Skyfiller

Appreciate we are not supposed to talk about the forum on the forum, but in case people have not seen the stats from @ChrisSilver this is worth looking at.
As per one of my posts earlier this year, the trade sections are absolutely packed with volume / flow for Gold.  This is great - there were times when I wanted a Sov or two and there were none available for a week - now there is constant flow and a great deal of variety.
New members take note, TSF offers an awesome platform to buy and sell, and the cost of membership is well well worth it for the trade section alone.  
 
 

https://www.export.org.uk/news/603013/Queens-Awards-winners-2022-export-victors-praised-for-resilience-and-ingenuity.htm
 
might be worth an email 

https://www.export.org.uk/news/603013/Queens-Awards-winners-2022-export-victors-praised-for-resilience-and-ingenuity.htm
 
might be worth an email 

I was browsing this morning for some info on another area of British coinage and accidentally stumbled upon this article. It's a bit of a gem and I'd thought I'd share it with any of you who care about the history and use behind sovereigns and half sovereigns. I personally love these academic articles where a contemporary has gone to some trouble to inspect and analyse the currency they found.
Part 2 onwards is fascinating - the quantity by date of sovereigns and halves which were to be found in change from 1817-1867 issues - some are scarcely found. There's a surprising amount of 1841s found - predictably very few of 1819.
1864 make up over a fifth of sovereigns in circulation in 1868!
Also of interest into part 3 and 4 of the article are the percentages found circulating below legal tender weight.
Pg 440 is particularly fascinating. It gives some idea to survival rates in 1868. Bear in mind that many more coins will have been melted since. Perhaps worth comparing with Marsh - to see how they marry up.
Open source so free to download.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2338797
 

I don’t like certifying coins and locking them in slabs.  
My Mk1 eyeball and research is not fun and valuable to me - and I have seen coins over graded to my eye anyway.
My outrageous forecast: In 100 years I suspect PF70 modern issues will be worth more in their original boxes than slabbed.  

Ooooooohhhh that sounds painful. Have several hours out in nature walking in the woods or along the coast instead 
TV, newspapers, radio, social media etc are all mood hoovers 

A great resource to check for bank savings rates in the UK is Money Saving Expert:
Savings accounts: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

At the time of writing the best rates are:
Easy-access savings: allows withdrawals Chip – 3.4% Notice savings: give notice to withdraw Market Harborough – 4% for 180 days Cynergy Bank – 3.65% for 120 days Fixed-term accounts: must lock cash away Allica Bank – 4% for six months Shawbrook Bank – 4.04% for nine months OakNorth – 4.48% for one year OakNorth – 4.52% for two years Cynergy Bank – 4.55% for three years These links will take you to pages on the MSE website mentioned above.

Good to know, for those who have a Monzo account, Monzo also offers a 3.2% instant access saving pot. You can have one of these savings pots, this pot is held with Monzo, they also offer other savings pots with money held through the Monzo app but with different banking institutions. 

Regular savings accounts, to make regular payments: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts/
Top existing-customer accounts, including First Direct – 7% fixed Barclays – 5.12% variable on up to £5,000 Top open-to-all accounts Halifax – 5.5% fixed Nationwide – 5% variable These links will take you to pages on the MSE website mentioned above.


Please feel free to add the latest best rates below or to discuss savings accounts below  

I take em back behind the ol barn, set em down on the ol stump, and put em out of service for good with a single shell of the ol double ott buck... 
Then I go inside and have a good cry for about 40 minutes while I drink a whiskey and think about all the good times we shared.

I often thought Brits were better value than sovereigns although there's a lot of value to liquidate in a Brit if you just fancy raising funds to re-carpet the spare room. That said I'm not too fussy about quarter ounce premiums as even a sovereign purchased early last year has increased its value noticeably. Also the initial outlay of Brits puts me off. And the convenience of liquidating sovereigns is presently around the value bracket I'm comfortable trading within. 
🙂 Nope, despite premiums I like my gold in bite sized chunks that I can trade with. Brits or any bar over 10 grams and I'm oot. 

That's what they look like when you take the foil off. 😁

These lions have brushed their teeth 😁

The Shield is still iconic and sought after, with the enduring (50 year) image of Wyon’s Young Head, and of course the endless varieties. Also minted in Sydney & Melbourne.
This one was picked up in the late 90s for £72 from the Dorset Coin Company 1871 die No.2 in EF. Basic Sovs we’re about £50!
Will let the photos do the rest…..

