Missouri gold and silver money law

Missouri exempts purchases of bullion and investment coins from state and local sales and use tax under Section 144.815. The statute defines two separate categories. "Bullion" is gold, silver, platinum, or palladium in a bulk state, valued by its content rather than its form, with a purity of not less than nine hundred parts per one thousand, a 90 percent floor. "Investment coins" are numismatic coins or other forms of money and legal tender made of those metals with a fair market value greater than their face value, and that category carries no purity floor at all. In practice almost every coin bought as bullion clears the investment coin definition regardless of purity, so the 90 percent floor mainly matters for bulk bars, rounds, or scrap sold by weight rather than as coin. Because that floor is a real, numeric condition written into the statute, and not merely a hypothetical one, this record classes Missouri as a partial exemption even though the floor is low enough that genuine investment grade bullion, which typically runs 99.9 percent or higher, will not fail it. There is no dollar transaction minimum in the statute.

Purity condition. 900 parts per 1,000 (90 percent) for the bulk "bullion" category; no purity floor for the "investment coins" category

Gold and silver are recognized as legal tender in Missouri and that recognition is in force.

Mo. Rev. Stat. Section 408.010, the "Constitutional Money Act", as rewritten by House Bill 754 (2025), effective August 28, 2025

Missouri exempts capital gains from state income tax through two separate 2025 enactments now codified as subdivisions (14) and (15) of RSMo 143.121.3. House Bill 594 added subdivision (14), which lets an individual subtract 100 percent of all income reported as a federal capital gain for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, with a parallel but not yet operative corporate subtraction. House Bill 754, the same bill that rewrote the legal tender statute, separately added subdivision (15), which for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2026 lets a taxpayer subtract the portion of capital gain from the sale or exchange of "specie", the investment grade bullion defined in Section 408.010, that is included in federal adjusted gross income. The Department of Revenue's own FAQ on the specie subtraction states plainly that individual filers do not need it separately because the broader subdivision (14) subtraction already covers their bullion gains, and that subdivision (15) instead matters for corporate income tax, fiduciary income tax, and pass-through entity tax filers, none of whom qualify for the individual subtraction.

Missouri has recognized some form of precious metal legal tender since 1939, when Section 408.010 declared "the silver coins of the United States" legal tender at their federal par value. That single sentence sat largely unused for most of a century. In 2025 the legislature rewrote it completely. Senator Mike Moon's "Constitutional Money Act" language was added to House Bill 754, an otherwise unrelated banking bill, and the enrolled text shows the old 1939 sentence struck through and replaced with a much larger framework covering "specie," "electronic specie currency," and "bullion." Governor Mike Kehoe signed the bill on July 10, 2025, and it took effect August 28, 2025.

As rewritten, Section 408.010 requires that electronic specie currency be accepted as legal tender for public debts contracted after the effective date, and it allows both physical specie legal tender and electronic specie currency to be accepted for private debts, but only at the discretion of whoever is receiving payment. No person or entity is required to use specie in place of federal reserve notes, and the state is barred from seizing lawfully held specie or from enforcing a federal order restricting its use. An employer may pay wages in the dollar equivalent of specie if an employee requests it, provided the employer verifies the weight and purity of any physical specie handed over. None of this created a state depository or storage program; the statute is about how debts and wages may be paid, not about where metal is kept.

The same 2025 wave changed how Missouri taxes bullion. Section 144.815 already exempted "bullion" and "investment coins" from state and local sales tax, and had for a quarter century. The revisor's history line for the section reads "(L. 2000 S.B. 896, A.L. 2001 H.B. 825)", and its table of versions shows a first version effective August 28, 2000 and the current version, produced by the 2001 amendment, effective August 28, 2001. The exemption therefore dates to 2000, and only its present wording dates to 2001. Bullion is defined by a 90 percent purity floor on bulk gold, silver, platinum, or palladium; investment coins are defined only by trading above face value, with no purity requirement. Because almost every coin bought as an investment clears the second definition regardless of its purity, the 90 percent floor mainly constrains bulk bars or scrap sold by weight, and genuine bullion products, which typically run 99.9 percent purity or higher, clear it easily. The statute has no dollar minimum. Because a numeric purity condition still exists in the text, this record treats Missouri as a partial rather than a full exemption on sales tax.

On income tax, Missouri went further than most states in the same legislative session. House Bill 594 let individual taxpayers subtract 100 percent of any federally reported capital gain, precious metals included, starting with the 2025 tax year, making Missouri the first state with an income tax to fully exempt individual capital gains. House Bill 754, the same bill that rewrote the legal tender statute, separately added a narrower subtraction starting with the 2026 tax year for capital gains specifically on the sale of "specie" as defined in 408.010. The Department of Revenue's own guidance on that narrower subtraction states that individual filers do not need to use it, since the broader 2025 provision already covers their bullion gains, and that it instead applies to corporate income tax, fiduciary income tax, and pass-through entity tax filers who fall outside the individual subtraction.