Alex944

That's a nice hoard! I was in the national archaeology museum in Dublin a month or two back where they displayed some celtic and viking caches and hoards. Pretty cool to see 2000-3000 y/o (gold) items like that, but I haven't seen something quite the size of this in person.

Received mine today, nice design indeed, very happy with them!

I have not stopped stacking silver but I don't buy near the same quantity as the year leading up to the pandemic. I stick with buying the coins that I really enjoy, generally higher premium ones (kooks/panda's, random proof designs that I like) but generally stay clear from bullion at this moment in time. Most of my budget will go towards gold at this stage but I'm not ruling out future silver purchases, just not necessarily actively looking for it. I will concede though that I recently bought some bullion coins, a new release from a European dealer that I could get for £21,5 each. I bought a couple because that design was nice to me, but that was the first silver purchase in months. In regards to selling, not really looking for that at this stage either, but I have sold bits and bobs before to redeem some cash and put that towards gold. Not ruling out the possibility of doing that again in the (perhaps near) future. As long as I enjoy the purchase made, I keep telling myself that it's justified

At the moment I'd agree with the sentiment that silver is priced a bit too high. The silver I am currently purchasing is almost always a premium design since they carry a better value for money at this moment in time. Mainly looking at gold now which even with the increase of the last week or so, is still on a good price in my eyes. If you are looking to buy more silver, highly suggest picking it up from either second market (bullion) or more premium type coins. The premium coins tend to hold their value better when prices move and with bullion currently being sold with very high premiums, I just don't feel like they represent a good buy in most cases.

Gotta agree with the above. Unless you can get it verified that it's indeed 100% silver throughout, this would be a tough sell on individual second hand market. Definitely worth to get it checked though.

The plot thickens... I checked with a friend of mine who is into antiquary and though he's not 100% sure since he hasn't seen a comparable example of this, he thinks that this is actually a particularly nice version of a Double Albert pocket watch chain (don't know if that's true) which is missing a piece called the T-Bar. T-bar is used to hold the pieces together, like the actual connection point. Example: Based on the rope chain, it is likely to be of French design. Double Albert chains started appearing since the 1860's, so I think it is reasonable to assume that your piece (if it indeed is a double albert pocket watch chain) is from between 1860 and perhaps 1920/1930. I assume we don't know who the maker is, but my friend told me that that's common if the T bar piece is not included, since the hallmarks would usually be stamped on that particular piece. Hope I'm not way off on this one, but it's cool to do this type of investigation

An acquaintance of mine has coined the idea that this is the belt part of a Chatelaine without the clasp that should be on there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatelaine_(chain) No further info on its origin though unfortunately.

Planned to go to South Africa in April 2020 (which evidently didn't happen). I did some browsing through the SA mint website at the time and I was planning on getting one of these: Perhaps going to SA early next year, I'll give it another go then.

So just my thoughts on this: 1) - I don't think these are shamrocks depicted on the joints with the handclasps. Generally Shamrocks are depicted as a 3 leaf clover and in Irish history, Saint Patrick used the Shamrock as a metaphor for the holy trinity of the church. Very rarely would a shamrock be depicted as a four leaf clover. 2) - I like the idea of Claddagh clasp hands, but I also think that's not the case. Most of the Claddagh designs have the thumb in alignment with the rest of the fingers with an object in the middle, whereas these clasps have the thumb pointing outwards of the hand / in a fist position (presuming these are moveable parts?). So what is it then? Well, it could be as mentioned a Fleur de Lis, though this would also be an uncommon way of depicting that. I actually think that it's a cuckoo flower design, which is a common wild flower throughout western Asia and majority of Europe. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what it is, but I do feel like it's unlikely to be a shamrock / claddagh type design. Following the topic to see if we can figure it out!

