Tortoise

Two of Nigel Farage's children have German passports, so have all the benefits of EU membership, such as freedom of movement.

As for him being removed as a customer of Coutts, you may find thisarticle interesting:  https://bylinetimes.com/2023/07/24/farage-and-coutts-its-not-mccarthyism-its-customer-due-diligence/

Hi,

Have you considered investing in a SIPP?  (A Self Invested Personal Pension Plan).

Very easy to set up.  You get tax relief on any investments into it.  (So £100 investment costs you £80, or £60 depending on whether you are a standard or higher rate tax payer.) 

On taking your pension, 25% is tax free.

I have one with Hargreaves Lansdown and can recommend them.  Have a look here : https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp

22 hours ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

Once you buy gold you want it to go to the moon, the second you want to buy some more you hope for a 24 hour crash.  
 

question to all what highs can you see for both silver and gold in 2023? 

Yep, so true.  And all caused by me. I sold some last week, so it was bound to take off just afterwards!

Not sure if this is the correct place to ask, but that happened to @LawrenceChard ?  Havn't seen him around for a while now.

It might not make me popular round here, but could you not buy 'Invesco Physical Gold', an ETC with the ticker SGLP in your stakeholder pension?  Or alternatively 'ishares Physical Gold, SGLN?

When it comes to pensions, the other choices are poor, since you need trustees and scheme administrators, so it would never really be like holding physical bullion yourself.

You can find a cheap list of SIPP providers here:

https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

40 minutes ago, SovereignStacker4 said:

Thanks for the advice! 
 

When I started buying gold I went into it telling myself I was a stacker but since coming across the dilemma of which memorial sovereign to buy I’m starting to sway a little bit to the collecting side of things. 

I think I’m largely speaking out of FOMO and worried that if I buy one of the 3 and then it’s the other two that end up doing better long term I’ll end up kicking myself for not buying them if that makes any sense? 😂 

I was the same.  Started stacking, went a little down the collector route with the jubilee and memorial sovereigns, but decided to sell them and stick will low premium bullion from now on.  (The ordinary britannias are lovely IMHO.)  Fortunately I timed it right and didn't make a loss on the sovereigns, just a very small profit, but I feel happier to be back to just stacking, even if it is just one or two Britannias per year.

I was never into proofs, but I am sure I have read on here that over time they tend to drift down towards their intrinsic, not holding their initial premium.  Maybe someone else can help confirm?  @LawrenceChard maybe?

3 hours ago, pricha said:

Not a regular visitor to London nowadays but doesnt anyone get a little nervous leaving the store with ( hopefully) nice stack of coins in your pockets? Reading about the types of criminals that hang around looking for rich pickings in the capital nowadays doesn't fill me with confidence.  

You could have been selling to them, so it doesn't follow you will be muggable.

To answer @Bogart's question.  I have used them and a lovely coin turned up the day after I did the purchase.  They get my seal of approval.

9 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

That surprised me by being so low, at about 0.39%.

In the past, I used to hear of people being quoted around 2%, but sometimes as low as around 1%.

To put that into further perspective, one UK bullion source charges 1% + VAT for their storage, which I think is limited solely to bullion you buy from them.

Ours is 0.5% + VAT on gold, 0.6% + VAT on silver. All our prices include insurance.

Before we moved to Harrowside and installed not one but two strongrooms in our "bunker", our typical stock insurance cost about 1% per annum.

😎

Hi @LawrenceChard,

I did spend a lot of time reading and thinking about your 0.5% + VAT storage option, it had some attractions. 

However, once yet get over £31,000 of gold, it stops being cost effective, as you can get a secure safe deposit box for £185 near me.

I know that amount is a bit rich for some people, but if you are buying  a gold Brit or two and a sovereign per year, it doesn't take too many years to get there.  Do you have any plans to cap the annual fee you charge?  It would make your proposition more attractive.

3 hours ago, ZRPMs said:

@bluemoon It's true, When my sister and I were preschool age. My father had opened bank accounts for us to put in birthday and Christmas money. He had an investigation and one of the questions they asked was where on earth the children had managed to amass all this money from. My father at this point had had enough and said we had managed to secure some jobs at the local hotel. Me as a porter and her as a maid cleaning the rooms and that the tips had been particularly good. They were not impressed and didn't see the funny side. We were both under 3 and I think there was less than £80 in both accounts. It turned out he had over paid his tax and was due a refund.

