Dawnbreaker

So did this person have something worth mentioning? If it is from the second half of the last century I might be of help.

Thank you for your response, to answer your questions. No, I haven't used them before nor know I do anyone that have. They seem to mostly sell sports memorabilia. I don't know why they are selling it at that price? Maybe it came in with a lot of other stuff and they didn't research properly what it could be worth. Maybe they purchased it for € 500 or the pound equivalent or less and they treat everything above € 500 as profit. I am aware of a number of pitfalls as part of #3 on my list of concerns and thank you for reaffirming them but I feel like a have taking proper precautions to at least make it somewhat difficult for them if it is "just" a scam. That however leaves the two main questions that I asked earlier unanswered. 1) have I overestimated the "value" of the particular set. 2) Am I wrong in thinking there will be little to no import taxes and VAT regarding this product.

I understand and normally I would but maybe I should have left out the proceedings leading up to the outcome. Yes, as I said they are weird and I don't really have a plausible explanation for it despite the fact that everybody treated it as a joke / scam. P.S. I asked them if they had a bottom price (although they didn't mention it at the start of the bidding war) and they said it was € 500.

Thx for the feedback. I understand all of your scepticism hence my question(s) here. Maybe I left out some vital information. It concerns the (regular) three graces 2020 gold proof sovereign set from Alderney and my final "bid" was around € 525 including shipping but excluding import taxes and VAT. If I try to get that from "reputable local bullion dealers" unless my information is wrong my bid would leave me about € 400 short. So in my eyes if it was "shill" bidding they did a pretty horrible job. The frontrunner bid well over 1k from the get go but in the end that turned out to be a "faker / flaker". So disregarding the proceedings that let to this outcome my concerns are threefold 1) The coin set that I had in mind is completely different from what I will be receiving and the information I used in my decision making process was somehow faulty or incomplete. 2) I am getting hit by extensive import taxes ad VAT raising the whole thing up several hundred euro's. But as pointed out by @Happypanda88 in my opinion that shouldn't be the case as investment gold is also (largely) exempt in Europe. 3) The whole thing is a scam and what I will be receiving won't be the actual three graces 2020 gold proof sovereign set. In order to guarantee that I have negotiated that a (reputable) third party will hold my payment till I have received and checked the goods. The cost of that will be on me. So my main questions here are. 1) have I overestimated the "value" of the particular set. 2) Am I wrong in thinking there will be little to no import taxes and VAT regarding this product. Thank you in advance for replying!

So I have been subscribed to this site for about a year now. I quickly found out that in origin of users and (therefore) content it is heavily UK focussed. From a coin perspective not my primary country of interest as PM coins from Britain are not exactly "easy" to come by in the Netherlands and the BREXIT hasn't exactly made it easier. However I somehow stumbled on a forum on some coin site on a deal I simply couldn't pass up on from some memorabilia shop in the UK who offered some gold coins up for sale and asked interested parties to "make them an offer". They poured it into some kind of "bidding competition" where after reaching ten unique offers they would start the bidding "war" and after each day the lowest bidder would fall of. I thought of it as a "fun game" and a clever setup and didn't see any harm in playing. So did nine others but I guess a lot of people thought of it as a joke and made a number of lowballing bids. 1 person excluded who made a "serious" offer multitudes higher than all the rest at spot + 20 % kind of level. And this is where it gets weird.....as that bid clearly was the highest and none of the other participants (including me) seemed to have any intentions in beating that offer. So after each day one of the lowballing "particpants" would drop out of contention and I had already kind of forgot about it until it was 4 people left and I was about to be "cut" from the bidding "war". For fun, I strategically raised my bid to put me slightly above the no.2......and kind of forgot about it again. Apparently I ended up being the second bid and the no. 1 bid never decided to pay because of additional VAT and import taxes and more or less cancelled their offer. So now they ask me if I want to receive it. My first instinct was to say "sure" but not having imported gold from the UK before and the reaction of the initial winner about the additional VAT and important taxes are scaring me of a little bit. The coins are legal tender so at what kind of import taxes and VAT am I looking here?

For a "reasonable" price you already have an interested party for your spare "cook". But I guess they are highly sought after and the premium was already raised from last year.

