Skyfiller

Good job he didn't ! 
Otherwise there would have been yet another tragic boating accident ! 😁

Hi one and all. a few things have been bothering me recently so thought I'd air them 🙂 
This is in noway an attack on any specific member, but simply an expression that hopefully unites and improves the workings of the trade section in the forum. Obviously I'm opening myself up to an outcry of backstabbing from those who find offence in my geniune attempt to improve things for both myself and every single member who makes transactions, either incoming or outgoing 😆 
Can I please make a few simple suggestions to sellers firstly.
1) describe items carefully and considerately but most importantly honestly, so buyers can make an informed decision whether to purchase or not. Stop hiding behind the "bullion bollocks" if an item is marked/toned/scratched then say so. It will save our feelings of joy being swapped for anger when we open your parcel. I can assure you and so can other fine members who list this way ( your items will still sell if priced accordingly)
2) whilst it's each individuals perogative to price how they see fit, take a second to look round the forum and gauge a realistic average? Otherwise the only thing you will be selling is "Bumps" 
3) packaging, take a second to think about the item's journey, will your coin/bar or whatever the contents survive a 5 a side at the local sorting office? I can't fathom some of the careless decisions made by sellers I've purchased from on here. Thankfully its a small number but it has cost you a repeat buyer! Can we all agree not to stick item's directly to cardboard with brown ****ing tape?? Wrap in bubble wrap or even a clean sock first, the amount of capsules I've had to replace is uncalled for.
4) feedback!! Ohh the elephant in the room has awoke, see the feedback option? Yeah maybe try using it then 🤔 the amount of people recently complaining about not receiving is quite substantial, yes we can all forget now and again, but it's what keeps us all safe at the end of the day. Also newcomers need it to get any kind of standing on the forum. ( if I owe anyone feedback that has left some for me,then just shoot a message please)
5) messages, you know the words in a box type thing, that I know you read? Respond to them out of decency if nothing else, even if it's to tell me to f#ck off.
6) have you got what your selling? Sounds obvious but apparently not. I'm not overly keen on buying items you think/hope you may be getting in. Makes you look both incompetent and risky.
7) keep buyers in the loop, do not take my/their money and ignore for days, I understand fully that postage isn't an exact science and life can kick us in the proverbial, but at least tell me if its been posted and upload tracking if ive/we've paid for it. I'm not keen on guesswork or trying to read between the lines. Most importantly tell me if my payment has been received, think how nervous a newcomer is sending money to "Jack the ripper" on the Internet?
Now I will try and see it from a sellers perspective 😆 
1) buyers ( of which I am) hopefully I've treated you with decency and respect, kept you updated with tracking/payment received etc and dispatched as fast as my timeline allows on any given day, advised in a "honest" manner whether buying from me or not. Although please realise just because you have money, you don't own me. Treat me with the same decency i afford you.
2) Be clear and concise when messaging a seller, your tying up their time ( again referring to no1) all you see is an item for sale. Well try and remember there's a human being selling it. Be polite ( thankfully 95% of buyers/seller's are) and you will find the seller might just go that extra mile 😉
3) Be a man/woman of your word?? Yes this goes without saying in life in general, but here I am feeling the need to remind people "do/mean what you say"!! Please don't tell me you will do something and then ghost me, at the very least put me out of my misery!!
4) research what you are buying and " ask yourself "can you afford it? Don't get caught up in what other people are buying, do not feel obliged to buy today out of FOMO and then have to sell tomorrow at a loss. Please for the benefit of yourself and your family have a semi coherent plan ( I know this is rich coming from someone, with the attention span of a goldfish) but I've heard/witnessed a fair few newcomers get caught out by this. Do what's right for you and you only. Otherwise you will end up bitter/in trouble financially. 
5) feedback, ohh here he goes again lol. If a seller has taken the time to ( hopefully from now on) carefully package and efficiently deliver your item safely and satisfactory, then "Yes you guessed it" then please leave feedback 😊 for me personally, it's an indication of deal complete and I can now dispose of your postage receipt, that otherwise I have to safely keep for up to a month, in fear you may tell me in a week or two you haven't received yet. 
6) be realistic/sincere with offers, I love £10/£20 off for buying in bulk as much as anyone, but being offered £350 on a item that could be scrapped for £400 minimum is an insult, yep it actually happens. 
7) pay on time or at the very least give a rough time frame for payment. Do not drag out payment for hours and hours ( unless agreed with seller in advance) then expect the seller to run to the post office as soon as the money hits their bank.
( THIS PART IS FOR THE NOISY BANTER BRIGADE ) Which I hold my hands up to being a part of 😆 
Its come to my attention that a few members have stopped/or at least thought twice about continuing to sell on the forum. I as much as anyone likes light hearted fun,  but sometimes this spills over onto sales posts, random comments can cause unfair bumping of posts and can especially lead to prospective buyers walking away. This is especially true during auctions, usually 6 pages of noise and only 2 bids, people could be excused for not knowing the current high bid or find it too exhausting to find. If we can help a sale which many of us has done ( and I will continue to do) then by all means work away, but if there's no intention to buy or cannot add value to the post, we should take our juvenile noise to the aptly named NAUGHTY BOY STEP 😉 
Anyway enough negativity, there's some amazing sellers and buyers on here, people whom I'm proud to transact with on a regular basis, people who I trust unequivocally, and whilst I've yet to experience an issue with those people/members, if I did, I just know deep down I'd be looked after. Let's all strive to be like them? 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If we burnt the Englishman and the American, they would both be Charred!
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Not true apparently but something is happening over there.
https://www.opindia.com/2022/09/rumours-of-military-coup-in-china-and-arrest-of-xi-jinping-turns-out-to-be-false/amp/

