Oddjob

Hi all,
I'm a new collector from Australia in my mid forties. My interest in coins is relatively recent, and my introduction to them came via my dad.
During his working life my dad worked in banking at several branches around New South Wales. Turning 80 next year, he has seen a couple of changes to currency and even bigger changes to banking(don't get him started on online-banking), with the gold sovereign probably being his favourite coin. He talks about the 2 that he owned in his life, about how he (regrettably) cashed one in, and had the other set in a necklace which my older sister wears. He's a huge fan of QE2. 
I suppose he has a more relevant back story than I do. I have always enjoyed collecting 'things' since I was little, and my own penchant for nostalgia means that coin collecting is a nice fit and a bug that I'm surprised didn't bite me a lot earlier. I'm a graphic designer by trade so I also like to have an opinion on the design of the coins. On some level though, I am probably just facilitating dad's hobby as much as my own. We're both getting a bit of a kick out of it and I think on a long enough timeline it won't cost as much as some other hobbies can. Put it this way, it's not keeping food off the family table. Yet.
I know they aren't to everyones taste, but I am a bit of a sucker for the idea of the SOTD sovereigns (the concept, more than the Matte BU strike). I/we have the Albert & Victoria 200s from 2019, which I was particularly interested in because my son (who share's my dad's name) was born in that year. I also recently ordered the 3 coin set for the Platinum Jubilee, but judging from what I've seen from other recipients, I'm expecting little more than a few coins dancing around freely in a mashed up cardboard box! Ha. Time will tell.
Thanks for all the advice / input I've been reading whilst a 'lurker'. I'm happy to be finally out of the shadows!
All the best,
S.
 
 
 

Hello there guys - I’m new to this forum, even if i somtimes have been reading as visitor in the background. I am in the late 50`s and live in Germany. Since a couple years i am trying to get some precious metal into my stock for the retirement. Mostly silver as some say it is the Gold of the small people. My Focus has been on Bullion, but since COVID dropped into our live the spot for Bullion got insane. I hope to learn more about precious metals and might share experience with you guys. Of course i also hope i can trade,sell or buy from time to time some peaces of coins which i still miss in my collection.
That`s it for now - hope i can participate and wish you all a nice sunday.

After nearly a month of waiting (thanks Royal Mail), my first RM purchase arrived in last 24 hours. Only a 1/2 2021 bullion sov in blister pack but as a first up purchase from RM, it was a tester to see the process. Apart from the travel time, packaging was fine and the 1/2 sov was in good condition. Haven't seen modern sovs in blister packs in Aust before, so something  different for our market.

Massive Thanks @RiverbankSilveras always exceptional quality piece

Me too
Agree.
I also enjoy the fact they let us peak a bit under the veil to the inner working of a bullion dealer
 

They could do a "high relief" for the first KC sov to accommodate that. 😃

I can imagine they would re-strike it. They already have the dies and it wouldn't make sense to sell it at a discounted rate when you have the tools in house to fix it. Could be wrong though. 
Yeah thanks. To be honest I'm taking the ancient stoic approach of not letting it bother me. They said they would replace it and I trust they'll do just that. It's just a shame that it goes this way for so many, when the problem itself is easily fixable.
I'm not sure what they meant about the 1%. I'm guessing that it means for the immediate returns they have that allocation available. Once the returns die down they'll probably re-strike the ones that are faulty and sell them on. Again this is a guess/speculation but it would make sense taking this approach. 

They could do a "high relief" for the first KC sov to accommodate that. 😃

BN has my respect for the way they conduct the business.
I get up on fridays at 5am to catch the live stream

I think the RM has morphed into British Leyland of the 70's, and we know what happened to them.

Interesting thread this.
When I saw a Aussie bullion dealer do a "unboxing" of silver Brits not long ago, I noticed that the quality wasn't that flash on some. Going by comments here, production and post production QC don't seem to be a strong suit for RM.
The same Aussie bullion dealer did a Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale of new 1oz silver coins (from all well known world mints) of bullion silver coins they had pulled out of the stock they received and refused to sell to customers at full retail price cos of the defects...thus the box of 220 odd silver coins was sold off (1 per punter) at I think AUD2.00 over spot....didn't last long at that price and buyers knew what they were getting......
Back to the RM. I had a hellva time setting up an account with them the other month. Took multiple emails, late night calls to RM customer service to sought that out, then it was a struggle to fund the a/c, then another IT issue saw my a/c balance disappear....by this time I think my emails were going straight to the round file and they just didn't respond...All seem to be sorted now...but I await to see what my initial purchases are like when they front up eventually. Mmmmmmmmmmm

Hey mate, good to see you here. Welcome aboard. 👍 🇦🇺

Interesting thread this.
When I saw a Aussie bullion dealer do a "unboxing" of silver Brits not long ago, I noticed that the quality wasn't that flash on some. Going by comments here, production and post production QC don't seem to be a strong suit for RM.
The same Aussie bullion dealer did a Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale of new 1oz silver coins (from all well known world mints) of bullion silver coins they had pulled out of the stock they received and refused to sell to customers at full retail price cos of the defects...thus the box of 220 odd silver coins was sold off (1 per punter) at I think AUD2.00 over spot....didn't last long at that price and buyers knew what they were getting......
Back to the RM. I had a hellva time setting up an account with them the other month. Took multiple emails, late night calls to RM customer service to sought that out, then it was a struggle to fund the a/c, then another IT issue saw my a/c balance disappear....by this time I think my emails were going straight to the round file and they just didn't respond...All seem to be sorted now...but I await to see what my initial purchases are like when they front up eventually. Mmmmmmmmmmm

