Questions, answered plainly

Private individuals, family offices, trusts, companies, precious-metals dealers and financial institutions that own or trade physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Most clients store and move investment-grade bars and coins; we also handle consignments for dealers and refiners.

Send us a message through the contact form. We will ask about what you hold or plan to buy, where it is and what you need. After our identity and compliance checks are complete, we create your account and send you a secure login to the client portal. Clients cannot self-register: every account is opened by our team.

You will be asked to replace the temporary password with your own the first time you sign in.

For individuals: proof of identity, proof of address and information about the source of the funds used to buy the metal. For companies and trusts: constitutional documents, details of directors, controllers and beneficial owners, and the same identity checks for the key individuals. We may ask for more depending on the size and nature of your holdings.

No formal minimum, but our services are designed for holdings where allocated storage and insured logistics make economic sense — typically from a few kilograms upwards. We will tell you honestly if a different solution would serve you better.

Yes. We can collect it from another vault, a dealer or a refiner, or you can deliver it to us by an approved carrier. Metal that has been outside an accredited chain of custody may need to be assayed before we can certify it.

Yes. Every holding is fully allocated: specific bars, identified by refiner and serial number, recorded in your name. We hold them as bailee — they remain your property and do not form part of our assets.

Your bars are recorded individually against your name and stored in identified positions. Where you require physical segregation in a dedicated case or compartment, we can arrange it; ask your account manager about the options and any additional fee.

Never. Our storage agreement prohibits us from lending, leasing, pledging, swapping or otherwise using client metal, and we have no right to do so.

In our London vault or one of our partner vaults in Zurich, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong or New York, as agreed with you. The vault holding each deposit is shown on your ownership certificate and in your portal.

Yes. Under the allocated storage agreement you may inspect your holding — or appoint an auditor to do so — at least once a year on reasonable notice, accompanied by our staff. Ask through the portal to arrange a visit.

Gold, silver, platinum and palladium in bars of all common formats — from Good Delivery bars to kilobars and smaller cast and minted bars — and investment coins. We record the form of each bar on your certificates.

Because your metal is allocated and held as bailee, it is not part of our estate. An administrator’s duty would be to return it to you. Your ownership certificate and bar list are the evidence of what is yours. You should take your own legal advice on insolvency risk in any custody arrangement.

Domestically and across Europe by our own armoured fleet, with two-person crews and live tracking. Internationally by air in the strong rooms of scheduled freighters and passenger aircraft, or by sea in sealed containers for very large consignments. Every movement is escorted at the hand-overs.

Our own armoured fleet for road movements, and capacity booked with established airlines and ocean carriers that offer valuable-cargo handling. The carrier for each shipment is shown on the waybill and in your portal.

Submit a request in the portal: choose shipment or withdrawal, the deposit, the quantity and the destination. Our operations desk confirms the route, timing and cost, then books the movement. The request’s status updates automatically as the shipment progresses.

Yes. Each shipment has a tracking number, and every milestone — collection, departure, arrival, customs clearance, delivery — appears in your portal as soon as our team posts it, with the location and time.

A consignment note (waybill) listing the shipper, consignee, carrier, route, seal numbers and every bar in the consignment, plus the carrier’s own air waybill, bill of lading or CMR note. A copy of our waybill is filed to your documents.

We prepare the export documentation and coordinate import clearance with our receiving partner. You may need to provide information about the purchase and the end recipient; duties and taxes at destination are your responsibility unless agreed otherwise.

We strongly prefer vault-to-vault or vault-to-bank movements. Delivery to a private address is possible in some countries by armoured vehicle, subject to a security assessment, insurance limits and your acceptance of the risk after hand-over.

Under our standard storage agreement, yes: in our vault and while in our transit, against all risks of physical loss or damage, at full replacement value under a specie policy. We issue a certificate of insurance naming you as loss payee for your bars.

Yes. If you prefer to arrange your own cover, we ask for evidence of the policy and a waiver of subrogation against us, and we adjust our fees accordingly.

Typical exclusions include war and related perils, nuclear risks and losses arising from sanctions breaches. The policy wording, which we can share on request, sets out the full terms, conditions and exclusions.

On replacement value — the cost of equivalent metal on the date of loss, using the LBMA price — up to the insured value, less any deductible.

Certificates of ownership, certificates of change of ownership, deposit receipts, assay certificates, certificates of authenticity (refinery provenance), allocated storage agreements and certificates of insurance. Each has a unique number and is filed to your portal as a PDF.

Every certificate carries a unique number — for example COO-2026-0001 for an ownership certificate. Quote it to our client services team and we will confirm whether it is valid, superseded or revoked.

When a new ownership certificate is issued for the same deposit — for example after part of it is withdrawn or after a transfer — the previous certificate is superseded. It stays in your documents, marked SUPERSEDED, so your history is complete, but it no longer evidences current title.

Yes. Documents are signed by our named signatories and, where appropriate, carry our seal with the issue date and document number in the centre. Boxes for your own signature are left blank for a wet signature.

Yes, at any time from the Documents section of your portal. Downloads use short-lived secure links, and each document shows the date it was issued.

Yes. If the recipient is or becomes a VeloShip Global client, we can transfer title while the bars stay in the vault. Both parties receive a certificate of change of ownership, your old certificate is marked superseded and the new owner receives a fresh certificate of ownership.

Yes. We open an account for them as part of the transfer, after our usual checks. They receive their own login, with the new certificate waiting in their portal.

No. We record the transfer on both parties’ instructions; the commercial terms and payment are a matter between them. We can coordinate timing so that title passes once payment is confirmed.

When we are notified, the account is frozen until the personal representatives establish their authority, usually by a grant of probate or its equivalent. We then follow their instructions to transfer, deliver or sell the metal. Keeping your next-of-kin details up to date helps.

Usually as a percentage per year of the value of the metal in custody, billed quarterly in advance, or as a fixed annual fee for smaller holdings. The rate and billing period are set out in your allocated storage agreement.

Investment gold itself is exempt from VAT in the UK, but storage and most logistics services are standard-rated. Each invoice shows the VAT rate for every line and a summary by rate.

By bank transfer to the account shown on the invoice, quoting the invoice number. Where the invoice shows a Bitcoin address, you may also pay in BTC; send us the transaction ID and invoice number through the contact form or your portal messages.

In the Billing section of your portal, with the amount paid and balance due on each invoice. Every receipt shows which invoice it settled and the remaining balance.

Your bars in the vault, total and fine weights, a live valuation in pounds, dollars and euros, the vault and status of each deposit, shipments with full tracking history, invoices and receipts, documents and certificates, your registered next of kin, your requests and a secure message thread with our team.

On fine content at the current spot price of gold, converted into pounds, dollars and euros. Prices update about every five minutes and the quote time is always shown. Valuations are indicative and are not an offer to buy.

Use the contact form (choose “Existing account or sign-in”) or message your account manager from the portal. For security, we reset passwords ourselves and issue a temporary password that you replace the first time you sign in.

Yes, in Account settings. Your preferred language is also used for documents we issue to you.

Client data is stored encrypted at rest with access limited to staff who need it. The portal uses encrypted connections, and each client can only ever see their own records. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Yes. We check the provenance of metal we accept and the identity and source of funds of every client. We may decline business that does not meet our standards and will report to the authorities where the law requires it.

Our regulatory status and registrations will be set out here and on our legal pages. Please ask client services for current details.