Death and Taxes

In its wisdom, the Maryland legislature has removed the sales tax exemption for coins and bullion effective July 1, 2025. Meanwhile Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia all maintain their tax exemptions.

While this new tax will have little impact for smaller transactions, the levy presents a problem for some purchases, particularly bullion, where the 6% tax may often be larger than the dealer's margin.

Fortunately there is almost nowhere in Maryland that is more than a few minutes from another state. Evidently the Maryland Legislature forgot about that.

We are establishing offices near New Church, Virginia and Selbyville, Delaware and can conduct higher value sales by appointment there.

Virginia and Delaware transactions will be through the Broken Cabinet, the partner business of the Lower Shore Coin Exchange. The Broken Cabinet is under the same ownership as LSCEX. It is based in Texas and has operated across the South for a decade.

Maryland's revenue from this misguided tax will be small, and it will cause a reduction in economic activity. Regional coin and bullion dealers are working to repeal the law, and there is cause for optimism at the next legislative session, once Annapolis realizes that the tax is unsustainable for numismatics and generates little state revenue.