Proclamation on 17 March: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4300418
St George & the Dragon grained or plain edge
BY THE KING A PROCLAMATION DETERMINING THE SPECIFICATIONS AND DESIGN FOR A NEW SERIES OF FIVE POUND, TWO POUND, SOVEREIGN, HALF-SOVEREIGN AND QUARTER-SOVEREIGN COINS IN GOLD CHARLES R.
FIVE POUND GOLD COIN
1. (1) A new coin of gold of the denomination of five pounds shall be made, being a coin of a standard diameter of 36.02 millimetres, and being circular in shape.
(2) In the making of the said gold coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard diameter specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding 0.125 millimetres per coin.
(3) The variation from the standard weight will be measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogram of the coin.
TWO POUND GOLD COIN
2. (1) A new coin of gold of the denomination of two pounds shall be made, being a coin of a standard diameter of 28.4 millimetres, and being circular in shape.
(2) In the making of the said gold coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard diameter specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding 0.125 millimetres per coin.
(3) The variation from the standard weight will be measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogram of the coin.
SOVEREIGN GOLD COIN
3. (1) A new coin of gold of the denomination of a sovereign shall be made, being a coin of a standard diameter of 22.05 millimetres, and being circular in shape.
(2) In the making of the said gold coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard diameter specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding 0.125 millimetres per coin.
(3) The variation from the standard weight will be measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogram of the coin.
HALF-SOVEREIGN GOLD COIN
4. (1) A new coin of gold of the denomination of half-sovereign shall be made, being a coin of a standard diameter of 19.3 millimetres, and being circular in shape.
(2) In the making of the said gold coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard diameter specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding 0.125 millimetres per coin.
(3) The variation from the standard weight will be measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogram of the coin.
QUARTER-SOVEREIGN GOLD COIN
5. (1) A new coin of gold of the denomination of quarter-sovereign shall be made, being a coin of a standard weight of 1.997 grammes, a standard diameter of 13.5 millimetres, a millesimal fineness of 916.7 and being circular in shape.
(2) In the making of the said gold coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard weight, diameter or fineness specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding the following, that is to say:
(a) a variation from the said standard weight of an amount per coin of 0.012 grammes;
(b) a variation from the said standard diameter of 0.125 millimetres per coin; and
(c) a variation from the said millesimal fineness of two per mille.
(3) The variation from the standard weight will be measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogram of the coin.
(4) The least current weight of the said gold coin shall be 1.98 grammes.
DESIGN OF THE COINS
6. The design of the said five pound, two pound, sovereign, half-sovereign and quarter-sovereign gold coins shall be as follows:
‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “· CHARLES III · DEI · GRA · REX · FID · DEF” and for the reverse a depiction of St George armed, sitting on horseback, attacking a dragon with a sword, and a broken spear upon the ground, and the date of the year. The coins shall have a grained or plain edge.’
7. This Proclamation shall come into force on the ninth day of March Two thousand and twenty-three.
Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace, this eighth day of March in the year of Our Lord Two thousand and twenty-three and in the first year of Our Reign.
GOD SAVE THE KING

Shares are down, golds up. Im not all in on anything and I know with Gold around an ATH it’s the current favourite but realistically diversification is the key. My shares have took a hit, my gold is offsetting that hit and doing it’s job and the portfolio stays balanced, we are in a time where just not losing your shirt is a start. When the rubble clears that’s when there can be a fortune to be made but we are a way off that yet.
At the moment i think we have the perfect storm for gold to go up further and other asset classes to fall further. Doesn’t mean one should liquidate one for the other, just hold tight and keep moving in the right direction. Taking profits is never a bad thing either though especially when something is the highest price in history, all depends on where that money goes.
The price of gold never has and never will go up in a straight line and daily or even weekly predictions are pointless (yet entertaining at least). I don’t think it’s over yet, and as many say in a year, 2 years, 5 years time will £20 above or below the current spot price really matter?
Prediction for the week? It will definitely go up or down, that I’m positive about!

The majority of the messages on this forum probably come from someone sitting on the toilet at home doing a s&it

Damn

I’ll sell my tubes of 2022 jubilees at £560 a sov…..so just have to wait for about another 3 weeks! 

