Scottsdale Mint: Private Maker of Silver and Gold Bullion
Scottsdale Mint is a private mint from the United States. Josh Phair founded it in 2008; it is still privately owned and makes bars, coins and rounds, mainly in silver but also in gold. Despite its name, production is no longer in Scottsdale, Arizona, but in Casper, Wyoming.
Who is behind Scottsdale Mint?
Its founder, owner and CEO is Josh Phair. According to the company, before founding it in 2008 he was a vice president at the insurance broker now known as Willis Towers Watson, where he worked with mining companies. Scottsdale Mint started as a retailer and grew into a manufacturer of its own precious metals products.
Phair is also co-founder and CEO of The Wyoming Reserve, a precious metals storage business in Wyoming.
Where is it produced?
The name comes from the city of Scottsdale in Arizona. In 2022 the company opened an expanded facility in Casper, Wyoming, of about 70,000 square feet (around 6,500 m²). It houses management, sales and production: melting and casting, surface finishing, die making, coining, vaulting and packaging.
According to the company, the plant is located within a Foreign Trade Zone, an area where goods can be stored and processed under special customs rules. There is no shop on site; orders are shipped only.
What does Scottsdale Mint make?
Scottsdale Mint is best known for silver bars and silver coins in many sizes and with unusual designs. The dealer StoneX Bullion names the Biblical Coin Series, the Silverback Gorilla and the Fiji Iguanas as examples. There are also classic cast and minted bars and rounds without a face value.
Contract minting is part of the business. The company says it mints official coins and legal tender for more than 20 countries, including for the central banks of the Cayman Islands, the Eastern Caribbean, Fiji and Samoa. Its products are sold in more than 40 countries.
According to the company, part of its silver and gold is recycled, for example from photography and industry, and refined to a purity of at least 999 under the US ASTM standard.
What does this mean for investors?
Scottsdale Mint is a private mint. Unlike government mints such as the US Mint or the Royal Canadian Mint, no state guarantees weight and fineness; the company itself does. Scottsdale Mint is not on the LBMA’s current Good Delivery lists for gold or silver, so its bars are not accepted in the London wholesale market. For private investors this rarely matters, but it can affect the price when selling back to a dealer.
Scottsdale products are widespread in the US and less well known in Germany. Coins with elaborate designs often carry a higher premium over the metal value than plain bars. If you mainly want exposure to the metal price, common bars and bullion coins are usually cheaper. In Germany, VAT is normally charged on silver purchases.