I asked the accountant and he said just keep good records. If you have the room just keep them. If not try to find the room in the loft. You have it then in case it's a case of guilty until you prove your innocence. It seems this is the way its going. 

I just photograph/scan any documents I want to keep records off.  They don't take up much room on a hard drive.

The physcial papaer copies go through a shredder.

I found this was legal to do.

1 hour ago, daca said:

hope your PM feed for spot price isn't 4.5 years old

I was curious as to what had hapened to him in the meantime.

I found this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46206435

Apparently he was hanged.

I am really shocked.

2 hours ago, James32 said:

They shouldn't be making false promises ( and yes they are factually false)

 

Agreed.

I posted an ordinary letter on 7th, by 1st class signed for at my local post office, costing £2.35. The delivery aim was apparently the next working day according to the receipt they gave me.

Tracking shows it only as being received by my local post office.  Ithasgotten no further thant hat.

At least it was just paperwork and not PM's.  🙄

Not sure how long to wait before contacting royal mail about it.  I thought I would give them another couple of days so they have had 2 weeks.

8 hours ago, TommyTwoShots said:

I had a metro safety box. Closed it as the 240 per year option was to small. 

Really? Wow!  You must be a silver stacker.  Couldn't imagine having enough gold to ever fill one!

10 hours ago, KevjustKev said:

Yep, that is what I asked, yet a different answer

If you look in their Terms and Conditions, cash is not allowed, but bullion/coin collections should be, assuming I am reading it correctly.

See here : https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/globalassets/documents/customer_documents/personal/safe-deposit-box-terms-and-conditions.pdf

On 14/11/2022 at 21:28, BiigT said:

I've thought about this topic as I've grown my stash. I currently hide mine in various locations throughout my house, mainly in places that you might not look if you were ransacking someone house. As an example, putting a box with 3 or 4 sovs in the downstairs cubby bathroom cupboard. 

I've also thought about making a hole in the upstairs floorboard inside cupboards or in the corner of a room, but obviously you'd have to be careful of weight on the plasterboard. 

I haven't done any research, but another thought was to buy a climate controlled airtight storage box and put it in the loft. You'd need electricity in there, but that's easy enough. 

Not ideal, but a couple of ideas if you can't get insurance sorted. 

The problem with hiding it secretly round the house is what happens if you unexpected have a fatal heart attack, or accident. Would anyone be able to find it?

Or would it just be a nice surprise for a new homeowner in a few years when they do some rennovations to the attic floorboards?

Hi All,

I saw this in the news. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/63471074

Its 140 miles wide - which is what I call a real nugget(!) and has $10,000 quadrillion of precious metals in it!

36 minutes ago, RDHC said:

I would entirely agree about Chards keen prices and premiums. For this reason I have happily purchased several times from them. The trouble sometimes, however, is availability. The possibly indefinite wait on 'orderable' coins is a disincentive to purchase, likewise the possible second-hand nature of what may become available,  though it is all clearly and honestly explained by Chards. And I am sure that they would prefer to supply new coins immediately if they had them in stock.

I ordered a 2023 1 oz Gold Britannia from Chards and did specify a QE2 portrait on my order.  I likewise don't mind waiting as it was clearl I would have to when I ordered, just as long as the coin is a nice one (despite being only bullion!) and the premiums were a fair bit lower than elsewhere too.

What was interesting was that Chards sent me an email asking when I would like it to be despatched, which is a new one on me.  Unsurprisingly I wanted it ASAP, which is 17th Nov from the available slots they gave me to choose from.  (No way was I, or anyone else I would imagine, going choose a later date than they need to).  I had hoped it might be sooner, but at least knowing the date helps and gives me something to look forward too/fret over.

Is this a new process of yours @LawrenceChard  ?  I presume it must be based on your order backlog and coin availability.  I thought you would just do them on a first come first served basis and tell people when they would be despatched.  If you could indicate that on your website when placing the order, then it would be even better and perhaps not put people off who are worried the delay could be much longer. 

11 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

These looked too minty, so we threw them in a pile to make them look more normal. .

.

.

.

I didn't read that, but I know you would have been very careful with them.

I think most TSF members know I like to have a little fun, don't we all?

😎

Yes, I like fun, but one of those has my name on it and I almost had a heart attack!🙈👨‍🦽🙄

So, postal strikes permitting, when when are you going to be despatching my carefully stacked coin then?

