Gold, Coins, and Crypto: What Counts for Florida Medicaid, and How to Prove It

Gus's situation: a lifetime of coins and a bitcoin account he barely understands

Gus is 80 and lives in Sebastian. He is a composite picture I am using to walk through a real and increasingly common problem, not an actual client. Gus has collected coins since he was a young man, he keeps a modest stash of gold coins in a safe deposit box, and back in 2021 his grandson set up a cryptocurrency account and moved some of Gus's savings into bitcoin on his behalf. Gus could not tell you today exactly what that account is worth, and he has never thought of his coin collection as anything other than a hobby.

When Gus's family started looking at long-term care and a possible Medicaid application, this is exactly the kind of asset that gets overlooked, not because anyone is trying to hide anything, but because it does not look like a bank account or a brokerage statement. It is still an asset, and the Department of Children and Families, which administers Florida's Medicaid application through its ACCESS system, will ask about it directly.

What actually counts as a personal effect, and what does not

Florida Medicaid rules exempt a category of ordinary personal property: household goods, clothing, a wedding ring, and similar items needed for daily living. The state generally presumes these items are worth a modest total amount unless there is evidence suggesting otherwise. Items with sentimental but little resale value, like family photographs or personal letters, are not counted at all.

A coin collection built for its market worth, or gold coins purchased and held because they hold value, sits in a different category. These are treated as assets acquired for their investment, collectible, or historical value, separate from the everyday personal-effects exemption. The same logic applies to other collectibles: fine art, rare stamps, vintage watches, or anything a person has accumulated because it is worth something, not just because it is useful around the house.

• Likely exempt: everyday furniture, clothing, a wedding band, family photos
• Likely countable: a coin collection assembled for value, bullion or gold coins, fine art, cryptocurrency

For Gus, that means his coin collection and gold coins need to be looked at honestly, not folded into the household goods line as an afterthought.

A note on Florida's new legal tender law for gold and silver coins

Florida has recently recognized certain gold and silver coins meeting specific statutory requirements as legal tender for debts incurred on or after July 1, 2026. Florida law also draws a distinction for probate and estate purposes: a qualifying legal tender coin is treated differently than a coin held purely for its collectible, historical, or investment value, which remains classified as tangible personal property.

Cryptocurrency: why it counts, and the records DCF will want

Gus's grandson meant well, and bitcoin held in an exchange account is not materially different, for Medicaid purposes, than money sitting in a savings account. It is a resource with a determinable value, it belongs to Gus, and it counts toward Florida's asset limit for long-term care Medicaid just like a bank balance does.

What DCF will typically expect to see:

• A current statement from the exchange or wallet showing the balance and value as of a specific date, usually tied to the application date and again at each redetermination
• Documentation of who owns the account and how it was funded, which matters because the five-year lookback period examines transfers, and an account someone else set up and funded needs a clear paper trail showing whose money it actually is
• A snapshot close to the time of application, since crypto values move constantly and the worker will want a value that reflects something close to real time, not an old screenshot

If Gus's grandson had simply never mentioned the account, assuming it was a private gift to his grandfather that did not need to be disclosed, that omission could have created a serious problem later, which is exactly what happened in a near miss for Gus's family, described below.

Selling a collection without triggering a penalty

Families often ask whether Dad can simply sell the coin collection or liquidate the crypto to get under the asset limit, rather than report it as a resource. That is a legitimate spend-down strategy, and it is different from hiding the asset. The key requirement is that any sale happen at fair market value.

For a coin collection or gold coins, that generally means getting a written appraisal from a reputable coin dealer or numismatist before the sale, so there is a record of what the items were actually worth. Selling a collection to a family member for far less than it is worth, or quietly handing coins to a grandchild instead of selling them, can be treated as an improper transfer, and the lookback period covers the five years before the Medicaid application. An improper transfer can create a penalty period of ineligibility, calculated using the value transferred and the average cost of nursing home care in Florida.

For cryptocurrency, fair market value is more straightforward since exchanges post real-time pricing, but the sale and the resulting cash still need to be accounted for and spent down properly on allowable expenses, not simply given away.

How Gus's family avoided a mistake that would have looked like concealment

In Gus's situation, his daughter was preparing the Medicaid application and almost left the crypto account off entirely. Her reasoning was understandable: the account was her son's idea, it was a small amount compared to Gus's other savings, and nobody in the family thought of it as part of Dad's "real" assets. It was not until she was gathering bank statements that her son mentioned the exchange account, and that conversation made all the difference.

The family pulled a current statement from the exchange, got a simple appraisal on the coin collection from a local dealer, and disclosed both honestly on the application. Because it was in Gus's name and reported accurately, it was simply added to the asset calculation and addressed through spend-down planning before the application was filed, with no penalty and no red flag.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor does reading it create an attorney-client relationship. Florida estate, elder, probate, and real estate law are fact-specific and change over time. Consult a licensed Florida attorney about your individual circumstances. Arthur Simpson, Esq. is licensed to practice law in the State of Florida. Attorney advertising.