You can buy actual coins with IRA retirement funds, but relatively few trustees offer this service.
Washington Gold Exchange has done substantial business with Equity Trust and Goldstar Trust. These trustees have plans where you own physical metals with storage of the metal at Delaware Depository. But because of their streamlined process and excellent track record, we primarily recommend New Direction IRA, Inc. in Colorado.
If you already have an IRA with a trustee that does NOT offer physical precious metals, the first step is to open a new account with New Direction IRA. You can then send new funds into the account and order precious metals with these funds with Craig Rhyne as Broker of Record. Or, you can sell current holdings in your old IRA to get cash transferred into the New Direction IRA account. This would be done within a month to ensure no taxable event.
Once the funds are in the New Direction IRA, we would buy gold and/or silver with those funds, and the metals would be stored at International Depository Services of Delaware (Newcastle).
Click on this link to get more information or an application from New Direction IRA, Inc. They will answer your questions. Or call Craig Rhyne at (206) 719-6368 or email: craig@washingtongoldexchange.com