Tortoise

Hi @dicker I think you might enjoy the book Super Forecasting by Philip Tetlock. Your comment made me think of it, since they went and compared forecasts with outcomes. I found it to be a really good read. Not that I am anything other than an ordinary forecaster myeself.

Hi, Also consider an fund which is traded on the stock market and backed by physical gold. e.g. https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/SGLP/invesco/company-page You can buy and sell through almost all stockbrokers, e.g, Hagreaves Lansdown, Halifax, etc.. Perhaps check your bank out, to see if that is a service they offer.

Hi, Another option, might be to hold a Physical Gold Exchange Traded Commodity Fund, which is traded on the stock market, e.g. :https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/i/invesco-markets-physical-gold-etc-gbp Other brokers are available besides HL, I just used them as an example. For small amount a Physical Gold fund could be cheaper than bullion Vault and I believe would have smaller spread on the buy/sell price. Regards

Thansk for posting. The gold tiger looks fabulous! 😃💖 I'm not to sure about the gold Kangaroo, the smaller one in the distance looks like it needs a good meal. 🍔🍟 I feel as tired as the silver Koala 🥱

Yes, there is more details on inflation in the EU here: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Inflation_in_the_euro_area I was watching the news on Bloomberg today and to paraphrase them a little they said the rise in inflation in the EU made inerest rate rises more likey, or sooner, so an asset that doesn't pay interest (Gold) is relatively speaking, less attractive, so the price may be weaker.

OK, I'll bite @LawrenceChard IS it 'Density should correctly be expressed in units of "unit mass per unit volume"', when it should be 'Density should correctly be expressed in units of "mass per unit volume" ? i.e. you have one to many 'units' in there? 🤓 Please poor beer into you computer straight away if correct. I'm standing here witha pint glass underneath mine awaiting its arrival 😁 P.S. What's the thing with Nottingham University Students about???? 👨‍🎓 You sound like you had a bad experience! 🤣

You could always make a clain through the small claim court against them. I understand it is supposed to be quite easy. Very frustrating to say the least though.

I am a newbie stacker too and have pondered the same question about whether I would be better off with an ordinary Britannia as well. It seems to me that nobody has a lot of love for the Robin Hood gold coin, I think there were barely any videos on youtube about it. That could perhaps make it rare, since they won't mint many if there is small demand, so perhaps it could hold more value. I really don't know. My own personal feelings are that I don't like them that much, so wouldn't be prepared to pay much extra premium over an ordinary Britiannia for one, when next adding to my small stack.

Nice, I hope to get one one day. I think the issue is the auto white balance on your camera. If you photo it against a different backgound the gold should show up.

Here is a link to the news item: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/experts/article-9871713/TONY-HETHERINGTON-gold-coins-just-left-doorstep.html My favourite bit is where the courier came back and ask him to sign for coins he hadn't received. 🤣 For my part I have had the postman just post a small special delivery package through the letterbox, unsigned for because of covid-19, even though it should be signed for, but they never just left it on the doorstep. 😕

Thanks, I enjoyed watching that.

Ah, your right, just checked, the price of gold did go up too, but the pound falling would have made it seem higher to a British person paying in £. Brexit was way before I started even considering gold as an investment, so no, I didn't and even today don't watch the gold price much. I just tend to assume that with so much money printing that prices on almost all assests will rise in the long term.

Hi, It seems you are in a similar-ish position to what I was some 30 years ago. Back then I started making very small and modest investments into the stock market via a Personal Equity Plan, the earlier version of what is now an ISA (individual Savings Account). I just kept plugging away at that as my finances permitted and have done OK. I have only recently started to get into gold to divesify away from the stock market. My advice to anyone starting out is make sure you have 3 to 6 months of cash saved in case of emergencies (for the garden fence, new boiler, roof problem, etc.) then start off investing slowly but surely in what you can when you can. Don't go all in on anything and diverify. @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer has some good advice about buying PM's at a low premium as an investment. The 'monevator' website is a good source on investing, especially low cost tracker funds. Think long term and don't worry about price volatility in the short term, whatever you invest in. Best of luck. 🐢🍀

You could get over 1.40 US Dollars to the £ before the brexit vote and just under 1.20 dollars just after. It wasn't so much that gold went up, but the purchasing power of the £ went down, which made it look like the proce of gold went up.