With Paulmerton giving some (much needed) love to the Euro coins a bit earlier I felt I couldn't stay behind. P.S. A proof 2,5 en 10 Portuguese Euro coin.....without paperwork unfortunately. Sometimes the difference on Portuguese coins is (like the Isle of Man's coins from the late 70's and 80's) hard to tell but I am pretty sure these 2 are. What does everyone here think?

Also a warm welcome from The Netherlands. What are you looking to stack along your journey!? Rounds, coins, bars perhaps some numismatic stuff? Over here in Europe we unfortunately have less options. With bars and rounds they will tax your shirt of your back. So we are kind of stuck with coins and numismatics. Plenty of diversity in those over here though. Enjoy your stay and if you have any questions this forum will gladly try to answer them for you!

Excuse me for not following up on this earlier. I have had a death in the family (my father) and my mother wasn't and isn't able to deal with the aftermath so I have had a very busy remainder of 2022. Since then I have received a package from "European Mint". And I will share the results with the forum shortly. Thank you for your patience and I hope to be more active on this forum the coming year.

Thanks for your reply. I did receive a confirmation on placing the order. I had not received a confirmation on the payment nor could I find the status of the order in my account. It said I had no outstanding orders. Hence the confusion on my part. They have responded that they are still waiting on some coins from the Pressburg Mint that were on pre-order when I ordered and that everything else is fine. So now I am back (but this time more confidently) in waiting mode.

Thanks, I was fearing I was the only one having this kind of problem. Anyway, they quickly responded to my 2nd e-mail saying that they still hadn't received some coins I ordered from the Pressburg Mint and that it would take probably another 1 to 2 weeks extra for them to receive them and send them to me. Like I said before the wait is not immediately a problem for me. I kind of anticipated it. The fact that I didn't hear anything however did worry me. Anyway thank you for the response and I have to say that they do really respond quickly to e-mails and any concerns you might have.

I know they have a good reputation so I wasn't too worried when I made the purchase and didn't immediately receive a confirmation. The waiting itself is not the problem. I am in no rush. However the lack of communication about the order and the progress does make me feel a bit uneasy.

Just before the VAT free period ended in Estonia I placed an order with the European Mint. I received an order confirmation with the request to pay the order and the shipping and handling fee (via a separate order) at a specific bank account. Within the hour I transferred both payments and I have since then not received any information. I have now tried to contact them both by phone and by e-mail. EDIT: received a mail back that they are experiencing an abnormal amount of orders which is causing further delays. My order would be dispatched within the week though. 5 days have passed since so I am itching to ask about an update again. In general I am not an impatient type of guy but a month to "confirm" the order and the payment is a bit excessive even to my taste. Add the lack of communication and goldsilver.be with their own "customer experience" is not looking so bad after all. Don't get me wrong I know I purchased at almost the last possible time and that things might be crazy and that they are probably facing their own problems with the supply chain but I feel they have now bit off more than they can chew and you either have to wait a considerable amount of time and / or the order falls through. Has anybody else experienced the same difficulties?

The four silver ones are 5 euro coins from Italy. - 5 euro 2012 monetary union unification is FDC or BU. - 5 euro 2013: obverse is the temple "E" of Selinunte, dedidated to Hera reverse is a metope detail of temple "C" of Selinunte, representing the myth of Perseus and the Medusa The coin is proof - 5 euro 2015: obverse is a view of Perugia from the fresco "First translation of the body of St. Ercolano from the place of first burial to the church of St. Peter" by Benedetto Bonfigli for the Chapel of the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia reverse is a detail of the fresco with the Sibyls of the Sala delle Udienze of the Collegio del Cambio in Perugia by Perugino The coin is proof. - 5 euro 2016: obverse is the courtyard of honour of the 16th century villa Cicogna Mozzoni at Bisuschio in the province of Varese reserve are the double flight water stairs of 156 steps from the lion's fountain to the nymphaum standing on top of a hill maintained as a park. In the background are details from Renaissance frescoes featuring wild beasts. This coin is also proof. The golden coins are 1/100 oz from the pope series from Guinea and they are "really" small. So they don't photograph well and while I don't have any problems with touching and handling 1 kg bars (of silver) these small coins simply feel "fragile" to me and I try to avoid handling them as much as possible. The point was that I have never seen "paper inside" the capsule but I understand how it can avoid "rubbing" the capsule during transport. But if it is practical during transport would it be harmful if I let stay in there now as some kind of "extra" protection? Regarding the gold coin I have seen opened capsules and broken capsules after opening a package but never one where the capsule is still "intact" but where the coin has moved but is stuck in their current position. I am leaning towards leaving the gold coin where it is as it is not moving now. I know for the OCD people out there that that makes no sense but the main goal of the capsule for me is that it holds the coin (safely) and although out of place it is kind of doing that now. Regarding the paper I am still a bit on the fence but I think I will remove it permanently.

