Little Treasures is an online precious metals account that you can open with The Royal Mint. It allows you to purchase and hold DigiGold by making regular payments by standing order or one-off deposits into your online precious metals account. The money that you pay in to your account is used to purchase physical gold on your behalf.

The idea behind Little Treasures is to allow you to keep saving gold until you are ready to gift it to your loved one. This could be at their 18^th or 21^st birthday, when they look to buy their first home, or whenever you feel they are ready to claim their nest egg. At that point, you can choose to sell your gold back to us for cash, redeem your digital gold for physical gold coins or bars (by selling your gold back to us and using the money in your account to purchase physical products) or transfer the holdings to another account (should your loved one choose to open their own digital gold savings account at age 18 or over).

Please note, it is entirely at your discretion as to whether you wish to gift the proceeds from your Little Treasures account to any third party, including a child or grandchild.

DigiGold is a simple and cost-effective way to own physical gold, silver and platinum in quantities to suit all budgets, allowing you to purchase and own a fractional amount of large gold, silver and platinum bars that are held securely in The Vault™.

These large bars allow us to offer economies of scale and pass on the savings to customers. Unlike buying coins or bars, it enables you to purchase gold, silver and platinum-based on value rather than weight e.g. £25 instead of a 1 oz. coin or bar, providing you with control and flexibility. Please note that DigiGold products cannot be delivered.

No. The person who opens the account has full legal ownership of the holdings within it. It is at the discretion of the Little Treasures account owner to gift the proceeds to the child, if and when they choose to do so.

The minimum purchase is £25 (DigiGold) and there is no limit to the maximum amount of gold which can be held or invested with The Royal Mint. However, please be aware that there are limits on the amount of money which can be contributed to and held within a pension. We recommend you speak to your advisor or SIPP provider for further clarification. 

There are three charges associated with buying DigiGold via Little Treasures. There is a charge applied to each purchase, a charge applied for the monthly storage of the gold, and a charge at the point that you decide to redeem your holding and sell your gold back to us. With Little Treasures there are no hidden fees. We are completely transparent about all of our fees, and these can be found in the management fees section.

No, it isn’t. The FSCS protects individuals’ savings up to £85,000 in the event that an authorised financial firm fails. As The Royal Mint is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, the DigiGold product and the Little Treasures account is not subject to this protection. Click here to find out more about FSCS.

Opening an account online only takes a few minutes. Once your application has been approved you can start adding funds or set up a standing order.  Click Here for a step by step guide on opening an account.

Your pension scheme has direct, full legal ownership of the individual gold bars, or gold ounces (in the case of DigiGold). The Royal Mint is simply a custodian, and we don’t have any direct claim on the gold you purchase. 

The Royal Mint has a history spanning more than 1,100 years and can trace its origins back to the mints established during the reign of Alfred the Great. For centuries, many of Britain’s coins were made on Mint Street within the Tower of London. During this time, the scientist Sir Isaac Newton held the position of Warden of the Mint before becoming Master of the Mint and applied his scientific precision to improve coin design and security.

Today, The Royal Mint is the home of UK coinage and the primary producer of gold, silver and platinum bullion bars and coins in the United Kingdom. We have a comprehensive digital precious metals offering, which is backed by physical bullion bars stored in our highly secure, on-site Vault®.

As you’re purchasing fractional portions of larger bars, your precious metal cannot be delivered.

Your Little Treasures account gives you full control of your assets. You can sell your gold back to us at any time, 365 days a year. Please note, it sometimes takes a couple of days for the money in your precious metals account to transfer into your bank account.

No. You can sell your gold back to us at any point in time.

We currently only support one Little Treasures account per customer. You can, of course, choose to make multiple payments into your Little Treasures account then divide the contents when you choose to gift the proceeds.

No. Gold is a commodity and its price is influenced by supply and demand. Gold has traditionally performed well over the long-term and has increased in value every year for the last 5 years, but this is not an indication of future performance. If the price of gold falls, then the value of your holding will also decrease. This could mean that the value of your gold holding could fall below the value of the money you have invested.