Spot +£15-£20 (currently £370-£375) on the none special design years, some might be harder to get due to mintages and the 2000 seems to be attracting a premium as well recently for a reason I do not know
Spot +£30-£35 (currently £385-£390) on the 2002/2005/2012, the 2012 is particularly sought after at the moment and as far as I can see most, if not all, dealers ran out of stock following the clamour to get QEII coins when the Queen passed away.
Agree with @Britannia47 on the designs on these, but they are all low mintage years and are very likely to be future collectables due to that, so I think a worthy date run to do.  Not as sexy as Young Head Victoria shields or the like but they already attract a much larger premium, these will potentially be a premium in 10-20 years and very affordable now.  They are largely ignored because people do not like the colour or design but you cannot argue with low mintage numbers.  I have spares of the special year designs when you start.

1oz of silver and 1oz of gold as I lost all mine in boating accident

A well known Blackpool dealer usually pays spot for sovereigns, and only occasionally less if they / we get far too many, or if there is a big gold price spike. Even then, it is 99% not 98% or 97% which some of the scrap dealers pay.
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It's 5 o'clock somewhere...

I may divide opinion posting this, but I think I feel as many others do on this forum, despite the news as of late, that today’s news has been a shock.
This is a huge shock, albeit expected, given HM The Queens ageing years. She’s the only monarch that those under 70 years old has known.
I’ve read some not so many dislikable and distasteful comments on the forum today.
But, I think, no matter what one’s own option is that HM The Queen has given so much to all of us. A duty to the end.
But above all she was a mother, grandmother and a great-grandmother mother.
I’ve looked in and out of the forum this afternoon and this evening. But no matter wether you’re a modern stacker, an old stacker, a collector of Gillick sovereigns or modern releases, be that the Tudor Beast’s or The Monarchs collection with Edward VII resale imminent.
Many people, like myself of this country and also most people of the forum, feel a ‘shift’, a change, has happened today. Within a day a changing of the guard as it were.
HM The Queen’s passing is a great loss to our country of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
I wasn’t sure wether to share this with the the wider forum but I will, as I feel I’m mostly amongst friends, but HM The Queen awarded my grandfather with his MBE some 20 years ago.
It was the happiest day of my grandfathers life.
He said to me “She was gracious, warm, kind and showed an interest in my achievement at the same time.”
We are at the end of an era. Regardless of what we collect or stack, we are at the end of a remarkable era.
I watched the news today, as many others did, the announcement of HM The Queen’s passing and I’m not ashamed to say, I shed a tear when the news was announced.
But, albeit a fictional character, Padding Bear had the right words for HM The Queen’s reign at her Platinum Jubilee in one sentence “Thank you Ma’am, for everything”.
Lastly, I’ll leave this photograph of HM The Queen.
How beautiful she looked. How beautiful she’ll remain.
This is very odd to write on the forum, but here goes.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
 

Minty sovereigns page
https://www.chards.co.uk/bullion-sovereigns-minty-condition/12649
“If you want the latest year, please see our 2021 sovereigns”.
 