Ongoing issues with this that we are currently working on and expect to be working on for  least the next few days if not the next several weeks while we work with the various developers in regards to the different custom applications/plugins that we have that need to be upgraded. There are also some core features that are experiencing some issues as well as the database itself, since the upgrade. Apologies for any intermittent downtime in the meantime whilst the gremlins are at work. 

A full list of issues that we are working on to fix after the upgrade can be seen here:
https://www.thesilverforum.com/topic/75208-a-few-errors-since-forum-software-update/
 

Swiss watches changed to 925 in 1914 to match our standards.
Anyway, that’s a British import hallmark. There is the standard mark, the town mark for London and the date letter b for 1917/18

Swiss watches changed to 925 in 1914 to match our standards.
Anyway, that’s a British import hallmark. There is the standard mark, the town mark for London and the date letter b for 1917/18

Something to ponder... if you feel that £1650/oz is too high, and you're sitting with £20k in the bank, how would you feel if you woke up one morning and overnight you'd been part of a bank bail-in and now you have £15k in the bank and a 100 shares in a worthless bank?

As @Tn21 says, average purchases over time even out the blips and dips and at least you have something to show for it. 

I put the below together for my missus' friends who had inherited some FIAT and were concerned about it sitting in the bank (This was in September/October last year). I know that there are several people on here that echo the same thoughts, keep enough FIAT in the bank to pay several months bills and then choose wisely what to do with the rest. Keep adding to your stack is one option, but even asking opinions, is simply that. What serves one, won't serve another. The banking industry is the wild west and we need to remember that. They play fast and loose with our deposits (that aren't ours once deposited, they are unsecured loans to the bank), so the current turmoil should serve as a warning and a reminder to not keep all your eggs in a FIAT basket.

Just my two pence worth
 
UK Bank regulations:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2021/executing-bail-in-an-operational-guide-from-the-boe
- Check out the PDF on this page "Executing bail-in: An operational guide from the Bank of England"
- This details basically how they banks can enact this scenario. However there is no mention of a limit or amount at which the bail-ins get taken. Eg: £85000 and above
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/freedom-of-information/2021/questions-about-bail-in-and-customer-deposits
- Whilst they state that protected deposits are protected (FSCS Protection £85,000 per account per banking license**) and you wouldn't lose any money, you might not be able to access it for a period whilst the bank stabilises itself. As you could imagine, if a bank did perform a bail in, a lot of customers would want to move banks. This could trigger a further requirement for funds.
- I wouldn't take the above to mean that upto £85,000 or £170,000 on the joint bank accounts would be safe, we know how the Central Bank and Government like to change the rules to suit
** - FSCS determines that an individual can have upto £85,000 or £170,000 jointly protected by a banking license.
- https://www.fscs.org.uk/making-a-claim/customer-info/banking-licences/
- As of March 2020 (PDF below ~52 banking licences that cover over 350 Managed Financial Institutions)
- https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/prudential-regulation/authorisations/which-firms-does-the-pra-regulate/2020/fscs-banking-brands-march-2020.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bail-in-powers-implementation-including-draft-secondary-legislation/bail-in-powers-implementation
- The Bank of England links above are backed up by the UK Gov website
- This does however state the following:
The BRRD also includes provisions regarding the ranking of deposits in the insolvency hierarchy in what is currently Article 98A (subject to renumbering). It requires Member States to ensure that:
“eligible deposits – that is, deposits of any amount that qualify for protection under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (in the UK, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme)
– from natural persons and SMEs, have a higher priority ranking in insolvency than the claims of ordinary unsecured creditors
covered deposits – that is, deposits that qualify for protection under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme, up to the coverage limit (in the UK, £85,000) shall have a higher priority ranking in insolvency than the part of eligible deposits from natural persons and SMEs that exceed the coverage limit”
As outlined above, the government is seeking views in the consultation on the transposition of certain aspects of the BRRD. The government will consult on transposition of the remainder of the BRRD in due course.
As for stacking physical PMs, the best company in the UK to buy from is Chards.
https://www.chards.co.uk/
The majority of the PMs that we have purchased come from them. This is for larger bulk purchases.
https://tavexbullion.co.uk/
Tavex is a European PM dealer that has recently opened in the UK. We’ve made several purchases and their customer service is the best I’ve found. Their smaller volumes of coins are the cheapest in the UK.
European PM Dealers:
https://goldsilver.be/en/ (Recommended from a TheSilverForum.com member)
https://www.coininvest.com/en/ 
https://europabullion.com/ 
Stacking physical PMs won't make you wealthy or rich, it is however more over a hedge against inflation and better/safer than having all your net worth in a bank account that attracts no interest and bank sharks.
If you are wanting to stack Silver/Gold I would recommend starting with Britannia's/Sovereign's (Gold only) as they are exempt from CGT. Bars typically attract CGT on either PM, as do coins and bars minted outside of the UK.
Whilst both are legal tender (have an ascribed face value), silver is subject to VAT for whatever reason (I have a theory and happy to divulge if interested).
So with Silver, you'll effectively be in negative equity in the short term. But if you plan on holding for a longer period than you will more than make up that initial additional expenditure as base currencies are devalued by ever more QE and debt currency creation.
Gold Britannia's are VAT and CGT exempt, but obviously cost more.
For both, the more you buy the smaller the premiums, this is the dealer/seller markup based on market dynamics of supply and demand to a certain extent.
I would also suggest some smaller denominations less than 1oz. If we do find ourselves in a nightmare scenario (otherwise known as an SHTF) or an internet blackout (pray we don't) having smaller 1g/10g/0.5oz denomination silver might be useful for payment/barter as well having some cash on hand.
This should cover most of the bases should you need to buy goods, pay bills.
The below is a list of links from a friend of mine @HerefordBullyun. Thought I would share this list of the best financial related documentaries I’ve watched. I am listing them in my favourite order. If I can provide links I will.
1. The four horsemen (link to watch)
Great documentary and sums up (link in name) i actually believe that children should be taught this in their late teen's. Gives an overview how the world is today and correlation with war, economy, business and how the 1% work. If you’ve never watched this - you should and make your family watch it. But points to why you strongly why you should hold PM's.