G'Day all,
Just joined TSF after a couple of years of the odd look see at TSF when I was searching for some information on specific bullion.
I've been stacking for a few years now and heard about TSF via a few channels being the Silver Stackers forum in Aust, Backyard Bullions video's (always good viewing) and also when I've been doing searches for specific UK bullion items, TSF is always at the top of the search results list and never fails to answer my questions....one hellva treasure trove of information in this forum. Love it.
As I've been developing a liking of some specific UK billion items of late, I thought it appropriate to join a UK PM's forum and learn a bit more about the UK PM / coin market. Now to dig in and do some reading.
Looking forward to interacting in TSF where I can.
Have a great day all.
Cheers
 

G'Day all,
Just joined TSF after a couple of years of the odd look see at TSF when I was searching for some information on specific bullion.
I've been stacking for a few years now and heard about TSF via a few channels being the Silver Stackers forum in Aust, Backyard Bullions video's (always good viewing) and also when I've been doing searches for specific UK bullion items, TSF is always at the top of the search results list and never fails to answer my questions....one hellva treasure trove of information in this forum. Love it.
As I've been developing a liking of some specific UK billion items of late, I thought it appropriate to join a UK PM's forum and learn a bit more about the UK PM / coin market. Now to dig in and do some reading.
Looking forward to interacting in TSF where I can.
Have a great day all.
Cheers
 

From an another Aussie's point of view (and I've been watching this unfold too)I believe there's a few other factors at play re PM and their alleged issues that have made the PM media and forums.
1) My understanding is that PM is not the largest silver refiner in Australia. I believe ABC Bullion (in Sydney) is. ABC are a LBMA accredited refiner for silver and gold and accounts for circa 70% of all silver refining done in Australia with PM close to 30% and some small local shops less than 1% combined. Conversely, PM refine circa 70% of all Australian gold and ABC circa 25-30% (allowing for the small local refiners). 
As such PM's inability to meet retail demand, and honour (??) allocated withdrawals / unallocated conversions (which has been in the headlines in recent times) I believe is due to them just producing large bars and shipping them o/s to help out the LBMA or COMEX....and stuff the local market. PM's retail inventory / for sale has been pretty sad of recent times and they even whacked a max "one per household" on some retail items a few months back which is a shame as their coins and bars are top shelf quality. Some of the larger bullion dealers (inc ABC) have little to no PM stock and it's been that way for months & months.
2) There's been other's in the PM media (YT) who have been pulling apart the PM financials (2020 & 2021) and reckon PM is running a fractional reserve system with their unallocated and inventory.....(that pic PM released of old mate standing amongst the 1000oz bars didn't help matters for them). I think PM are playing silly buggers with their inventory and unallocated as John Adams found out in last 12 months (?) that the PM was leasing gold from the RBA and given the change to accounting standards re leases in last 24-36 months, a company can call a leased asset their asset...so I wonder just how much physical - on site silver and gold PM has v what is sitting somewhere else but leased to PM thus they claim they have it.
3) The problem is that we'll probably never find out the answer to (2). As we know, the PM (aka Gold Corporation) is wholly owned by WA Government and reports to the WA Treasurer, who also happens to the be the State Premier. Add to that that PM / Gold Corporate is audited by the Office of the Auditor General for Western Australia, who at a ministerial level also reports to the Treasurer, so no chance of finding anything untowards going on. The head of "Financial Audits" for Auditor General for Western Australia also has some interesting bibs and bobs in his past from KPMG days....all public knowledge...just not something he puts on his CV these days.
 

It has been offcially announced that the 2022 Bullion Sovereign is to be Released 4th January 2022.
We already know that the design will be the same as the 2022 proof sovereign range, with the Royal Coat of Arms for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
Edit:
This mornng I received a further e-mail, which included this rather ambiguous and confusing content:
"The bullion sovereign launching in January has been the same for many years and been different to the numismatic version. The emailer confirming this launch should be out today... The coin is beautiful!"
This appears to contradict the information given recently that the bullion and proof designs would have the same designs.
It is possible that this latest e-mail is intended to mean that the release dates are different, but all should become clearer very soon.

Hello! Welcome to the forum 🤗
Plenty of like minded stackers and collectors of PM on here.

G'Day all,
Just joined TSF after a couple of years of the odd look see at TSF when I was searching for some information on specific bullion.
I've been stacking for a few years now and heard about TSF via a few channels being the Silver Stackers forum in Aust, Backyard Bullions video's (always good viewing) and also when I've been doing searches for specific UK bullion items, TSF is always at the top of the search results list and never fails to answer my questions....one hellva treasure trove of information in this forum. Love it.
As I've been developing a liking of some specific UK billion items of late, I thought it appropriate to join a UK PM's forum and learn a bit more about the UK PM / coin market. Now to dig in and do some reading.
Looking forward to interacting in TSF where I can.
Have a great day all.
Cheers