Simmoleon

Yep I’m awaiting my replacement from the mint 🤕 and then I got a dodgy 5oz Gothic off the mint - I mean I probably should get an RM account manager just so I have somebody to moan at

Fingers crossed for you, I got nowhere with RM but you never know

Just the box sadly, only checked because I seen another post showing the wrong box

Only just noticed this, mine also has the wrong box

I’ve looked under a loupe and it looks more than residue and I was considering the conservation route but going off my gut feeling it’s telling me this coin has problems and I could plough about £150 in to conservation and grading but it’s not worth the gamble

Picture in reply above

Yep - no idea if it’s damage or some sort of residue but it looks like the surface is now damaged, less noticeable until you tilt it and the proof field turns black

Sure it’s not white gold?

Yep, it feels like it’s inevitable

I will try but the tone of the email was pretty much we ain’t replacing it despite the marks are pretty clear and they have seen the photo of. They agree it’s unacceptable as well but so far no budging on options

My 5oz silver arrived, it’s got surface marks which makes it pretty much upgradeable or re-sellable without a huge loss to the rrp. Mint confirmed it can’t be replaced or restruck so my only option is a refund. My coin luck is well and truly out

Time will tell but if I had to put my money on which is the best investment I’d take the 3 coin set every time

Yep it’s the grading game and one of those which leaves you baffled as I thought they’d do far better. The cameo on a florin is tough but it must have been very close. Also the half crown looked like a 65/66 so a 64 feels harsh to me I am just hoping NGC agree the maundy is a mechanical error rather than them believing they are truly MS. If I get time at some point, I may do some images of a comparison of the two sets to show the coin v grades

The results are disappointing tbh Half crown came back at PF64 The florin which I though could get a cameo came back a PF66 which hurt I can’t lie The shilling is a PF65 and the 6p is PF63 (will need to have a closer look to see why it’s a 63) The maundy set came back on a separate invoice all under MS not PF, so now contacting NGC to try and correct this and hopefully they’ll just accept they are proof as they came from a proof set The frustrating part is my other 1911 set which comes with provenance from a known collection scores higher but not convinced the coins are high quality than some within this recent submission Anyway I’ll stop moaning and let others post their new buys

Just received this picture, for a detail comparison

Just seen a 2oz gold in real life and what a stunner, the detail is fantastic and it works really well as a coin despite my reservations that splitting it over two coins wasn’t something I liked

Again that’s another stunning coin; I also have a 1911 set at NGC, trying to improve my maundy coin grades but the florin in my set is probably the best coin from the 8. Been in grading since early October so it’s a long wait so far!

Beautiful coin, I am in the process of trying to get a highly graded 1911 silver set together and a few have the starts of rainbow toning and it’s amazing in hand. Nice pick up

My experience of QueueIT is they form a waiting room and randomise on entry to the queue which for the RM is 9am - if RM released a communication to confirm this I suspect immediately it would address the frustrations of many a customer who are joining the website at 6-8am only to find out somebody who arrived at 8.55am is ahead of them in the queue. If they read this forum they would understand the hours of research we have put in trying to understand how the queue works (and ways to improve our chances). I guess the point I am trying to make is many of the frustrations in the sale could be addressed by simple comms around the process.

The majority of collectors I have spoken to are philosophical about the sales even when frustrated and disappointed about the process and outcomes. I have also seen isolated examples of some collectors and dealers being ruthless and it being dog eat dog and in some cases throwing wild accusations around. I can understand the frustrations but the people in customer services are just the route in to an organisation not the decision makers, IT, marketing or quality control departments. Customer Service generally have a thankless role in the organisation as they fix the problems or shield others from the anger and frustrations when customers are not pleased. Very rarely does shouting at them change the outcome or filter anything to the top. I personally feel sorry for them when things don’t go well and would be interested if they do have a route to report feedback to other departments and ensure lessons are taken on-board. The Great Engravers series has created hype and frustrations the likes I have never seen before

I do think this situation could be made less frustrating by some simple improved communication pre-sale, not convinced RM would agree but: 1. Some clarity over what they are selling and stock availability for the actual sale 2. Updates to the queue when certain items have sold out - seen this on other QueueIT sales 3. Some clarity around how their QueueIT is set up - if its completely random then fair enough but would stop people wasting their time joining the website and queue as early as they can. I believe points 2 and 3 could be implemented and be massive quick wins for the mint. Point 1, I think telling people what they are selling pre-release isn’t controversial and should be made far clearer before the sale goes live. Releasing how much stock they have compared to mintage may be a step too far especially if the most collectible coins have already been allocated. Also we must remember for most of their sales they do not see this level of customers hitting the site so would they change their process to accommodate this, time will tell but I am not expecting anything to change

I think the mint are in a tough place with the Engravers because they are watching flippers making nice profits and seeing collectors struggle to buy them. The mint will obviously be looking at how they can make further profit and how they can make the coin more available to collectors who want them in their collections. So my guess is they are increasing the mintage and variety so they can a. make a nice profit and b. try and bring some normality back to the collectors I think we all have the same gut feeling that this will end like the music legend series with the flippers moving on eventually and the interest stabilising but the appeal of this series is very strong globally so the hype isn’t ending with the next release imo but still find the Gothic Crown an odd choice even if the original is iconic

They are probably minting Engravers at the moment and then bullion for January so it may just be a case that they ain’t minting any replacements (or if they do it could be months away) Been interesting what others get back off them

Yep I wouldn’t submit coins in these capsules - no guarantee they’d even stay closed prior to getting to NGC or PCGS

Didn’t know there was a security edge variety of the original Gothic Crown