21 hours ago, BullionMan89 said:

I have one, costs me around £100 a year which I think is pretty good value really. I've never had to tell anybody what is in there although as mentioned there are a list of things you can't store (illegal/dangerous covers all of these things I think). It's mostly for peace of mind really and although the contents are not insured I am very impressed with the security at the vault that I use. Not sure what you mean about HMRC though, they wouldn't know what was in there but when you come to sell you would still have to pay CGT if applicable. 

Do you mind me asking who your safe deposit box is with, because I was looking at opening one myself?  Are they nation wide?

Metro Bank in the next town to me provide safe deposit boxes but their smallest is £240 p.a.  I opened a cash account with them as the first step in getting a box, which is required to have a safe deposit box with them.  The account opening was not a smooth process, so I was not generally impressed with them.

Ideally I would like somewhere better than them and hopefully cheaper.  Any info would be welcome.

Thank you @LawrenceChard This is useful information

Well, I went ahead and ordered a 2022 half sovereign over the weekend.  (Before the £ got too beaten up on the foreign exchange markets.)

Thanks to everyone here for you help and advice.

@LawrenceChard  So, my next coin with be a 2022 1oz Brit.  Will you be getting more of those in soon?

6 hours ago, modofantasma said:

Do you not want to keep those and spend the £? 🤔

Watching Bloomberg TV this morning, so analyst think the £GBP will go don to £0.95 to the $ by the year end.  I would spend the £.

On 21/09/2022 at 21:20, LawrenceChard said:

Never panic yourself into paying too much, or worry too much about missing out, especially if buying for investment.

More 2021 gold Britannias will keep turning up, after all, 1987 ones still do.

😎

I think at the time, I thought a coin straight off the top of a tube from a bullion dealer would be less likely to be dinged or scratched.  But you are right, I know most people, on these forums anyway, look after their bullion.

I should never have procrastinated, since you have sold out of half sovereigns now.  Your website doesn't even say orderable.  Will you be getting any more in?  The royal Mint show awaiting stock and the other dealers I can think of don't have any at all.

12 hours ago, Scootermuppet said:

Personally, I think it would appeal to the 'completionists' to have a set of coins - I must fall in to that bracket, as I have a full, half & quarter 2022 Sov , but in the Blister packaging - now I want a Double Sov in the same packaging too! 😏

Don't have a pic of them all together yet, but here's the Full sov & Quarter Sov in general pictures, when I took them to my box...

That's the thing that would drive me nuts: thinking about next needing a quarter sovereign, never mind a £5 Quintuple Sovereign, which I know I wouldnever be able to get without paying a small fortune for.

Fortunately, I don't have to make a quick decsion, so have more time to mull all of this over.

Can I mention Amazon, since it is not just ebay:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/2022-Gold-Sovereign-Coin-Full/dp/B09Q26S4BN/ref=sr_1_17?crid=298K3JHORFFYC&keywords=three+sovereign+box&qid=1663791205&sprefix=three+sovereign+box%2Caps%2C68&sr=8-17

£596.50 for a bullion sov, but at least they throw in free postage!

21 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

"from reputable bullion dealers"

Is there more than one of us?

"2022 bullion half sovereign"

We were just about to do a price promotion on them, before the queen died at a very unfortunate time.

With any luck, it is merely postponed, not cancelled, but we may not know for some time.

😎

@LawrenceChard

I left my purchase of a 2021 Britannia very late last year and ened up buying it from Sharps Pixley in London at a much higher premium than you would have charged.  Excellent service and a beautiful coin, without a visible scrtach on despite being only bullion, which was the main thing.  I won't be leaving it so late this year, another newbie lesson leant.

6 hours ago, Stuntman said:

It's a nice idea to have a 2022 bullion half, full and double sovereign as a trio.

But personally I would rather have more 2022 bullion sovereigns than spend money on a 2022 bullion half sovereign.

I have the bullion full and double sovereigns for my collection, plus two spare double sovereigns for the stack.

If I add to the stack, I will buy more 2022 bullion full and doubles.

Personally I don't think there's much, if any, premium to be had in selling the trio to a buyer as a nice little set, but you'll probably have plenty of pleasure of ownership of such a trio until you decide to sell them or pass them on.

You can't go far wrong either way!

I already veered a little off course with my plan to stack only full sovs and Brits, so understand why you are sticking to your plans.

I am worried I might be coming down with a nasty attack of collector-itis🤡