Orpster

Received this directly from the mint. There are "some" spots on the coin and a scratch on the capsule, but if well-trained professionals in the RM's QC department see them acceptable, who am I to say opposite?
 

Plethora of goodies for today. Thanks to @GoldDiggerDave for the graded returns. Very happy with those. Also picked up the final missing matte plain edge SOTD sovereign for the collection. To finish things off and thanks to @paulmerton for flagging this one, the 1/10 Gold Standard on sale at Royal Mint (looks like I got the final one) 👍🏼

Apologies for the potato pics, but this is a rarity to behold!
One of only eight 1/10oz gold standards in the hands of the filthy public?

Been after a George III sovereign in a reasonable condition for a little while and was delighted to be able to pick up this XF40. I am just trying to decide whether to release it from the slab.
Would really like a William IV sovereign in an extremely fine condition (doesn’t need to be slabbed) as well but you don’t see many at a reasonable price.

A trio of mammoths today via @Adamcahn Lovely design on these ones and hopefully the ice age series will continue longer than the creatures ones did!

Thanks for this one @Thomast

Arrival today! 
 
Had done some snooping prior to purchase and was hoping for number 6 or 7 as the others showed a lot of milk spotting. Win!
 
(photo taken through the plastic sleeve, those marks aren't on the coin or slab :D)
 
 

Look in the mirror mate, you have two mk1 eyeballs just above your nose
@dicker means do your research, learn how to spot fakes just by looking at the coin under a loupe
I have recently bought a digital microscope, and while I got it to be able to confirm any variants that pass through my hands it is a great piece of kit and it was not super expensive - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00XNYXQHE?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
The below is the type of detail it captures, on this example I was trying to confirm whether the A's in GRATIA on a young head were partially barred

I have a couple of sets of scales but I find these the best - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BHRTJ8QM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
I also have these and they are adequate most of the time and are very portable https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DNPPFPQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
The second set only seem to be accurate to .1 but I have had them a long time
 
 

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

I’ll look up the mk1 eyeball. I agree it can be a lot of cash dropped on p2p with no proper verification, too dangerous for me anyway. I might just bite the bullet and get the machine.
a lot of trust goes in to the companies even though I do trust them but worry about it, it’s sad thinking a fake could slip by them and into a customers hands.

Whilst you can buy gadgets, do water tests, ping tests etc I would strongly advise that the first and most important test is via the Mk1 Eyeball.  Loupe, Microscope etc against reference coins and use a load of learning that you accumulate.  
 
Good dealers like ATS won’t screw their reputation by selling you some counterfeit tat from a Turkish melt house, but it’s always worth checking without being paranoid about fakes from main dealers    
You say you don’t buy P2P - you might want to just have a look at TSF vs dealers.  There are some v good dealers but equally I know several people here who have bought counterfeits from dealers you would think you might be able to trust.

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

Is there a reason you have started to worry?
There are fake sovereigns out there but they are thin on the ground and dealers will spot the majority that pass through their hands and they will just go in the melting pot
A lot of new stackers get the same concern at some point or another, I did myself.  These days I do not worry about it at all and I would not buy a sigma as I would rather spend the money on more gold.  I do not buy US coins as they are faked quite widely.  I also do not buy bars from places like the perth mint as again a lot of fakes.  But every sovereign I know of that is a fake is still made of gold, and generally at least 21ct but sometimes up to 23ct gold.  If you get a fake, just weight it in.  You may lost a few quid but at the moment with stuff selling at spot the loss would be tiny.
I weigh my coins on some scales that cost me £25 off Amazon, if you get some just make sure you can calibrate them.  I buy older coins mostly so they can be slightly underweight but I know the tolerance and generally know roughly what a coin is going to come out to just based on the wear.  I have some precision callipers too but rarely ever use them, I think maybe 3 times in the years I have had them.  You can also do a gravity test with a jug of water and some scales for an extra check.
Regarding ATS, they are reputable and can be reasonably priced.  No dealer is infallible though, so always worth doing your own due diligence 

Shields are a hard one to price at the minute I have to agree.  For s while when spot was going mad the premiums dropped dramatically on them and you could get them at £10 over spot.  I bought a couple of batches at £440/£450ish when spot was at £1850 but they seem to have dried up.  
Most sales posts on bookface seem to be for generic bullion and people shifting their secondary mint s**** or their battered rubbish.  Or people with no sales history trying to sell the three sovereigns they own.  Some of the dealers have not posted for ages, though a couple seem to be moving decent volumes or brits and generic sovereigns at or just under spot.

Shields are a hard one to price at the minute I have to agree.  For s while when spot was going mad the premiums dropped dramatically on them and you could get them at £10 over spot.  I bought a couple of batches at £440/£450ish when spot was at £1850 but they seem to have dried up.  
Most sales posts on bookface seem to be for generic bullion and people shifting their secondary mint s**** or their battered rubbish.  Or people with no sales history trying to sell the three sovereigns they own.  Some of the dealers have not posted for ages, though a couple seem to be moving decent volumes or brits and generic sovereigns at or just under spot.

Majority of my stuff is in storage and I will not be going there for a while, and I am not really looking to sell any of my better shields anyway - if anything I am still looking to acquire while premiums on shields are so low

Majority of my stuff is in storage and I will not be going there for a while, and I am not really looking to sell any of my better shields anyway - if anything I am still looking to acquire while premiums on shields are so low

Majority of my stuff is in storage and I will not be going there for a while, and I am not really looking to sell any of my better shields anyway - if anything I am still looking to acquire while premiums on shields are so low

Majority of my stuff is in storage and I will not be going there for a while, and I am not really looking to sell any of my better shields anyway - if anything I am still looking to acquire while premiums on shields are so low

@modofantasma @Orpster @pricha @JamesH

Also the 1/2 OZ unreleased Gold Standard bullion from Trial of the Pyx.
Premium price but not too bad compared to other RM offerings especially as only 6 of them in existence.