Silver Trader

Silver Trader: silver bullion bars and coins sold online from Newcastle upon Tyne

Silver Trader is an online retailer of silver bullion bars and coins that began trading in April 2014 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The business started as a sole-trader venture aimed at coin investors looking for fairly priced numismatics and silver proof coins, and later expanded into bullion bars and coins. Its founder, Martin Whitehouse, originally from Birmingham, spent more than twenty years working abroad, mainly in Germany and Australia, in warehousing and distribution management and in market research before settling in the north east of England.

The shop operates exclusively through its own website, silvertrader.uk, after earlier stages selling bullion, collectables and numismatics through other online marketplaces. The company states that it has moved its full operation to that single platform.

Product range: coins, bars and themed issues

The catalogue is organised around two main lines, bars and coins, with additional groupings by country of issue. The coin section is divided into African, American, Asian, Australian, British, Canadian, European and New Zealand bullion coins, alongside a dedicated category for Albion silver bars. A new arrivals section highlights recent releases, and a featured products block gathers selected items.

Among the pieces listed at the time of writing were the 2027 Lunar Year of the Goat 1oz silver bullion proof and its dark gilded version, the 2027 Australian Year of the Goat in 2oz, 1oz and half-ounce formats, the 2026 Australian Mob of Six Kangaroo 1oz coin, the 2027 African Lunar Goat 1oz Rwanda coin, the 2026 Australian Brumby Horse 1oz coin, the 2026 Bhutan Lunar Horse 1oz coin, the 2026 Dragon Horse Opalite Myths Legends 1oz coin, the 2025 Siren Mythical Creatures 1oz coin and the 2026 Durga Hindu Goddess in both high relief and dark gilded proof versions. Featured items also included the 2025 Chameleon Herpeton Ultra High Relief 1oz silver bullion proof and the 2026 Australian Coloured 2oz Year of the Horse coin.

A separate offers section grouped discounted coins, such as the 2024 Australian Quokka, the 2024 Planet Terra Tokelau prooflike coin, the 2024 Vivat Humanitas Niue proof, the 2024 Johannes Gutenberg Icons of Inspiration coin, the 2024 Australian Wombat and the 2024 Giraffe Australia Zoo coin. The site also listed second-grade silver bullion coins with slight scratches or milk marks, marked as out of stock at the time of writing.

Buy-back service and pricing references

Beyond selling, Silver Trader operates a buy-back scheme: it states that it pays 100% of the spot price on all products it originally supplied. The website publishes live silver price references in pounds sterling, showing a per-gram and per-ounce figure with a timestamp, and maintains a silver chart section.

Prices in the catalogue are shown in pounds and several items appear with a reduced current price against an original price. These are catalogue figures that change with the market and with stock.

Delivery, packaging and payment

Orders are shipped fully insured by Royal Mail, with cover maintained until the parcel is signed for at the delivery address. Coins are sent either in their original mint tubes or in protective coin capsules, while bars are supplied in resealable bags unless bought together with a presentation capsule. The company describes its packaging as designed both to protect the item and to present it well.

Two payment methods are offered, PayPal and bank transfer, and both are completed offsite against an invoice. The company states that it does not hold customers' financial information on the website, which is secured with a 256-bit Comodo SSL certificate.

Identity checks under money laundering rules

Silver Trader explains that it is governed by regulations for retail clients. Under the Money Laundering Regulations, orders above £5,000, or a total spend above £10,000 in one year, require a certified copy of photographic ID and a recent utility bill, kept on file for six years. The company states that this information is not passed on except in connection with those regulations.

Items awaiting stock

A soon-to-arrive section listed several products with estimated arrival times of eight to ten days, including the 2026 South African Buffalo Big 5 Series 3 1oz coin, the 2026 Panther Tudor Beasts 2oz and 10oz coins, the 2026 Plateosaurus Prehistoric Life Congo 1oz coin and the 2026 Durga Holi Festival of Colours 1oz proof. The site also carries a blog, whose latest entry covered new silver bullion coin releases for 2026.

Background of the founder

The about section traces the business to the founder's long-standing hobby of collecting numismatics and pre-decimal silver coins. It describes a dispute pursued from April 2013 over import VAT charged on silver coins entering the UK, which after eighteen months ended with the parliamentary Ombudsman finding the UK Border Force guilty of maladministration on all counts for overcharging VAT on imported parcels. The company says it has continued to challenge what it considers unfair trading practices. It also mentions the production of a 100-gram silver bar capsule as one of its completed projects.