Welcome to the Forum! CGT Exemption only becomes interesting when you are taking a considerable profit / building a very sizeable stack. I'm not a UK resident but if I recall correctly, the threshold of CGT exemption in general is about 10K pounds per year. This means that you'd have to have over 10K pounds ''profit'' before you get slapped with CGT and this resets annually. A common way around this is if you indeed have such amount of precious metals is to sell off no more than that 10K threshold in profit within the same (fiscal) year. If you are not going to be close to that number, I would recommend getting whatever you want as long as it suits your strategy and budget. If you are going to be close to that number, you should definitely consider CGT exempt coins, so Brits and Sov's are your go-to items in that regard, but I'm relatively sure that any UK (pound) denominated coin is CGT exempt. When it comes to selling, it depends on what you are selling on how easy it is to sell and where best to sell it. In my experience, larger items (for example bullion 1oz gold coins/bars) are easier to sell (back) to dealers than they are on second hand market unless you have a good trading reputation. You may not get the best price but you will be able to liquidate. Smaller items trade here on the forum all the time - have a look at the trading section and you'll see loads of 1oz silver coins and smaller gold pieces like 1/10oz, 1/4oz / sov's trade frequently. I think you should answer the question ''where can I sell this when I want to sell it'' before making the majority of your purchases. Hopefully you'll never be forced to sell by any external factor other than your own decision, but if something does happen and you need to liquidate, it will be beneficial to have an idea and understanding of how you are going to liquidate your metals. In that regard, it's again advisable to obtain items like sovereigns or brits, especially in the UK, because they are well recognized and desired. It's easier to liquidate 2 bullions sov's than a 1/2oz gold coin (generally speaking). Hope that helps and enjoy the journey, stacking metals really is a rewarding (and sometimes frustrating) hobby!

In the last couple of years in Netherlands, attaching bombs to ATM's has become more and more common. They blow the ATM out of the corner of a building or something, take whatever cash they can and run off. I can only imagine that if there will be machines there with pretty decent gold contents, they either need to heavily armour them or they'll meet the same fate as those poor ATM's. It is a cool concept though. I would love to try it and see how it feels to pull out 10g of gold instead of 500-600 EUR lol.

Welcome to the Forum Niall. Lots of nice stuff on the forum here. If you are looking to part with some of your silver in the (near) future, make sure to have a look at the trading guidelines: https://www.thesilverforum.com/topic/19287-quickstart-guide-please-read-this-basic-info-before-trading/ I'd also suggest as a new member to include pictures in your sales topic, and it helps to put the items on a picture with a note stating your forum name and date of it was taken, gives potential buyers more confidence. Of course, there's a wealth of knowledge here, so if you have any questions, feel free to raise the topics. Cheers, Alex

Welcome to the forum and to your stacking journey! There's a wealth of information on here so you should be able to find answers to most of your metal related questions. Though purchasing is at your own leisure, if you're looking to do some different world coins in silver, I'd recommend checking out some of the well known and running series. Thinks like Australian Kookaburra's or Koala's, maybe a Chinese Panda, any of the lunar year type coins, etc. In the first year of my stack building I ended up buying a variety of silver coins with no real strategy other than appreciate the goodies. It really helped me in understanding what type of coins do I enjoy, but also to understand different price points, premium, quality of design, etc. Either way, stack responsibly and it's a hobby for life, with a bit of stress and fomo, but a lot of enjoyment I'm sure!

Kudos to you, tough times and you took the challenge to start your business. On topic - Whatever move works for you is the right move. I I would start with saving up some cash to purchase a small piece of gold, 1/10th something or a half sov. Once you have it, do you like it, do you want more? If so, you can consider selling your silver. I have sold some of my silver in the past to fund a different purchase, but was left a bit deflated and wished I kept hold of the silver, at least it thought me about my sellers' remorse. cheers,

My very first gold coin I bought about 3 years back: Also like the fact that these coins flip vertically.

Isn't the 2020 Quokka coin part of the same series? Also, how do you find the Wombat coin? The Quokka coin looked great on pictures but kinda fell flat when observing in real life, so I'm on the fence about the wombat one.