Purchasing physical precious metal, random design

Investment Questions and Chats General Investment
#1

Assalamu aleykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh,

Certain precious metal dealers such as SD Bullion have deals where we can buy some coins or bars but with a random design and/or different preservation conditions.
Ex: https://sdbullion.com/random-1-oz-silver-coins
In this case, it is 1oz coins of silver: the metal is known,the weight also is known. But the design of the coin( American silver eagle, Canadian maple leaf, Australian Kangooroo etc) is unknown as well as the state of the product( brilliant uncirculated, circullated, ternished, cull etc).

The price of the once of metal is fixed, but usually the premium added on it would vary depending on the design and the preservation state of the coin. So with this deal, sometime we can get « lucky » and have uncirculated coins in good state, that would have been more expensive than the price we paid with the deal. And some other time we can get ternished coins which value would then be less than what we paid with the deal.

In some other deals, the metal is known (ex:silver), the weight (ex:1oz) as well as the design( ex: canadian maple leaf). But the year of issuing is random and the preservation state also. And older years have usally a higher value.

Questions:

  1. Is it permissible to buy those deals as the metal and the amount of it is the same and the price for the oz is fixed? Or is it haram like gambling as the state and the design influence the final persived value of the product (so the reselling price) and those factors are random?

  2. And in the case it is haram, what should a person who purched coins with such deals do? Would Tauwba be « enough » or should they do something about coins they’ve got?

  3. Is it riba to buy a coin of high value( by the design, state, collectible value) and exchange it for 2 other coins of the same metal but which persive values are less. Ex: Exchanging a 1oz silver collectible coin, valued at 100$ for 2 1oz silver bullion coins valued each at 50$ ?

Brakallahu fikum

#2

Assalamu wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh,

Is it permissible to purchase coins and bars with figurative pictures on them for investment purpose or collection? The majority of coins have usually the Queen profile on one face, and often the othe face would have either a person, or an animal picture.

Is it permissible to buy coins on which an idole is drawn ex: Thor, Venus etc or the allegories for certain countries ex: Brittania for Great Britain https://sdbullion.com/2021-1-oz-silver-britannia-coin-bu

And what about fantastic creatures like dragons? Or lunar calendar animals?

Barakallahu fikum

#3

@Mufti_Billal @Mufti_Faraz_Adam

#4

Wasalam

May Allah bless you.

The fact that you don’t know what designs you will get may or may not affect the transaction. Are these collectible coins?

#5

May Allah bless you also.Amin

No they are not collectible coins. They are normal investing coins but from different mints. Normally, aside from those types of deals, the prices may vary depending of coins. Because some are more in demand than others (like the American silver eagles and the Canadian Maple leaves are more in demand in North America so they are usually more expensive)

#6

  1. I think the random selection makes it impermissible to engage in this sort of transaction.

  2. . If you can return the coins then its better to do so. If not then, keep the coins. Keep the profit and do tawbah.

  3. I personally believe that the extra value is acceptable if its customary practise to pay extra based on the designs.

  4. It is permissible to buy coins with pictures on them. For example, Muslims used similar coins from Persia for a long time until they started to mint their own coins.

And Allah knows best!

1 Like
#7

Jazakallahu Khayr for your answer!