2. The Century of Self  (link to watch) - Adam Curtis
Shows how the theory of how Freuds nephew applied psychological techniques to sell to the masses, and these techniques still work till this day. Intriguing and well researched. How Freuds nephew become a very rich man. Curtis Is great documentary writer.  Hypernormilisation and Bitter Lake are well worth a watch. The latter explains about how the birth of the mess in the middle east foreign policy and the mess we are in now.
3.  Inside Job - Rotten tomatoes review -98% but you can get on various platforms
An in-depth analysis of 2008 financial crash. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists
4. The Big Short - on Netflix and Prime
How Deutchse bank got shafted by Goldmans in a nutshell.
5.  Overdose - the next financial crisis(link to watch)
Explains about how the bankers can continue to kick the can down the road by increasing debt.
6. Money for nothing - inside the federal reserve  Imdb review but you can get it various platforms
Shows all members of the fed in all their glory - NOT  Especially Alan Greenwankspangle
7. 97% owned(link to watch)
Really good UK docu. 97% Owned is a new documentary that reveals how the creation of credit and the mystery that surrounds it, is at the root of our current social and economic crisis. Referring to the 97% of the world’s money supply that is represented by credit this thought provoking film presents serious research and verifiable evidence on our economic and financial system and is the first documentary to tackle this issue from a UK-perspective.
Hopefully that is not an overwhelming amount of information for you in one go. I am more than happy to have a chat about this further.

 

Hi, 
As you have previously purchased from yours truly I would like to offer my opinion. The price action between £1600 &£1640 is miniscule and I don't think should be the basis of your decision whether or not to purchase. 
If you don't mind me saying -
If I remember correctly when you purchased the items of me, spot dipped and quite significantly too.  
Right now the items are under spot. 
No one can time purchases, because there are quite a few variables in play such as spot price, exchange rate USD-GBP and premiums on coins, politics etc.
 
Depending on how much you want to buy I would suggest you average your purchases out during a period of time. 
Gold only popped off recently due to the SVB / banking issues. If this event did not occur there was a slight amount of negative sentiment towards the metals and I don't think prices would be anywhere near where they are now. 
In the grand scheme of things £100 here or there does not really make that much a difference. 
I simply take pleasure in the fact that I have a tangible asset which is away from the 'banking system'. 
Buy as and when you see fit 😉

@James32 vacuum cleaner blew a fuze and he told them to pause spot while he got it repaired. That’s the power of high rollers 🤑

@James32 vacuum cleaner blew a fuze and he told them to pause spot while he got it repaired. That’s the power of high rollers 🤑

@James32 vacuum cleaner blew a fuze and he told them to pause spot while he got it repaired. That’s the power of high rollers 🤑