arphethean

Does anyone have any recommendations for good true macro lenses for Canon DSLR? Ideally more than 100mm due to getting good image scale on small coins Looking at the sigma 150mm. Any experience of this lens?

Gold the sigma only does 90%, 22ct and 999 gold. No use for 14ct or 9ct etc. For those purposes the Kee is the best. Also it does not work for extremely thin, small gold, such as grams or smaller. Also, very hit and miss through slabs or thick capsules for anything other than ounces, £5 etc Silver Generally pretty reliable, although some sterling silver coins are out of the brackets. High relief - yes, can definitely struggle with non-flat items or messy textures unless they fully cover the circle on the unit sensor Copper - not supported Platinum, palladium - works fine Rhodium - not tried

Kick off with 400

I would expect the Insurer would assess the value of the goods with normal methods such as transaction records/invoices/going market rate/price of gold rather than import value declarations. Regardless, if they somehow found out you declared the value of the goods to be 25% of true value it would be a simple matter to explain why you declared that value.

#107

I have for sale this double thickness piedfort crown from 2000. 56.56g of .925 silver complete with capsule, COA and box in great condition. Some hazy toning on obverse. £33 plus £3 post

My price is 31p per gram which is a bit over spot. Occasionally you can find it at spot.

Lovely coin indeed. I'd concur with EF. I'd still want to see more pics though as the first two are out of focus and there are blown out and out of focus areas on the second two. The details for EF are there but cleaning wouldn't be evident from your photos. It certainly has been wiped at some point evidenced by the toning pattern aroudn the legends etc but whether this has scratched the surface is not evident

I'm not proposing people defraud HMRC!! I am suggesting people follow HMRC's correct procedure as detailed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-value-goods-for-import-vat#reduced-value

No I mean 25%. What my research suggests is that the correct way to import it under 9705... is to declare the value as 25% of its actual value, and customs then apply 20% to the declared value. You buy something for £100. You say on the customs form that it's worth £25. They charge 20% on that (£5). Works out you pay the correct rate of 5%. A bit weird but according to my gov link that's the way it's meant to be done. Most sellers might be wary of doing that because they think that postal insurance is somehow linked to customs charges and that the value for both should be the same, when it's of course totally a separate thing, different organisations, different processes.

Well why not!! I guess normal bullion is pretty obviously not within the spirit of 9705, but there are definitely grey areas here. But in that example, definitely "potentially" numismatic!! Thank you for that. Good to know that appeals are successful and quick. Have you tried declaring the value at 25% in order for the correct charge first time.

Another great Timothy Noad design. Sadly never made it onto the round pound coins

A stunning set of pattern coins. 4x£1 proof hallmarked pain edge 22ct coins. Each weighs 19.61g fir a total Gold weight of 2.312ozt. Coins are in excellent condition with one or two very minor marks on each coin - individual hairline scratches (not cleaned) or a slight haze. Complete with capsules, box and COA £3700 posted Special Delivery

Queen's beasts all sold Heraldic Beasts and Hallmarks still available

It's been discussed before, no doubt, but some clarity would never go amiss and there may be new understanding to be gleaned for some members. There seems to be a lot of questions and confusion around it so can we clear it up once and for all? What is the situation with importing silver coins into the UK? People tend to automatically say it is charged at the standard rate of 20% as that is the rate for silver, but I have been looking into this, and to clarify the applicable rate you'd need to know what commodity code it falls into in TARIC: https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff You could apply the code 7118100000: "Coin (other than gold coin), not being legal tender", which would be 20%. Or could you class the coin as numismatic? In which case apply a "Collections and collectors' pieces of numismatic interest" code, one of two codes depending on the date of the coin being before 1923 or not: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/9705310000 https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/9705390000 In this case, it get's a bit more confusing as it lists both the reduced rate of 5% and the standard rate of 20%. I have found this page which gives info on the reduced rate and leads to this page which seems to imply that you when importing you should declare the value on the customs documents as 25%, which effectively makes the VAT rate 5% FOR CERTAIN ITEMS, and goes on to list the items including: So, assuming I've understood this correctly, and assuming the coins can be argued as being a "collector's piece of numismatic interest", we should legally be able to import them into the UK from any country and declare the value as 25% of its actual value, which will then attract the 20% VAT rate on the reduced valuation and we therefore pay only 5% VAT. I guess the crucial question is, are bullion silver coins reasonably categorised as a "collector's item" or of "numismatic interest"? I would argue that any coin with a stated face value or traded as a coin with an agreed face value (sovereign, halfcrown etc) regardless of rarity or metal content, is money and therefore numismatic. And they are collector's items if you collect them. Surely? HOWEVER, when I contacted HMRC they advised as follows: But this seems very open to interpretation. Where is the line? Take a very real scenario in my position as a China 1oz silver Panda collector. 2023s are mass produced and readily available. Probably not so easy to argue they have "attained interest by age or rarity". 1983s however, definitely have. And there are pandas all the way along that spectrum. We are talking about individuals importing, not businesses and margin schemes. No doubt there is a potential long and contentious discussion topic there... Let's leave that. So IF I AM RIGHT and you are buying from sellers outside the UK and can reasonably argue that your coin is a "collector's item" of "numismatic interest" - get them to state commodity code 9705390000 (1923 onwards) or 97053910000 (older) on their customs form and state the value as 25% of the actual paid price and furnish them with the links provided to show it is the correct procedure. Back to the original question - can we clear it up once and for all?? Maybe not for bullion coins.

Bump

Bump

1925 London mint in an exceptional MS66 grade. 2 available Mintage of 3.5 million, or if it's the restrike, only 866,000! Rather difficult to tell! £530 for one posted SD, £1050 for both.

I have for sale a very special Platinum 1/20th ounce Panda from 1997 in an PF 69 Ultra Cameo grade by NGC. With under 500 of these thought to have been minted, this is an exceedingly rare coin, a key year in the platinum panda series and now highly sought after. A total of 33 coins have been graded PF 69 / PR 69 between NGC and PCGS, and only 4 have achieved the perfect PF 70 grade by NGC (none by PCGS). The last comparable sale was an PF 68 sold in auction for $3,360 in December last year. The last PF 69 fetched $5060 in August 2019 and prices realised in 2018 reached over $6700! On eBay UK an auction bid up to over £3000 last year for a raw coin. There are currently no sold listings viewable on eBay at this moment in time. £3800 or near offer

1989 sold

1 please

1 please

They hiked the price of fractional Britannias significantly last year and presumably sold out similarly quickly to the year before. I expect they will continue with them this year, but it is usually late summer or autumn they come out

I have available a few mint presentation packs containing commemorative stamps. Postage will be 50p extra Heraldic Beasts post and go stamps Current face value is £5.70. Face value after 3rd April is £6.60. Price is £5.50 Queen's Beasts 5 x 26p Price is £1.20 Occasions hallmarks. 5 x 1st class Face value currently £4.75. Future value £5.50 Price is £4.50.

I have some graded pandas available today fresh back from grading, and duplicates in my collection. Early pandas are excessively rare to get in 70 grades! Prices do not include postage which will be just £5 for SD 1990 large date in MS69. £105 This is the more common variety but with a superb prooflike mirrored fields and fantastic frosted design. 1989 in a baffling MS67. £65 SOLD A beautiful coin and why NGC choose to award this an MS67 is a mystery as I can barely see anything wrong with it and certainly nothing worse than on my 69s! 2003 1/4oz gold, frosted bamboo variety in MS69. £550 A stunning coin! 2003 silver, frosted bamboo variety in MS69. £110 Very close to flawless at a fraction of the price of a 70.