You are very welcome, glad you found it useful. I was worried that in posting a physical gold ETC that I might get myself kicked off the forum!😁

I am a relatively new gold stacker. I think the premium on silver is just too high for it to be sensible investment for me. Though if you did buy when prices were cheaper, I can see your logic in holding what you already have. That is not to say that I would never buy silver, but it would be a something I really liked and no thing else.

I once bought a silver proof coin once. The NHS 50p from 1998 if anyone rembers that. It looked nice, but started to tarnish and so I eventually sold it at a loss. I regard all that now as an educational experience and wouldn't buy any more silver, proofs or otherwise, as a result. So I say sell it before it tarnishes. With all the other talk of paper weights, what I would really like on my desk is a silver coin I could use as a coaster instead. I currently have an old CD serving that purpose, which is 12 CM in diameter. How cool would a silver coaster coin be? 🤣

I agree, I think most people here could do better. Just out of curiosity, have you thought about a gold exchange traded commodity fund (ETC fund)? For example, https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/i/invesco-markets-physical-gold-etc-gbp That fund holds physical gold and charges 0.15% per annum. Much less than Tally. The spread, i.e the cost between buying a selling, which would equate to the premium we pay on bullion, is tiny (<0.05%). Although you do have to pay stockbroker fees on top. It is a fund that has been around for over 10 years and tracks the gold price too. Of course, you have no privacy and don't physically hold the metal, but it is audited and has a separate custodian. Any gains would be subject to capital gains tax. That is something Tally doesn't mention. Thinking about all of that, I could see myself buying a few shares in it under some circumstances. I think it would be better than Tally. However, my slow stacking is for insurance and I want that outside the financial system, tax free and with privacy too, so it would only ever play a small part, if any. Regards. As a stacker, I think that would be better

There is a big article (looks a bit like an advertisment - their PR people have done a good job😉 ) on 'Tally'. The article is here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/saving/article-9794787/Should-look-Tallys-gold-linked-account-beat-inflation.html just wondered what you all thought? My opinion FWIW, is that it is not for me. I will stick with slowly accumulating gold coins when I can as part of a long term plan. I am also a bit shocked by some of the comments, below the article. There are a lot of people that don't seem to understand precious metals all that well.

Hi FloJo, Glad to hear it worked out well for you. It is useful to know there were no charges and to have a recommendation. It will be several months before I make another purchase, but I will bear them in mind when comparing premiums. (They look quite competitive for some coins, assuming I can cope with the stress 😁 ) Regards

Hi there, just curious, how did you resolve the problem with UPS and were there any charges?

I actually received this yesterday. It slightly sad the the first rule of fight club gold stacking is never to talk about it, so I can't tell friends or neighbours. However, since I am excited about this, I thought I would add it here. My first ever 1oz gold coin: a QB Completer! Only bullion, but apart from some very minor scratches around the rim, whch I think are due to it rubbing against another coin in the tube, it looks perfect to me. I had been agonising about getting an ordinary Britannia, but I think this was worth the small extra cost in the grand scheme of things. 🙂

That was very good of them and I am pleased you had a good outcome. I can't help feel you have been fairly lucky though. As a bullion coin I don't think you can expect it to be perfect, or if it is perfect, then that is the luck of the draw. For a BU coin of proof coin you should expect more though. But at least your storey has a happy ending.

I would be very unhappy if it were me. I wouldn't expect the space in the can where the beer goes to be solid gold, just the parts of the can that are normally made of aluminium. If he weighs an empty can that is made of aluminium, the divides that by the density aluminium, then mutiply that by the density of gold, that should give the weight in gold the can should have been made from. He should ask for that much weight gold in bullion.

Thanks @kimchi Having slept in it and thought about it a lot, when I do pull the trigger on the the 1oz Britannia at the end of the month, I think I will go for the QB Completer providing the premium is still small. Like you, I regard myself as an investor, but the small extra premium may be the price worth paying for owning the prettier coin, with some more upside potential, for the time I own it. (Not that I have any plans to sell it!)