Arizona gold and silver money law

Arizona Revised Statutes Section 42-5061(A)(21) exempts from the retail transaction privilege tax "the sale of cash equivalents and the sale of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion to the ultimate consumer." The same paragraph defines "precious metal bullion" as precious metal, including gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and palladium, that has been smelted or refined so its value depends on its content and not its form, and defines "monetized bullion" as coins and other forms of money manufactured from gold, silver, or other metals that have been or are used as a medium of exchange in Arizona, another state, the United States, or a foreign nation. There is no purity threshold and no dollar minimum or maximum anywhere in the paragraph. The only carve-out is that the sale of coins or other forms of money for manufacture into jewelry or works of art remains taxable, which describes a use a normal bullion or coin purchase is not put to rather than a condition an ordinary purchase could fail, so this record classes Arizona as a full exemption. Section 42-5159(A)(1) separately exempts from the companion use tax any property whose sale is already covered by the retail classification exemptions in article 2 of the chapter, so the same exemption reaches use tax on out of state bullion purchases brought into the state.

Gold and silver are not recognized as legal tender in Arizona as of the verification date above.

House Bill 2014 of the 2017 Regular Session, enacted as Chapter 316, amended Arizona Revised Statutes 43-1021 and 43-1022 for individuals and 43-1121 and 43-1122 for corporations. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, it allows a subtraction from Arizona gross income for the amount of any net capital gain "derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender," and requires the corresponding net capital loss to be added back. For this purpose only, the act defines "legal tender" as a medium of exchange, including specie, authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, and defines "specie" simply as coins having precious metal content, with no requirement that the coin be separately recognized as legal tender under any other Arizona statute. Because an ordinary sale of a bullion coin for United States dollars fits that definition on both sides of the exchange, the subtraction reaches typical retail coin sales, though its text reaches coins rather than bars or ingots, since specie is defined by reference to coin form. Arizona has never enacted a broader statute declaring gold or silver legal tender outright; this capital gains treatment exists as a standalone income tax mechanism.

Arizona has no legal tender statute in force. A 2013 attempt, Senate Bill 1439, would have added a Title 1 chapter declaring gold and silver specie legal tender in the state; it passed both chambers but Governor Jan Brewer vetoed it on May 2, 2013. Two later attempts to pair legal tender status with a state bullion depository, Senate Bill 1096 in 2025 and House Bill 2123 in 2026, each cleared committee and one chamber but died before final passage, the first held in the House and the second failing on a House floor vote after reconsideration. As of this page's verification date, Arizona has never enacted a statute making gold or silver coin legal tender.

What Arizona did enact is narrower. House Bill 2014, signed in 2017, added an income tax subtraction for net capital gain realized on exchanging one kind of legal tender for another, where the act itself defines legal tender to include specie, and specie to mean simply coins having precious metal content. That definition exists only inside the income tax addition and subtraction statutes it amended. It does not, on its own text, declare that gold or silver coin is legal tender for any purpose beyond that tax subtraction, and it created no sales tax exemption and no depository. Because the definition is broad enough to cover an ordinary bullion coin sold for dollars, the practical effect for a coin investor resembles a capital gains exemption, but the mechanism is a targeted tax subtraction rather than a monetary status change, and it reaches coins rather than bars.

Arizona's sales tax exemption is older and broader than any of its legal tender bills. Arizona Revised Statutes Section 42-5061(A)(21) exempts the sale of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion to the ultimate consumer from the transaction privilege tax, with definitions covering gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and palladium bullion valued by content, and coins or other forms of money used as a medium of exchange. No purity floor and no transaction size appear anywhere in the paragraph; the only excluded use is coin or money bought for manufacture into jewelry or art, which is not an ordinary bullion purchase in the first place. A parallel use tax exemption in Section 42-5159 extends the same treatment to bullion brought into Arizona from out of state.