Yep, my dealer likes to get cash for metal. no paper trails for me. Honestly though, physical gold and silver are treated as a collectible by the IRS for tax purposes, the tax on the capital gains from a collectible is double the normal rate for things like equities (Stocks). Unless of course you are collecting sovereigns. Sovereigns are actual Money, because they have a value printed on them. Examples of sovereigns are US Eagles, Canadian Maples, Australian Kookaburras, Austrian Philharmonics and even Chinese Pandas. Another form of sovereign money is the pre 1965 silver coins (aka Junk silver) used by the US and the pre 1967 coins used by Canada that were 90% and 80% silver respectively in denominations of Dime, Quarter, Half Dollar and Dollar coins. Mexico had silver circulation coins in the 40's and 50's and before. The thing with sovereigns, and why you want them, is that since they are money and by law money itself cannot be taxed there is no capital gains tax to pay nor a collectibles tax, in fact there isn't a tax to pay at all on these when you sell them. Big premium though, you won't be able to get Most of the official .9999 pure sovereigns for anywhere close to spot price, sometimes there can be a 15% premium on them. Shop around, US silver eagles usually have the biggest premium, but command the top resell price and are the most trusted form of silver on the market.
Some of the coins are so damned good looking that you end up just collecting them for their artistic value. The Chinese Pandas and the Australian Kookaburras are top quality and fascinating to look at all the detail. What is really nice about them is that the design is different every year, so it gives you something to look forward to. China has Suspended exports of the Panda, so they have the biggest premiums right now, I bought several hundred at the beginning of the year from the first shipment before the suspension of exports, so that was a bonus. I will hold them for a long time, perhaps the collector value will go up too, you never know.