A man in Ohio bought a gold bar off the internet for his IRA.
It was gold. Real gold. Stamped, shiny, heavier than it looked. He sent photos to his brother-in-law, who was appropriately impressed.
His custodian rejected it.
Not because it was fake. Because nobody could prove who made it.
That is the whole story of IRA eligible gold bars in one sentence. The metal is almost never the problem. The paperwork behind the metal is.
Most people assume the rule is about purity. Hit the purity number, you are in. That is half right, and the missing half is the expensive part.
Let us walk the actual rules, then the actual bars, then the traps that cost people real money.