GBStacking

What ever you do don't clean it, The dirt is the only thing left on the surface that's giving it any character!! 😂

I read that as we agree the Victoria Young Head Crown picture is rubbish, so we will probably update it. The rest seems to be a vague attempt to still justify excessively high prices. Slightly bizarrely, they make a point about sourcing in volume, typically this results in a cheaper price per unit rather than more expensive. I quite agree with the part about their pricing model being quite different to other dealers, dealers without the clout of the Royal Mint brand would probably fold if they tried to sell their coins for similar prices. The rest of the waffle about checking condition\rarity etc sounds very much like what every specialist coin dealer does as part of their own business model. Definitely not seeing anything this statement that sets the royal mint apart, with the exception of they generally present stuff in a fancier box.

The Royal Mint feels very Jekyll and Hyde with their products, on one hand, producing some stunning designs on the other hand sweeping out the cupboards and throwing together a set out of what they find. The practice of selling historical coins at vastly inflated prices definitely seems to be designed to take advantage of those who don't know better. Particularly in light of the increase in PM collecting\stacking by joe public following the economic woes of C19. These sets absolutely tarnish the prestige of their brand and do put me off buying their other products.

Coming to a Proof Set near you, courtesy of the RM QC department!

I've bought a number of times from ATS (just next to the Savoy). They are fine with walk ins and I've always found them very accommodating if you want to look at things or see specific stuff: https://www.atsbullion.com/

There is something very satisfying about 1 oz coin. Enjoy!! It's a slippery slope! 😂

Honestly, i think in this instance the safe and boring option will be the best. Go for more Sov's as cheap as you can find them. CGT exempt, larger market when you come to sell and something you are already familiar with. I hold a number of 1oz coins but thankfully all well below what spot is now so if i had to out it to a dealer then i would still make profit. My gold buying strategy going forward is bullion Sov's for all the reasons above. The other thing to consider is being able to liquidate smaller amounts as and when you need to. It's not so painful to have to sell 1 Sov in a market dip to pay a retirement bill that wont wait as it would be to have to liquidate a whole Oz because you need a small amount of it's value.

Don't forget to keep an eye out for price breaks for buying more than one at a time. It can be really tempting to get one on it's own as soon as you have the money, but it can work out a reasonable amount cheaper sometimes to save up and buy a few at a time.

That one would be a hard pass from me! Such a shame they are going down the route of these sort of sets. Especially after the travesty that was their "Flagship Coins Of The World" set https://www.royalmint.com/shop/coin-sets/Flagship-Coins-of-the-World-1oz-Silver-Bullion-Coin-Set/ , 6 of the most generic bits of 1oz silver bullion out there for a staggering £82.50 an ounce! Wants to be one hell of a box it comes in

To be honest, this is the first time I've bothered to do the calculation as most of my stack is either for my own retirement or to be passed down to my godsons. Sitting at a little over 250Oz of silver at an average of 23.13 per Oz (i think the 10oz Tudor Beasts are what's skewing it up somewhat, but I've committed to the set and they are more bought as a nice thing to own rather than an investment per se) Gold I'm sitting at an average of a touch over 1300 per Oz All in all, quite happy i crunched the numbers

The 10oz Seymour Unicorns have landed this morning. Somewhat hastily taken as i was basically rushing out the door when they arrived.

Thank you for the heads up! Only one slight issue, you see, after i missed out on that bar, i started looking at other shiny things. Then i saw the new Tudor Beasts Seymour Unicorn is available for pre order and a couple of the 10oz happened to fall into my basket. 😂 Currently got a somewhat limited PM budget as some other investments are taking priority at the moment. Pics to follow in due course!

You pipped me to that very lovely 10oz bar. Absolutely no hard feelings though as it's clearly gone to a good home!

@boinc congratulations!

