SElling silver bars

[Some Random Guy]

Unless it's a business.

But the poster has already said that he acquired the silver FROM the business, that the business is no longer in existance and that this is a one time sale and not an ongoing enterprise. There is no indication that the poster intends to make any long term business model based on this one-off sale of assets.

For him its a capital gain. I make no judgment about how the business should have accounted for the assets or why the business allowed him to keep the assets without paying for them.

 

[davew128]

And recovering silver from film is less so?

From the OP:

The silver was extracted from xray machines that we were in the business of installing and maintaining. The silver was collected and ultimately melted down into bars. It was collected over many years. What kind of records would be needed to calculate captial gain?

So to answer your question, yes it is. Wine is made for three purposes. 1) Consumption. 2) Collection 3) Sales. Silver bars aren't made for consumption, so its either for collection or sales and OP's own quote kind of eliminates the guesswork.