CollectForFun

I am not sure this is the best comparison - I would assume that postal service used to be heavily subsidised and treated more as a public service so the price of a stamp did not necessarily reflect actual cost of providing the service. This has meanwhile changed so the change in the price does not simply reflect actual inflation but rather the entire changing landscape from a regulated business to market economy.

Well, in this case FedEx does not request that money for themselves (do they charge also some handling fee?) - I assume they act merely as a collection agent for the tax office and that they don't pay from their own money to the authorities if they don't collect the amount from you. So what I expect they may do is that they report you as a debtor to the tax authorities. And you should then be better able to defend your position in front of the tax authorities who should hopefully know the rules better. But of course, it may not be worth the uncertainty what may happen and I would fully understand if you decide to play it safe and just pay and then request refund. But it could be also an interesting real life case study if you don't pay and then keep us informed of what happens next ☺️

Price of gold (or anything else for that matter in the world of free markets) does not reach price of X just because someone says so (manipulations aside). The price it will reach will be exactly the price the buyers will be willing to buy and sellers willing to sell at at that very moment. So there will always be buyers at whatever price gold will reach, otherwise the market forces bring it to that level quickly. Your only risk is that the categories of buyers will be different at that time and you in your capacity as a small private investor into physical gold will not be able to reach those buyers without incurring additional costs or effort.

I understand you already have the coin, so what could possibly happen if you don't pay their invoice? I assume that usually they don't deliver the package before they receive your payment, so it seems odd in your case that they request the payment afterwards, no?

In Poland? https://www.metalmarket.eu/en/

That's a good point, but I am not sure why they would use other than English version of her name if the rest of the inscription is in English and that's also official language in Zambia...? But to me that's part of the beauty of these African "numismatic" coins, they are sometimes so random and unpredictable...

For what it's worth, several internet sources suggest that Zambian coins from that period were produced by The Royal Mint. If that's correct, it's even stranger that noone noticed typing/engraving error in Elisabeth... Btw that bag is amazing!

I wouldn't call it a restrike, but rather replica. And just bear in mind that many replica coins like this are produced from 14k or 22k gold, rather than pure gold. What info did you get from the auction listing? Did it just say a "gold coin"? BTW did you check this source for potential info?

As a collector of original strikes of Austrian coronas, I am not a big fan of the restrikes. It's just not what it pretends to be, if you know what I mean. But if you can get restrike of 1915 100 corona cheaper per oz than standard 1oz pure gold coins, then it may make sense from a stacking perspective. Plus it brings some variety to your stack... But I don't think it is any different than any bullion gold from an investment perspective.

Alas, there are several obvious differences from the genuine one which can be seen even from the blurred photo. To me the most obvious are the sun and its rays - some are too short, some are even missing...

tdc https://tdcgold.com

Romania has some interesting coins in that respect. In 1906, they issued coins of several values commemorating 40 years of reign of King Carol I. Profile of his head featured both on the obverse and the reverse of the coin depicting him in younger and then-current age. I assume there are also other examples of similar design. But your observation about the QB completer coin is very interesting, it is indeed rather unusual. Edit: oh, and just out of curiosity I started googling and almost immediately found these coins from 2015:

Is there even any gold coin connected with that historical period? I am aware only of silver coins. Regarding owning them - I think it really depends on your motivation. If you are only stacking silver, then I guess you do not really care what object is made of it. Main thing it's silver and even better if under spot, no? I think this is how some posters above see this. Now, if you're a collector, you probably have certain areas of interest - you can't collect everything. So does this collecting area fall under your interests? If yes, e.g. because you collect coins of Germany, or coins from that period of time in general, then it is only natural that they belong to your collection as historical artifacts. Or maybe they have aesthetic appeal to someone. Personally, I have no collecting interest in those coins, but I can understand if other collectors do. But of course I speak about numismatic collectors only, not about someone with inclination to the ideology behind those coins as such. And unfortunately, many times the latter can just pretend to be the former, so collecting such material can raise some eyebrows...

It's perhaps worth noting that researchers at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art are of an opinion that A A stands for A[postolicus] A[nno]... https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/191086

I placed a pre-bid on this very coin so congrats on your win! 🙂 It looks to be in nice condition so I hope you'll like it! The final price seems fair to me. I just did not want it that much and simply decided to wait for another opportunity...

I understand your pain of waiting but has this coin been released yet at all? Other dealers also seem to still take pre-orders only so I doubt you could find any of these coins on the second-hand market before you get it based on your pre-order. Powercoin is on this forum so why not tagging them to your thread? They may be able to explain exactly what is happening. I understand that the coin is produced by private B.H.Mayer's Mint in Munich so dealers are more or less at their mercy if there are production delays.

Is that an open coin capsule? If so, not the best thing to do to your proof coin...

I can just tell you that this seems to be the original coin based on which yours was designed.