GBStacking

The 1oz will offer you the best value as far as premium is concerned if you go for something like a Krugerrand, but as others have said Sov's hold the edge in flexibility (although i don't think you would find it hard too shift a 1oz if you were just looking to liquidate in the future to a dealer or someone like that). I love my 1oz coins and they do feel lovely in the hand, but my next purchase is most likely going to be sovereigns so as to give my stack some better balance. At the end of the day, i would buy what you feel comfortable with, whichever you start with, there is nothing stopping you saving more in the future and buying both, i started with Silver, then Sov's then went to 1oz.

Got a couple of lovely Panda's through the door this morning. A 2015 and a 2014, which was a surprise as that one arrived graded at MS69.

Picked up a couple of nice Pandas this morning. A 2015 and a 2014 that was a big surprise when it arrived graded at MS69

It was indeed, i originally went there looking for best price sovereigns but they didn't have any, spotted this one in the 1oz section and just couldn't pass it up. Loved the design for ages but never found one i could reconcile price wise with the bullion stacker in me till then. I think i have a new crown jewel in the pension stack.

Just taken delivery of this lovely 2007 Buffalo. Got it for a good price and was absolutely amazed when it arrived slabbed at MS69. I only bought it for bullion!

Super happy with my latest Buffalo purchase, got it for a good price and then to my amazement, it turned up slabbed at MS69

If it wasn't for the crazy high premiums plus VAT on silver now, I'd definitely still be buying it, but then i am bullion focused rather than numismatic, so whilst there have been some beautiful coins released recently, they don't really tempt me. That being said, I'm definitely not getting rid of the silver i do currently have. It forms part of my pension fund and i have no plans to dispose of it till i finally admit to myself i don't really like working and would much rather sit by a pool. 😁 As for current and future purchases, they all have a distinctive gold colour at the moment!

For me personally, i would have no issue buying the old or new design as long at is was from a trusted source. I actually really quite like the old design and it certainly adds a little variation to things. And as @Geovest mentions, you can sometimes get lucky and get the old ones cheaper than the new design.

I can see this making quite a nice collection. After all, there are plenty that collect the 1/20th and 1/10th oz coins. And if the pleasure you get is worth the premiums then I'd say go for it. It's not like it will ever be worthless, but it's definitely unlikely to turn you a profit.

Just to add my input for what that may be worth, as a number of others here have said, save it and get a sovereign every couple of months. Easy to sell, not bad premiums, CGT exempt, easy to store (18 years is going to accumulate you a fair bit!) and you still get quite a bit of variation if you are getting a mix of old and new designs. Then if you have a bit of spare change, feel free to treat yourself to some Silver just cause some of the designs are really pretty. I've almost exclusively switched to gold now due to the VAT and other premiums, but i do still appreciate a beautiful design once in a while, i just don't expect to get my money back on them.

The premiums were always going to jump once we came out the EU and couldn't import silver Vat free\at a reduced rate from there, however premiums also went up a lot at the same time and have been very slow to settle back down, if they have moved at all with some dealers. I have subsequently changed my strategy to a far more gold focused one as i simply don't see silver as viable with the mark ups at the moment. However if you are wanting silver as, even with the premiums, its still easier to get the cash together to buy a few ounces rather than 1 gram of gold (trust me, what ever you think it looks like, a 1 gram bar of gold is smaller than that! the silver will be much more satisfying to hold) somewhere like the selling pages on here would be the best place to buy it from. There is a good supply of interesting items and the premiums are about as good as you are going to find unless you get really lucky on somewhere like eBay (i would never recommend this for a new collector\stacker though).

304 now, just added mine!

Id say go almost exclusively for gold, and then pick up the odd bit of pretty silver for no other reason than you might fancy it. With the gold, as others have mentioned, you want pure bullion, Sovs and Krugs all the way, unless you thing CGT is going to be an issue, then swap the Krugs for Brits. With the Sovs, i'd say avoid buying every month, save up for 2-3 months and buy a larger quantity, there are plenty of dealers that offer closer to spot if you buy 5 or more.

Yep im afraid so. One set of VAT to the country you buy it in (assuming that country doesn't allow VAT free export only sales) and one lot of VAT for HMRC.