Sprott Money

Toronto Bullion Dealer Founded by Eric Sprott

Sprott Money Ltd. is a privately held Ontario corporation founded in 2008 by the Canadian investor Eric Sprott. Based at Queens Quay in Toronto, the company sells investment-grade gold, silver and platinum bullion coins and bars online and by phone, operating both a Canadian (.ca) and a US (.com) site. It is a separate entity from the publicly traded Sprott Inc.; Eric Sprott founded both businesses, but the bullion dealer sits outside the listed company's corporate structure.

Storage is a core part of the offer. Sprott Money runs segregated and allocated storage programmes, with vault locations announced in Toronto and Langley, British Columbia in Canada, Wilmington, Delaware in the United States, and internationally in Switzerland, Singapore and the Cayman Islands, working with vaulting partners including Brink's. A partnership with Questrade, a broker registered with IIROC, lets Canadian clients hold physical bullion inside self-directed RRSP, TFSA and RESP registered accounts.

The company is a partner of the Royal Canadian Mint and has been a BBB Accredited Business since July 2011. Alongside dealing and storage it serves wholesale and high-net-worth clients and maintains an active educational programme through its blog and YouTube channel covering the precious metals markets. That mix of retail dealing, multi-country vaulting and registered-account access has defined the business since its first years, when its product list ran from Canadian Maple Leaf coins to 400 oz gold and 1,000 oz silver bars sold online and by telephone in US and Canadian dollars.

From Bay Street Pedigree to Global Bullion Storage

Eric Sprott built his name in Canadian finance long before turning to retail bullion. A Carleton University commerce graduate and chartered accountant, he began as a research analyst at Merrill Lynch in 1968 and founded the Toronto brokerage Sprott Securities Inc. in 1981, focused on small-cap and natural resource companies. After selling the brokerage to its employees in the early 2000s, when it became Cormark Securities, he retained the asset management arm that grew into the publicly traded Sprott Inc. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2013 for his philanthropy and has been inducted into both the Investment Industry Hall of Fame and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame; Carleton University's business faculty has carried the Sprott name since 2001.

Sprott Money Ltd. was founded in 2008 as his personal venture into physical bullion dealing; Better Business Bureau records list a business start date of February 28, 2008, and the company has described itself as "Since 2008" ever since. The young firm traded from the Royal Bank South Tower in Toronto, selling 1,000 oz silver bars, 400 oz gold bars and Canadian Maple Leaf coins online and by telephone, with basic storage available from the outset. A 2013 announcement described the company as privately held, owned and operated by Eric Sprott, a structure that keeps the bullion business distinct from the listed Sprott Inc. BBB accreditation followed in July 2011.

Storage became the company's signature expansion. In March 2013 it launched the Canadian Precious Metals Storage Program in partnership with Brink's Canada, with facilities in Toronto and in Wilmington, Delaware. A Greater Vancouver facility opened in Langley, British Columbia in November 2013. In May 2015 the International Storage Program added vaults in Switzerland and Singapore through Brinks Global Services, and in Grand Cayman through Strategic Wealth Preservation Ltd., giving clients storage options spanning North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.

The dealer also became a Royal Canadian Mint partner and struck a tie-up with the IIROC-registered broker Questrade that allows physical metal to be held inside self-directed RRSP, TFSA and RESP accounts, extending gold bullion ownership into Canadian registered savings. The company later moved its Toronto base to Queens Quay, where it remains an office-based, online and phone dealer serving both Canadian and US customers.