SidS

Denominations stated on 'British' coins is an interesting one. I say British but actually mean English before 1707. Scottish coins etc. might have their own examples but I know nothing about those.
The first English coins I can think of with denominations stated are James I coins from the 1603-25 era. The silver/gold coins often have the denomination stated in Roman numerals - VI for sixpence, XX for the Pound coin (20 shillings, which went by many names), XXX for half crown (30 pence).
This continued through to the end of hammered in 1662.
Then stated denominations were mostly scrapped, except for Maundy coinage which stated the value in a variety of ways. Interlinked C's during Charles II's reign, Roman numerals (actually I for Iacobus) during James II's reign, giving way to Arabic numerals onwards from 1689.
The farthing joined the value stated club in 1799, the Sixpence and Shilling joined in 1831-4, although had a brief spell out of it again during 1887-1892. The Britannia groat hit the ground running in 1836 with denomination stated.
The florin debuted in 1849 with two denominations 'one florin' and 'one tenth of a pound' stated proudly.
The bronze coinage of 1860s onwards started with denominations.
Realistically there was a slow shift to full denominations stated from the 1830s onwards. Up until 1887, when there was a blip backwards to no denominations stated throughout the jubilee era (except denominations 6d downwards, which kept them).
By the old head era the denominations started up again. The crown upwards though didn't, as stated in other posters' replies.
So it's way more complex than at first glance.

From my point of view, I don't think there is a silver shortage. Now I'm not knocking silver or stacking in any way. I love silver as much as the next person on here but I am looking at it from a different perspective perhaps.
To me a shortage should be 'global' (which could be inferred as worldwide, but also as just everywhere in general - this will hopefully make more sense below).
Think back to the toilet roll shortage back in 2020, couldn't find them for love nor money, everyone fighting over the same things, it wasn't one brand or one type, or one shop's stock, it was just everywhere, even online.
To me this kind of scenario would be indicative of a real silver shortage. So sure maybe certain mints/retailers or items are short. But I can go on eBay any day of any week and purchase silver, be that bullion coins, bars or antiques. Sure the prices for some items have gone up, maybe beyond what they are really worth, but the silver is still available. So it's not rare.
Now when you find sites like eBay have little or no silver available, and all the coin shops are out of stock and there's little to nothing in jewellers, then you know you have a real shortage. Once the secondary markets run out, that's the real barometer.
Just my two cents.

Cody's Lab on YouTube did an episode all about reclaiming platinum group metals from catalytic converters. Basically all he did was sweep dust up from a US highway and process it.

Cody's Lab on YouTube did an episode all about reclaiming platinum group metals from catalytic converters. Basically all he did was sweep dust up from a US highway and process it.

Well fortunately I didn't succumb to any boating accidents, only opportunistic sales, which left me goldless.
Secretly though, I'd like to buy some gold coins again one day. I reckon £50 face in a mixture of sovereigns or half sovereigns would be great.
Then if I could get a lot more pre-1920 silver to make £50 face in that (mixed denominations), then I'd have a hell of a stash to play monopoly with. The kind of monopoly where you smoke fine cigars and drink whisky.

Winston Churchill quotes lol.
My favourite Churchill quote was his reply when a snobbish lady stated to him:
"Sir, If I were your wife, I'd poison your drink."
Winston's retort was:
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
I just wish I was as quick witted as that!

Winston Churchill quotes lol.
My favourite Churchill quote was his reply when a snobbish lady stated to him:
"Sir, If I were your wife, I'd poison your drink."
Winston's retort was:
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
I just wish I was as quick witted as that!

Agreed, but note that the mintmark is not the only distinguishing feature. Some also have a little line around the edge of the coin where the gold paper meets to cover the chocolate. I fear this coin would not survive the bite test. 

I prefer the german version King Helmut the III

A Prince Albert?

The beauty of gold (and silver in a more limited way) is that it is portable.
Digital currencies require internet/computers etc. Bank accounts can be seized or frozen, not to mentioned be tracked and spied upon.
Gold and silver transcend boundaries and are recognised across cultures. Consider a situation like Ukraine, having to flee with what you can carry. National currencies are only of value really in the country they are issued in (except for reserve currencies perhaps). What happens if that country ceases to exist or is under international sanctions? A ounce of gold has value across all countries of the world. If you have to flee tyranny and you can take the gold with you, it can be bartered in any country on Earth.

Douro sovereigns always go down well!
😎

A Brown's bottom would be one way. Lots of western nations dumping gold on the market and announcing it loudly before they do it. The price crashes down to the bargain basement prices of old and Putin's purchasing power would be massively diminished.
But which nations with all the massive inflation issues are going to want to do that? I bet the nations that sold their gold (like Canada) will regret it in the long term.