I'm currently experiencing a similar situation, once solicitors, estate agents and a million and one other people get their act together. It's not going to be a particularly large amount, but will require more than just chucking in my current account. I'm not sure of the exact amount yet, but the plan is splitting between some income bonds, shares ISA and topping up my sovereign stack as this is CGT exempt. Obviously this is UK focused, so I'm not certain how easily this would translate across the pond. But you do have the advantage of no VAT on silver, which makes diversifying a metal stack much simpler. My (totally not any form of financial advise) would be pop it where it's most tax efficient whilst still having a nice physical holding that can be enjoyed and passed on as you may see fit.

i think it's always a combination of both mintage and design. Unless there are only about 10 of them, something really ugly is going to have to work really really hard to command a premium. I wouldn't personally consider the Aussie Dragon bars low mintage, i like the design, but think they are way over priced when they come up for sale. Beskar bars are good if you are into Star Wars, not really an inspiring design if you had never heard of the film series, but at a 50K mintage, i think you would still get some premium. In terms of my own buying, once you get to 25k and lower, I'd be prepared to pay some reasonable premium if i really wanted the design or was trying to complete a set. Please note, my own personal stack is very much bullion weight focused, so whilst i do appreciate a pretty coin, I'm not the kind of person to be looking to fill my stack with premium stuff so the points above may only relate to my particular position.

I'm really not into conspiracy theories, the BBC has many faults, but in reality, the world is just a lot more boring than people think it is. Literally all the people that were affected had to do was initially take delivery of their silver rather than vaulting it (would have been apparent much earlier on there were issues if they weren't delivering anything at all). Once in there hands it could go wherever they chose, no records beyond the initial purchase, which is the same for vaulting or direct delivery, even secondary market is tracible unless you do face to face, cash only. What you have here is a con artist that was defrauding people of their investment. It does show some of the risks of the paper and gold silver market as well, although, whilst there is undoubtedly fraud in this market too, it does serve a purpose to allow investment\trading without having to ship hundreds of tons of metal around the world on a constant basis. Imagine trying to trade daily fluctuations in spot but you couldn't sell what you purchased until the boat from China turned up 2 months later.

Interesting article from the BBC today after 500,000 silver Eagles were discovered missing from customers storage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66094057 Definitely adds weight to the "if you don't hold it, you don't own it" school of thought.

Got my Tudor Beasts 10oz Bull Of Clarence coins through this morning. First one in the 10oz set with King Charles 3rd on. I know these arent going to carry the same level of excitement as the original Queens Beasts, but i think these are pretty nice designs none the less and a full 10oz set is still going to be something a bit special to look at when I'm old and grey.

Thanks you, it was a hard choice for me between the two, but as I'm not keeping it, i went with the brighter finish. The antique one does look very nice though.

2022 Mason Mint 1oz Viking Round. Picked up for a relatives birthday present as they are rather a fan of all things Viking.

No picture available unfortunately, but it comes back as the right coin. I'm absolutely no expert on these thing though so do what you will with this info. https://www.pcgs.com/cert/45782689 It mentions it has NFC counterfeiting technology, so maybe that explains the different holder? The label has the right symbol on it. https://www.pcgseurope.com/security Also APMEX have this style for sale https://www.apmex.com/product/9656/1878-1904-stage-coach-morgan-dollar-bu-pcgs Obviously, anything can be faked, but it does seem to have at least some equivalents in other places.

10oz Tudor Beasts are the only large coins in my stack. Pretty much everything else i have is brought for weight. So these coins are kind of my guilty pleasure of just buying something cause i like the look and feel of them.

Added some Kangaroos to the stack for a little variety. Thanks to @BackyardBullion

Hi VinylSloth A lot of these are issued by private mints merely using the country to make it an "official coin" for somewhere in the world so they can use that in marketing material. Generally i wouldn't attach any real significance to this as they will never carry the perceived "weight" of being issued by somewhere like the US, UK or Canada for example. That being said, they are a mixed bag, some of the designs are lovely and will command a decent premium and become a well respected and collected series, other designs are, shall we say a little more subjective! On the plus side, these at least will always be worth their weight in whatever PM they are made of. I would say proceed with a little caution, pay sensible prices if you are focusing on resale value and do some looking around if it's part of an established series so you can understand what their true resale value is likely to be If you are buying it simply because you love the design, then only you can answer the question of what price you put on your enjoyment of them.