I have bought a number of coins online. Although I am currently waiting on some coins to arrive (for a while now) I am not as negative (yet) as some on this forum as most transactions go fairly smoothly and the coins in most cases seem to be genuine (as far as I can tell). Two of the packages that did arrive had the coins as described in them but in a different condition than I would expect. With condition I am not talking about the quality of the coin but the way I found them in the package. For one of the 3 golden coins I found the coin had come "loose" but is still in the capsule and seems stuck in that position. Should I open the capsule (risking potentially damaging the coin) and put in the right way or just leave it like that? Secondly some silver coins I received were wrapped in "soft paper" INSIDE the capsule. Something I have never seen before. Is that for safe travel or can they be stored this way? Thanks in advance for the help.

701 Nice contest!

Hi and Welcome, any particular interests!? Could be anywhere from country, specific PM, subject or time period. I happen to go mostly for modern coins and lately the European ones as they do not always get the love they deserve. Good luck on your journey and if you have any questions you know where to find us.

I live in the Netherlands so that will be an "expensive" trip with todays gasoline prices. Anyway I am planning on eventually getting at least the questionable ones tested. They pictured ones above turned out to be CuNi so I almost bought a cat in the bag. Nice coins still but not for the price that they were offered for. Thanks for the advice though.

Because there have been many "investment alternatives" to silver that have been much more profitable as a short term investment. Real estate and land but also digital currencies and even NFT's, Pokemon cards and whiskey to mention a few. Silver should also not be seen as an "investment" but as a storage of wealth. Once the aforementioned bubbles start popping one by one we more or less think that people will seek refuge in the one thing whose value has endured through history. Precious metals. P.S. OP kudos for communicating in a foreign language but you might want to take a look at your use of interpunction. It would further improve the readability of your posts. Keep on honing those skills and keep on using that thirst for knowledge to your advantage fellow countryman!

Yup, mine turned out to be the copper-nickel version as well. I contacted the buyer and he was gracious enough to cancel the purchase. Case (almost) closed and lesson learned. Thank you all for the help!

Were they "fake" or just alternative (non-silver) but legitimate versions? Anyway, I contacted the seller about my reservations and asked him how he knew that they were silver. The answer was they were sold to him that way and that he was not aware of a non-silver variant. He did buy them at an official store though. Unfortunately with no boxes or verification. So he says he is gonna check with his "expert" and he is going to report back to me. I am thinking about sending them in to get them graded just to be sure.....or is that a rather costly occasion for a couple of nice but potentially "low value" coins?

.....thanks although I am disappointed with the outcome but what makes you come to the conclusion that the ones portrayed in my original post are in fact the copper-nickel ones!?

Is this a statement of frustration and if it is what specific incident brought you to this or do you want a serious and honest reply?

I understand that and thanks for the reply but that is like saying that a navy seals-team can help me with a rodent problem or having a F1-pitcrew on standby for when I need to have my tires changed. There must be or at least I hope there is a solution available to the general public that doesn't require the availability of machinery that costs more than the collection of most people put together. Secondly does anyone have a clue why the Pobjoy Mint made these coins so similar? They must have known that along the line this would lead to a lot of confusion amongst collectors.

I kind of strayed outside my area of expertise again and need some help determining whether my faith in humankind is still justified or someone is ripping me off and I am a gullible idiot. In short I am not a huge fan of countries / entities that allow minting different types of coins for the sake of minting different types of coins. Hence I usually stay far away from coins from nations like Niu, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Palau etc. Included in the etcetera is also the Isle of Man. However a friend of mine spots military airplanes as a hobby. I am trying to get him into collecting silver but sofar to no avail. So when I came across 2 allegedly silver proof coins with WWII airplanes I thought it might be a good way to kickstart my friends collection. However I soon realized again why I tend to stay away from nations like this especially Isle of Man. Besides minting a silver version (mintage 30.000) they also made a 1 or 2 copper-nickel versions (unknown mintage) with exactly the same weight and diameter. Is there any way based on the photos to distinguish which type of coin I am dealing with here?