You can only invest in IRAs that contain gold or precious metals subject to some restrictions Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 set these restrictions, which are governed by the IRS.
There
are four types of metals that can be used in IRAs as investments:
Gold
Silver
Platinum
Palladium
In addition, the IRS does not permit the inclusion of ingots, coins, bars, or rounds of these precious metals.
Essentially, the IRS wants to ensure people use investments
that are traded easily, so the IRS requires people to use investment-grade
products only.
This helps the IRS
ensure that the value of precious metals remains stable for a long time. The
following standards must also be met by precious metals:
Gold must be at least
99.5% pure.
Silver must be at
least 99.9% pure.
Platinum and Palladium
must be at least 99.95% pure.