RE: The Feasibility of Posting Precious Metals

The eBay thing only works if you have a legitimate transaction made on eBay (which can be for $1.00), and select "eBay International Shipping" as your carrier of choice for non-Australian destinations. It's awkward, but it works.

When we mail valuable old postage stamps (one of my lines) we typically just use International post registered which requires signatures at every point of transfer... but it doesn't help much if you're sending to a place with sketchy mail service, like certain parts of South America, Africa and some FSU republics.