I can't speak for all crypto but I know Bitcoin has fallen into a trap.
Firstly, it was designed to be a medium of exchange that stores value over time, however, that's not how it's ended up being used.
In part, the issues with Bitcoin may arise from its high use of power and the slow speed when being used in transactions. Which makes it less than ideal as a medium of exchange.
So instead of being used for transactions, which never really took off, punters (and I use this term deliberately) have latched onto the 'store of value' - however the store of value isn't really in the sense of gold - 'stable' over long periods with little return, it's more 'greater fool theory' - I'll buy it now because it'll be worth more in the future. This doesn't make it a sound investment, more a gamble. A gamble on which a lot of money can be made for sure, but also where there's a great degree of risk too.
Crypto has become the digital stock market.

I can't speak for all crypto but I know Bitcoin has fallen into a trap.
Firstly, it was designed to be a medium of exchange that stores value over time, however, that's not how it's ended up being used.
In part, the issues with Bitcoin may arise from its high use of power and the slow speed when being used in transactions. Which makes it less than ideal as a medium of exchange.
So instead of being used for transactions, which never really took off, punters (and I use this term deliberately) have latched onto the 'store of value' - however the store of value isn't really in the sense of gold - 'stable' over long periods with little return, it's more 'greater fool theory' - I'll buy it now because it'll be worth more in the future. This doesn't make it a sound investment, more a gamble. A gamble on which a lot of money can be made for sure, but also where there's a great degree of risk too.
Crypto has become the digital stock market.

It may make more sense if you split out the separate functions of money. In theory, money is 1) a medium of exchange, 2) a store of value, and 3) a unit of account (measure of value).
At the moment, GBP (and other hard currencies) serve remarkably well as a medium of exchange and measure of value - prices are (despite increasing inflation) quite stable; if you have £100 in your wallet, you’d have a pretty good idea what it’s worth and what you can buy with it, at least over the next few weeks. Moreover, GBP may preserve value in the short to medium term, but evidently not in the longer term, over a few years or decades. To some extent this is by design, as the money supply in a modern economy fluctuates with requirements (economic activity) and central bankers target price stability over value preservation.
Precious metals sit on the other side of that equation. They are not great as a medium of exchange, and there’s a degree of price volatility which make them difficult to use as a unit of account / measure of value. However, they tend to be good stores of value over long time periods.
Now, as I see it, if governments were to impose a CBDC, it would simply replace GBP in the above equation. Accordingly, if you were to opt out of the CBDC system, you’d be without an effective medium of exchange, equivalent to if you were trying to survive without cash or bank cards today. But if you hold precious metals, or any other hard assets, you’d still be preserving wealth. And one way or another you should be able to convert these into some form of medium of exchange to obtain goods and services, whether that be via a different currency or through straight barter. The immediate benefit of holding precious metals in this scenario is that you hold this value without any counterparty risk; i.e., you are not reliant on the permission of financial institutions or governments to realise the value of your metals.
My limited understanding of crypto is that it’s trying to be both a medium of exchange and a store of value at the same time. I’m not convinced this is possible in a modern economic system, but time will tell if it may end up as one or the other.

A Brown's bottom would be one way. Lots of western nations dumping gold on the market and announcing it loudly before they do it. The price crashes down to the bargain basement prices of old and Putin's purchasing power would be massively diminished.
But which nations with all the massive inflation issues are going to want to do that? I bet the nations that sold their gold (like Canada) will regret it in the long term.

A Brown's bottom would be one way. Lots of western nations dumping gold on the market and announcing it loudly before they do it. The price crashes down to the bargain basement prices of old and Putin's purchasing power would be massively diminished.
But which nations with all the massive inflation issues are going to want to do that? I bet the nations that sold their gold (like Canada) will regret it in the long term.

If a burglar attempted to steal most people's gold holdings on this forum, he'd be underwater. So many needless boat accidents.

I heard they had milk spots.
Come to think, if there was a silver round with a cow on the design and it developed milk spots under the udders, apart from being ironic, would it increase the value, or decrease it? 😁

The beauty of gold (and silver in a more limited way) is that it is portable.
Digital currencies require internet/computers etc. Bank accounts can be seized or frozen, not to mentioned be tracked and spied upon.
Gold and silver transcend boundaries and are recognised across cultures. Consider a situation like Ukraine, having to flee with what you can carry. National currencies are only of value really in the country they are issued in (except for reserve currencies perhaps). What happens if that country ceases to exist or is under international sanctions? A ounce of gold has value across all countries of the world. If you have to flee tyranny and you can take the gold with you, it can be bartered in any country on Earth.

If a burglar attempted to steal most people's gold holdings on this forum, he'd be underwater. So many needless boat accidents.