The value of gold goes up and down according to market conditions. Investing in gold involves a degree of risk which may make it unsuitable for certain people. Before making any investment decision, you may wish to seek advice from your financial, legal, tax and accounting advisers. If the price of gold falls, then the value of your holding will also decrease. This could mean that the value of your gold holding could fall below the value of the money you have invested.

You should carefully consider the risks associated with investing in gold taking into account your own individual financial needs and circumstances.

The physical gold bars that back the gold within your Little Treasures account are stored onsite at The Royal Mint’s vault; one of the most secure sites in the UK. 

No. DigiGold is an unregulated product. The Royal Mint is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide investment advice and nothing on this website should be construed as investment advice. Click here to find out more about FSCS.

Yes, statements will be provided on a quarterly basis. You will be able to download these from your account area.

Little Treasures accounts are designed especially for people who want to invest for a child’s future.  However, the DigiGold purchased and held in the account is legally and beneficially held by you and you are free to trade or save the gold for yourself.

Investing in gold is an age-old practice. Consider this: if you’d invested £25 a month in gold over 18 years between 2002 and 2020, you would have £13,393. Compare that with putting the same amount into a 2% cash ISA – £6,493 – or simply setting it aside with no interest at all – £5,400*.  Please note that the past performance of gold is not indicative of future performance.

*Calculated using the last business day of 2019 and the first calendar day of 2020. Based on interest on the cash ISA being paid yearly in month 12, and that money is saved or invested on the first business day of the month. These figures are exclusive of additional precious metal purchase & storage fees.

As the account holder and owner, you are in complete control of the gold that you accumulate in your account. It is up to you to decide if and when you would like to gift that gold to your loved one.

Your can do this by selling your gold back to us for cash or, alternatively, when they are aged 18 or above, your loved one may choose to open a DigiGold account for themselves. In this instance, you can transfer the total funds to their account, subject to them satisfying our customer on-boarding process.

No. As the account holder, the gold that you accumulate is legally and beneficially owned by you. 

In the case of bereavement, the gold in the account would be treated as another asset in your estate.  We recommend that you include your Little Treasures holdings within your last will and testament.

The purchase of DigiGold is exempt from VAT in the UK for non-VAT registered private individuals, although the storage of it, within our Vault®, is subject to VAT. If you are unsure about implications in relation to inheritance tax or capital gains tax, or if you are an international customer, please speak to your financial adviser about your specific tax regulations.

Yes, it does. If you are looking for CGT exemption, then all UK legal tender bullion coins from The Royal Mint can offer this benefit. If you are unsure about implications in relation to inheritance tax or capital gains tax, please speak to your financial adviser.

Anyone who wishes to accumulate gold can open a Little Treasures account.

They can’t make any direct claim to the gold. The account owner has full legal and beneficial entitlement of their gold. The Royal Mint will not oversee the gifting of the Little Treasures account contents to a child. This is up to the account owner to do so, if and when they see fit.

We have a great, interactive section of our website that is full of information and interactive content for children. We have lots of activities around money management and budgeting. You can access these resources here.

Simply log in to your precious metals account and click the Little Treasures tab. There you will be able to see the value of your holdings at any point in time.

In a nutshell, DigiGold has been designed for individuals who wish to trade or accumulate gold for themselves, whereas Little Treasures is designed for those who want to create a separate ‘pot’ for a loved one. Both products are based on the purchase of DigiGold; which allows customers to buy portions of physical gold bars via an online account.

With Little Treasures, customers can set up recurring monthly standing order payments which allows them to automatically save gold on a regular basis. This recurring payment functionality is not currently available via the standalone DigiGold product.

Yes. We anticipate that lots of customers will choose to make use of DigiGold for themselves and also set up a Little Treasures ‘pot’ for a loved one.

In accordance with our anti-money laundering policy, The Royal Mint only permits one customer to pay into a given precious metals account.

When you purchase DigiGold via Little Treasures, you own it and have legal title to it, with The Royal Mint acting as a custodian.  This means that we don’t have any direct claim on the gold you have purchased. There are no counterparty rights or claims on the gold. The gold purchased is not recorded on The Royal Mint Limited’s balance sheet. In the event of a bankruptcy or nationalisation or The Royal Mint Limited otherwise ceasing to exist, there is no risk of financial loss, thus providing an ongoing reliable store of wealth and value.