Buying silver in Victoria
Silver has one price in Australian dollars across Australia, and investment silver (silver of at least 99.9% fineness, in bars, wafers or bullion coins) carries no GST anywhere. What differs in Victoria is how second-hand silver buyers are licensed and how long they must hold what they buy, and the rules for fossicking.
Silver has one national spot price in Australian dollars: the prices on this page are the same as on the silver price in Australia page. What differs in Victoria is how dealers are regulated and other local rules, explained below.
Selling silver or jewellery to a dealer in Victoria
- Licence: Registration with the Business Licensing Authority (Consumer Affairs Victoria) is needed for any business that buys, sells or swaps used goods; pawnbrokers need their registration endorsed. Exempt goods include clothing, footwear, most white goods, books and salvaged building materials (jewellery and precious metals are not on the exempt list).
- Hold period: 7 days. Dealers must hold goods for at least seven days in the form received before selling or disposing of them, and sellers cannot buy goods back within that period. Police can issue a section 26 notice barring alteration or disposal for 21 days (renewable once).
- The law: Second-Hand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act 1989 (Vic); Second-Hand Dealers and Pawnbrokers (General, Exemption and Record-Keeping) Regulations 2018
Fossicking for gold in Victoria
You need a licence or permit to fossick in Victoria. AUD 28.60 for a 10-year miner's right (individuals only); under-18s accompanied by an adult with a miner's right do not need one.
Where: Crown land, your own land, and private land with the landowner's permission, subject to the fossicking rules on where you can go. Not allowed in national, state, wilderness or marine parks unless specifically authorised.
Rules: Fossicking means collecting gems or minerals with hand tools, including metal detectors and pans.
Check the state's current rules and any land-access permission before you go: national parks and many reserves are closed to fossicking. Compare states: gold fossicking rules across Australia.
Silver in Victoria: history
The Welcome Stranger, the largest alluvial gold nugget recorded (about 72 kg net), was found on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, near Dunolly, by John Deason and Richard Oates. Other big Victorian finds include the Welcome Nugget (Ballarat, 1858, about 68–69 kg) and the Hand of Faith (Kingower, 1980, 27.2 kg). Historic: the Melbourne Mint, a branch of the Royal Mint, was the first Australian mint to strike silver coins for the Commonwealth (1916) and the first to strike decimal coins (1964). It ceased to be a Royal Mint branch on 1 July 1970.
- 1851 · Victoria's gold rush: Victoria offered a reward for gold near Melbourne, and within six months finds were made at Clunes, Ballarat, Castlemaine and Bendigo. In the 1850s Victoria produced more than a third of the world's gold.
- 1854 · Eureka Stockade: Gold miners rebelled against the authorities at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria.
- 1871 · A nation transformed by gold: Between 1851 and 1871 Australia's population grew from about 430,000 to 1.7 million. About 20,000 Chinese miners were on the Victorian diggings by 1855.
More: history of gold in Australia.
GST and tax on silver in Australia
For GST, 'precious metal' means gold of at least 99.5% fineness, silver of at least 99.9% or platinum of at least 99%, in investment form (bars, wafers or bullion coins with a recognised fineness mark, traded at prices linked to spot). Other supplies of precious metal are input taxed (s 40-100), so no GST is charged on resale of investment bullion. Jewellery, numismatic and proof coins, and unmarked granules are not 'precious metal' in investment form, so normal GST rules apply.
Collectables such as jewellery and coins or medallions are subject to CGT unless bought for AUD 500 or less; capital losses on collectables can only be offset against capital gains on collectables. Individuals who hold an asset for at least 12 months can generally reduce the capital gain by 50%.
AUSTRAC rules for silver dealers
From 1 July 2026, dealers who buy or sell precious metals, stones or products for AUD 10,000 or more in physical currency or virtual assets (including linked transactions that add up to AUD 10,000) are regulated under the AML/CTF Act reforms. Dealers that will accept or pay AUD 10,000 or more in cash or virtual assets had to enrol with AUSTRAC by 1 July 2026 and need an AML/CTF programme; a streamlined customer due diligence process is available for low or medium risk individuals paying cash. Dealers can stay outside regulation by not accepting cash or virtual assets at all, or by accepting them only below AUD 10,000 per transaction and watching for linked transactions.
Tax and duty information last reviewed October 2026. Rules change — confirm with your dealer or tax authority before a large purchase.