It's a Nerva / Trajan so around 98ad 

Final update! 2 weeks ago I received the fake coin back in the post, with a different envelope and a hand-written address. I have no idea how this made it's way back to me. Maybe returned to my previous house and the new occupant repackaged and posted to me?
I called PayPal to get the case re-opened stating it had turned up after being AWOL for a month, took hostage photos with the coin in front of The Times homepage with the day's date, and posted it back to the original sender with a hand drawn smiley face on a post-it.
Just got the full refund today from PayPal!!!! JUSTICE (and I'm actually up £100 from RM's refund and PayPal's feel-sorry-for-me pay-out)
The saga is finally over.
 

How to Upset Your Favourite Coin Photographer - Tell 5/10, then add TDC!

2016 TDC Tristan da Cunha Gold Proof £5 Five Pounds
It's quite a nice design, but there is never much after market demand for most TDC coins.
It is also a good photo, which is what I would expect, but just for fun I added a "5 out of 10!" comment on our Teams Photography channel.
Doug replied: "Oh jeeze....I saw that and made a mental note.  And then completely forgot about it.  I initially thought you were adjudicating my photography and thought that was a bit harsh".
Me: "Sorry about that!"...
... "TDC!"
Doug: "website updated.  why did you mention TDC?"

Which I presume means number 5 out of an issue limit of 10.
The obverse is OK:

My follow up comment to "Why FDC":
"I was only joking when I said 5/10, because I guessed your reaction, so I thought I would try TDC to test for further reaction!"
I just can't help thinking what else TDC might stand for...
... and it's worse if I spell it out, because after "Tristan da Cun", the predictive text kicks in.
Is it me?
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1915-L London Mint Gold Sovereign with Extreme Orange Peel / Flow Lines - Genuine or Fake?
Whenever I am looking through gold sovereigns, there are always some features which prompt me to take a second, longer look. One of these features is irregularity or lack of smoothness which primarily occurs or exhibits itself on the fields.
This can take several forms, graininess, orange peel, or flow lines, although the distinction between these is somewhat arbitrary, and in practice many coins exhibit a mixture or these textures.
My main target when checking gold coins is to detect fakes, and most fakes display signs of poor production quality and irregularities. Because circulation coins such as gold sovereigns, at least those before George VI, were mass produced, and done so on very tight budgets, some variations in production quality is only to be expected.
Irregular surfaces and fields are not necessarily a production fault or defect, and some variation is almost inevitable.
Let's look at today's example:

Usually, I tend to show the reverse first, but the obverse has more obvious (worse) flow lines / orange peel than the reverse.

In fact, the reverse looks very good, with no notable irregularity.
This big difference between the two sides creates a slight puzzle in itself. How and why do the features occur on one side, but not the other?
I don't know the answer to the question, which is frustrating because I can usually work out a reasonable explanation using a little imagination combined with a fair knowledge of coin production.
Although I was satisfied that this coin was genuine, I nevertheless did a Niton XRF test on it:

This was on an old version of our testing form, so it must have been hanging around for some time waiting for photos or further attention.
The results are almost perfectly normal, and as expected. 0.3% silver is what I would expect. The only notable thing is the Iron content, but at only 0.1%, and only on the reverse, we can afford to ignore it. Some small impurities are quite normal, and all testing methods do have some levels of error or tolerance.
We have started to do serration counts on most sovereigns:

This shows 108 serrations, which I think is normal for 1915-L
I think that many investors, stackers, and even seasoned numismatists might query the authenticity of this sovereign, so it is worth studying as an example of a genuine coin with unusual surface features, easy to mistake or at least suspect of being counterfeit.
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The Great Gold Britannia Charity Coin £75,000 Give-Away
About two weeks ago, we were contacted by a local charity who had been left 20 x one ounce gold Britannias, by an anonymous donor.
There was concern on both sides about the state of mind of the donor, who had left them at a reception desk, then disappeared.
A day or so later, there was a different local charity experienced a similar event.
There have now been at least 4 mystery charity gift donations that we are aware of, involving about 50 coins.
Some clues have come to light, which I think includes at least one hand written note.
@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer have identified the potential donor, and everything seems to be in order.
As it it clear that the donor wishes to remain anonymous, we have and will be respecting that wish.
I have seen news reports over many years about "mystery donor drops Krugerrand into Salvation Army kettle", which have often been widely reported in national or international media, but this is the largest such case we have heard of.
Currently, I only have partial information, and I don't know how many more "drops" our mystery donor will be making, but it's a heart-warming story.
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It's slightly disappointing to hear your slightly negative thoughts about me / us.
Sure we do except as a business to make money (not literally), and be able to generate and retain sufficient profit to grow and ensure we are financially stable. This has the benefit for past present and future customers to know that we are not going to disappear overnight.
I have mentioned it before, but sometimes the very cheapest suppliers are not financially stable, and could go bust or do a runner owing money. The prime example I quote is Harvey Michael Ross of Leeds, who for years was the most competitively priced UK bullion dealer, and also the darling of the financial press whenever they commented about sourcing gold sovereigns or Krugerrands.
This thread contains some information:
Basically Harvey Ross was running a Ponzi type scheme, and ended up disappearing to Brazil, owning £ millions to investors and customers.
If I were purely motivated by money, I could have made about 10x more than I have in about 1/10th of the time, without doing anything illegal, just by being less transparent, ethical, and scrupulously accurate with descriptions.
 

Doesnt take any time for £5.99 a month.
that small fee has saved me thousands on my purchases. 

I worked in Arbroath for 12 months as opened as i open my southern west country gob - I got the look as if the music stopped in bar like scratched record in a wild west film.  Used to go to Dundee, that wasnt too bad to be fair, taxi was fortune mind to go on the sauce. The driver used to charge me extra because i was English and the extra baggage of carry my body amour and helmet going into the night clubs! Use to pull all the birds mind, because that's all used I wear - like a rutting stag on Viagra! I used to get in free, I was the cabaret!

I'm playing with mine tonight. Only using an iphone but got a cheap £20 macro lens off of amazon. Below is where I've got to on a 2021 sovereign, just need to sort out a diffuser to photograph through to loose the reflections. Also using a stand for the phone to keep it steady.
 

I'm playing with mine tonight. Only using an iphone but got a cheap £20 macro lens off of amazon. Below is where I've got to on a 2021 sovereign, just need to sort out a diffuser to photograph through to loose the reflections. Also using a stand for the phone to keep it steady.
 

I'm playing with mine tonight. Only using an iphone but got a cheap £20 macro lens off of amazon. Below is where I've got to on a 2021 sovereign, just need to sort out a diffuser to photograph through to loose the reflections. Also using a stand for the phone to keep it steady.
 

Welcome to the forum. And to settle your dilemma : Sovereigns!
 

I / we have answered it, and related questions, thousands of times before.
Rather than brief, individual, answers, we create information and advice pages covering the subjects in greater detail.
For example:
https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/acceptable-forms-of-id/413
https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/confiscation-of-gold-bullion/778
Don't get paranoid about ID requirements, trying to dodge it will also put you under suspicion.
Similar with so-called confiscation.
If you insist on buying from sources who don't require ID:
You will almost certainly pay higher premiums.
Coins may be sub-standard or counterfeit, in which case, the anonymity will work against you getting redress.
The guy down the pub might be a useful source, but see above, and...
...he might follow you home!
Also:
Governments worldwide are already confiscating much of your wealth, by something called inflation, a common type of stealth tax.
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Just landed! The one in a capsule is a double.