regardless of which dealer is used to fund the account. A Texas resident who uses Monetary Gold still benefits from the same no-state-income-tax framework at distribution as any Texas retiree using a different dealer.

How to open a precious metals IRA with Monetary Gold

The archived Monetary Gold "Open an IRA Account" page describes a three-step process. The details below reflect what the captured page states as of the July 2026 snapshot, not a prediction of what will happen in your specific phone call.

1. Establish a self-directed gold IRA with a compatible custodian. Monetary Gold names Equity Trust, Kingdom Trust, Gold Star Trust Company and Entrust as compatible self-directed IRA trustees. The FAQ notes that most Monetary Gold clients pick Gold Star. The archived open-IRA page states the account is established in 48 to 72 hours (source: web.archive.org snapshot of monetarygold.com open-ira page, checked July 2026).
2. Fund the account. Fund the IRA by direct contribution, by a rollover from a 401(k) or 403(b), or by a trustee-to-trustee transfer from another Traditional, Roth or SEP IRA. The Monetary Gold FAQ states the transfer is done custodian to custodian, without any taxable event. Confirm the trustee's own fee schedule at this step.
3. Acquire IRS-eligible metals and confirm the vault. After funding, a Monetary Gold specialist submits a purchase order for gold, silver, platinum or palladium products. The archived storage page names Delaware Depository Service Company as the default vault. Get the exact product SKU, the exact spot price, and the exact dealer premium in writing before you approve the order.

None of these three steps names a specific dollar figure a customer will pay. That is normal for a phone-first precious metals dealer, but it is exactly why a written quote on Monetary Gold letterhead matters. Ask the sales rep to email a PDF that lists the coin SKU, the number of ounces, the current spot price, the dealer premium in dollars per ounce, and the total wire amount.

When Monetary Gold is not the right fit

Balanced pros and cons

Model the ten-year fee drag on your own balance

Monetary Gold does not publish the dollar figures a saver needs to model the ten-year cost of the product on the public site. That does not mean the fees are unusual; it means you have to ask for them in writing and plug them into a model yourself. The calculator below lets you test how a small change in annual fees compounds over ten and fifteen years.

Use the numbers your Monetary Gold specialist emails you for the setup fee, the annual custodian fee, and the annual storage fee. Use a realistic dealer spread for a proof or semi-numismatic coin (frequently in the 15% to 33% range over spot) if that is what you are being offered. The calculator is generic; it does not endorse or oppose any specific dealer.

By Harry's Coins Editorial. Last reviewed July 2026.