SilverStorm

Quick, hide!  Before modo grabs your stash!  😆

Paying down debt faster is always a good financial decision.  Why pay more interest expense when you don't have to?  At the end of the day (i.e. mortgage term), more money in your pocket is better than in the bank's pocket.

Krugerrands were first issued in 1967, as a South African coin containing One Troy Ounce of Gold.
Since then, much information has been published about them, most of it originally by Rand Refineries, or The South African Mint.
I first noticed some of the published specifications and information were wrong on 6th April 2010, originally as a result of a customer enquiry.
As a result, I / we published this page: https://taxfreegold.co.uk/krugerrandmisinformation.html, and in 2018, we ported part of that page to this page on our newer site: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/krugerrand-misinformation-serrations/402
At the time, I omitted to take screenshots of the Krugerrand Specifications page on the Rand Refineries website, the Krugerrand page on Wikipedia, or any other sources. A few years ago, I started to try and find archived pages containing the serrations count errors. While searching, I became aware of more errors and misinformation on a large number, probably the majority, of websites which purported to give expert information about Krugers.
Today, I came across an archived Wikipedia page (4th November 2009), of which I show an extract:

The Specifications table clearly shows the number of edge serrations of all 4 sizes which existed at the time. This table was sourced from the Rand Refineries website. It might even have been me who copied it over from the RR site to Wikipedia.
To check the sedge serrations count, we take photos, including this one:

It clearly shows 160 serrations, as opposed to the 180 stated by Rand Refineries.
We then created the TaxFreeGold (TFG) page linked above, and e-mailed RR with our findings.
We received a particularly dumb e-mail reply from them, obviously from some disinterested receptionist or clerk, who had clearly not bothered to read our email, thanking us for our interest in Krugerrands, and informing us that the information we wanted could be found on their Krugerrand Specifications page, to which I had referred in my e-mail.
I wrote back, and politely pointed this out, and suggested they read my e-mail, and passed it on to a manager or superior. Eventually, we received an e-mail thanking us for pointing out their error.
Meanwhile, we photographed the other 3 sizes, and discovered that 3 of the 4 sizes had incorrect serration counts, and only 1 was correct. We shared this discovery with Rand Refineries, and also corrected the Wikipedia page.
Here is our table showing the correct number of serrations on each of the 4 sizes:
Size Remedy (Grams) Min Diameter (mm) Max Diameter (mm) Min Thick (mm) Max Thick (mm) Edge 1 oz + 0.07 32.61 32.77 2.74 2.84 160 1/2 oz + 0.035 26.93 27.07 2.115 2.215 185* 1/4 oz + 0.02 21.94 22.06 1.788 1.888 150 1/10 oz + 0.01 16.45 16.55 1.25 1.35 115  
In my recent research, I have noticed that Rand Refineries, and many other sites mention that Krugerrands are made of "Crown Gold", which is 22cts (91.66% fine) gold. While this is correct, RR, and many of the others then go on to state that Crown Gold and / or Krugerrands are alloyed only with copper. None of them mention any silver content. This piece of misinformation is rife, being repeated ad nauseam, almost everywhere. Despite extensive searches, I can find no reliable historical source which states that crown gold is only alloyed with copper, without any silver content. I think this erroneous belief has come about by people making assumptions, and failing to check or refer to historical documents.
Early Krugerrands contain silver, but many recent years do not.
I recently created a "Crown Gold" TSF topic here: 
 
Other misinformation I have discovered include:
Production of Krugerrands started in 1970.
Until I corrected it sometime before November 2009, the Wikipedia Krugerrand page contained "information" about silver Krugerrands, which at the time did not exist, except on ebay!
I had noticed that after our 2010 discoveries, some websites had started copying our new, correct, serration counts, but recently I have been astounded at the number of websites which are still spewing out the incorrect counts, 12 years after we discovered and published the truth.
I have started to compile a list of websites with false Krugerrand information, but there are so many that it will take quite some time.
Watch this space!
😎
 

Nobody here is addicted don't worry you'll not meet any bad influences. 
Just go at your own pace and keep it sensible. For example by eating just two meals a week I can buy an extra sov every 27.5 days  😏

I'm not addicted thankfully 😬
I buy because I like a design 
I buy because the price is good
I buy because I'm bored 
I buy because the wife bought a new handbag and I feel left out
I buy incase/hope the price goes up
I buy because the price comes down
I buy because I haven't bought in 2 days 🥳
Point being all my decisions are logical 👆😵‍💫

There are definitely worse things to be addicted to 🤷‍♂️

Just wait until you've held your first 1oz coin.😍

You may find one or two other poor afflicted souls round here🤪

I bought my first two sovereigns last month. I thought that'd do for now and I'd maybe add one or two more over the next few years. Nope. I'm at it again already and bought another two sovs this month. I'm feeling a bit gold feverish  

Thanks for your comment @SilverStorm. I guess whether I buy it directly or a bullion dealer does there is the possibility of some extra import charge I don't know about. Adding a middle man would also add an extra fee too I would imagine, for their time and trouble. What to do eh. 

At the moment just aiming to buy all the above ground gold and silver, including yours.

I think that paying down more of your mortgage is good if you think that a realistic increase in interest rate in the future would jeopardise your finances going forward - this would give you a bit of a cushion if interest rates do go up.
I would personally aim to finish paying your mortgage just before you retire.
Pay down any high rate loans first and then put some money in investments that you believe in and taken time to understand.
Might be useful to know what monthly disposable income you actually have for investing?
List all of your outgoings, and I mean all of your outgoings (you'd be surprised), including what you anticipate (e.g. new car every 10 years) and include any reasonable costs associated with any unexpected expenses... engineer callouts, food increases, boiler replacement, appliance replacement etc.  Work out an average e.g. I expect to replace x number of appliances and it would cost £10 a month on average when I include 3 microwaves, 3 kettles, and 1 washing machine over the next 10 years or so.
That way, you know when you invest, you're not eating into the 'cushion' you've set aside.

Paying down debt faster is always a good financial decision.  Why pay more interest expense when you don't have to?  At the end of the day (i.e. mortgage term), more money in your pocket is better than in the bank's pocket.

My apologies, I was thinking about the wrong product when I posted my answer above.   To clarify, I was looking to get either the GVS Bullion Tester or the Goldanalytix Magnetic Screen Scale.   Both of these are magnetic scales, and tests the PM for it's innate magnetic properties.   The Goldanalytix Magnetic Screen Scale (I believe) has a weight limit.   This is why I went with the GVS Bullion Tester.  
The GoldScreenBox works similar to the Sigma Metalytics PMV (as shown in the video).   With regards to the pricing and capability of this product, I didn't look into it, as I already have the Sigma PMV Pro Mini.
I hope this clarifies my above post.  
 

Stunning rare 1820 1/2 Sov with a mintage of 35,000 in a nice grade 
Stunner 
Hoping to add the 1818 and 1817 to complete the run 

Paying down debt faster is always a good financial decision.  Why pay more interest expense when you don't have to?  At the end of the day (i.e. mortgage term), more money in your pocket is better than in the bank's pocket.

Given that I have now managed to buy all the gold/silver/platinum coins and bars that I intended to buy when I started doing this seriously about 5 years ago, I have arguably reached my end goal.  However, this 'stack' is now actually 'a collection' which I don't want to sell...
So my decision is whether to continue buying, but this time to buy gold just as a stack and not a collection.  If I do this, the idea of stacking bullion sovereigns is perfect.  I would just keep buying the current year bullion sovereign as cheaply as I could, as often as I could.
As well as my physical PMs (which are almost all 'a collection') I do have ETF holdings in all 3 main PMs.  I add to these from time to time in my ISA and my SIPP.  These investments will be sold opportunistically on the highs.
I'm sure I will still add occasional items to the PM collection.
All the PMs, whether physical or ETF, are part of a wider set of diversified assets including cash and shares.  And I'm currently overpaying my mortgage and ensuring that I have 2 years of living expenses saved in cash.
I'm in my 50s and intend to stop working within the next 5 years.

Mortgage overpayment verses PMs is always a hard one. It really comes down to personal circumstances. My mortgage allows me to overpay 10% of the remaining amount - resets in Jan every year - without penalty (additional charges), which I do.
I think finance is a lot like diet. Everything in moderation does no harm. Overpay on mortgage; pay off credit cards (or don't get them); live within your means; repair instead of replace; buy PMs.
Spread your portfolio into as many baskets/assets as possible.

Imagine! Just having enough gold to one day say, that’s it, I’m done with this work stuff, where is the beach.
 

Nice target of 1 sovereign a month for 30 years, that's a total of 360 Sovereigns! 👍
If you're saving for retirement don't overlook a pension though, a mix of gold plus other investments is the key.

Today I received (or received this week at least) a couple of forum purchases. A circulated 1/2 Sovereign to take the 1872 spot in the album courtesy of @1stsovereign and a stunning 1877 Dutch 10G courtesy of @stackerp5.
Not the LMU/LMU-unit conforming stuff that I'm focused on at the moment, but wonderful pieces of world gold nonetheless. Thanks to both!

I think he is a distant relative of Sani Abacha, famous for:
Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud
😎
 

Something cool from apmex. Baby 1oz Vault bars 

Not had any coins delivered in ages 🥲  But this turned up today a piece of craftsmanship.  Fiskars axe with a hickory handle.  Still working on my wood stack and I'm convinced it will out perform gold this year! 

LOL....🤣. To begin this guy is a bad investor leaving $750M cash in a bank. Second he should have lowered that amount to just thousands probably he would have scammed more people....