ZRPMs

Phew. Its a good job I'm not a builder

To be fair that's better than my old CRT.

Insurance, It's a double edged sword with razors in the handle. If you have it and never use it. It always seems a waste. Then, when you have it you always try to get the cheapest deal to make it cost effective. This however usually has the most clauses and is less likely to pay out when needed. That is, assuming, you can get cover for your stack/ collection. As the stack grows you have to inform them. Usually followed by a premium increase. You should never use a local broker ( not really a problem nowadays ). I remember a time when I used to collect rent from the BTL's and was working getting paid in cash. It could mount up before I could get it to the bank. I tried to get insured for it at home. At the time the best I could get an insurer to cover was £500, and the premiums were eye watering. I'm not sure what the best thing to do is. A friend has several safes. some are hidden. A couple are in plain sight, These hold token amounts of his stack and documents. Whilst the hidden ones hold the bulk of his stack. His opinion is give them some thing to tackle. A decoy of sorts, If they are able to get in there's something small in there, a handful of silver ounces, a half sovereign some cash (only to the value or just over the annual insurance premium), his thought process is that this will satisfy them and they'll make off with that. The rest will hopefully be secure. He does have a good HD camera system though. I suppose first line of security is not to tell anyone. Over the years, I have found that in most cases its best to try to self insure. By this I mean, As you require a type of insurance. For example, income protection, Stack insurance, Contents insurance, basically any insurance other than Car, Life and critical illness, Buildings and if needed Public liability. Find out what the premium would be and pay it into a separate account, preferably an interest bearing account that you can gain immediate access to should it be needed. Admittedly, first few years are risky but the fund soon builds up. Key is not to use it for anything other than your insurance pot.

Well another year draws to its end. I found myself wondering what have I manged to achieve this year? To be fair not a lot. My biggest achievement was to pay off the mortgage. Just under 15 years early. Just goes to show the power of making over payments. Start with what you can and build up the over payment. Having given it only a little bit of thought I've come up with the following !, Use cash only when in person, small attempt to halt the march to a cashless society. 2, Use my full ISA allowance for savings. I tend to use this as retirement savings. If needed I can access it now instead of having it locked away until I'm 57 or even 58 by the time I get there. 3, It would be nice to get either a gold ounce a month or a sovereign a week. I intend on using what I would have been paying the mortgage with. 4, I would like a few kilo bars of silver 5, Try to find a half decent van instead of the pile of scrap I'm driving at the moment. Its got to be costing me a sovereign a month in bl@#&y repairs Anyhow. I'm not sure how this will align with everyone else's goals. not withstanding trying to remain healthy and happy. I would like to wish everyone wonderful New Year, Healthy, Happy and prosperous. I've only been on the forum for less than a fortnight but I've been made welcome, made a deal and gained quite a bit of information. I may even expand my bullion collection in to some proofs. Many thanks to all

My New years resolution is. When in person, always use cash. Use it or loose it. My small attempt to halt the ever approaching cashless society. Apparently, 6 out of 10 transactions is now done cashless.

Welcome, Lots of great advice to be found on TSF. Best to shop around for best price. Try the buy and sell link hereon the forum. I bought just before Christmas. Excellent experience. Lovely coins.

According to Mark Hooson of Forbes Advisor, Gold Price Today UK | Live Chart – Forbes Advisor UK How is gold price determined? The price of gold is determined by the level of supply and demand. The daily price is set by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and there are two different types of gold prices: Fixed: LBMA members meet via conference call twice-daily to agree a price to clear their outstanding client orders. This is typically used for larger gold orders. Spot: this is a ‘live’ price largely used for buying and selling gold bullion. However I understood it to be just the first part of his answer "The price of gold is determined by the level of supply and demand" but even this is a bit vague. As a lot of the demand is created on the paper side of the market. Increasingly there's a separation between the physical and the paper. The availability of the physical relies on what's mined and what's in the market to trade. The paper side is not necessarily tied to the physical as there are far more contracts for gold than there is physical gold. This is the weak point in the "price set by the market". This is where the manipulation of the price comes in by the larger financial firms. The LBMA may set the two fixes for the day but they use the data from the paper trading figures more than the physical. The market is exploited by the futures market increasingly though the use of algorithms. There are those that want to influence the price for their returns. Some want the price to increase, some decrease. They use the vast amounts in their respective funds to achieve this. The only way the physical can react to the short supply of the physical gold is through the use of premiums. Anyone noticed the increase in the premiums? When I started buying sovereigns about 10 or so years ago. I could pick them up for about 2% over spot. We are now at 4%+ as a rule. I'm not saying that its the bullion dealers price gouging as they are having to pay spot or in some instances over spot to fulfil orders. I only point it out as this surely is an indicator that the price is heavily manipulated. Not sure if its related to the availability of the physical, but, I recently ticked off a bucket list purchase of 100 sovereigns. I did find it quite hard to get this fulfilled as the availability of the sovereign was quite low. Ounce coins were readily available but I did want the sovereigns. However a close friend asked if I could help him get some sovereigns. Infected with the Christmas spirit, I told him I'd just made a purchase and he could have what he wanted from me. Thinking a first purchase would be only a few. The git wanted 40. Never mind. Someone new to the shiny club.

Awsome

Finding things not seen for a while. Here's a mistake at the time of purchase. left an absentee bid and they read the 3 as a 5. I ended paying £600 all in.

Moving things around after recent purchases, I found my Kilo year of the dogs. The pound coin is for size comparison. Sorry for the lighting on the pictures.

I had a friend of the family buy from similar firms and a few of the other so called mints. She found out I had been buying sovereigns and thought it was a good Idea. OMG. She got herself in a hell of a mess. The problems she had with the different companies and customer service left a lot to be desired, but when you look at the prices she paid. It made my eyes water. They can afford to give cash back deals because the mark up is that high. She signed up to one of the mail order mints to buy a sovereign coin collection. I think it was something along the lines of The great war sovereign coin collection. Not sure. Anyway, it was a monthly payment over a period of time and as you went along they sent out a coin. They weren't what we would call genuine or real sovereigns, they were ones with a design related to the war on the reverse, same weight as sovereigns. Coins I think were half, full, double, quintuple. She ended up paying about 3 to 4 times the price of a genuine sovereign and she had problems with the delivery of the double. It was at this point she asked if I would help. It turned out that she had got sucked into their high pressure sales system. Every time there was a problem she tried to call them to get it resolved but they would end up selling her something else. I wish I could remember the name of the company, There was a few of them and its quite a while ago now, but my point is be careful. Some times the only reason cash back deals can be offered is because they are greatly over priced to start with. Then you find they are that set up for the sales side the customer service is either nil or leaves a lot to be desired. For those interested I managed to get her off the mail drops and stop the sales phone calls. Eventually managed to get the war coin collection company to accept the return and get a refund for the war coin collection but all the other over priced things she had bought she had to keep. I realise The Royal Mint might not be that bad but from the experiences I've heard of, There's quite a few similarities. Do your research.

I would have thought it might even help speed up the slabbing process for them and improve the lead times.

All the very best for Christmas to every one on TSF. I just managed to catch the end of this year with you all. I've had some great info from the forum, Tried to give a little from my experiences. Had a trade (which I'm very pleased with. Thank you James32). Seen some lovely coins. (Got a bit envious of quite a few). Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Filled with lots of shiny

Yes they Look awesome. He does plain ones as well.

In a nut shell. The intrinsic value of any coin, whilst on paper may be more than its face value. The cost of turning it into a bar of that metal will negate any increase and more than likely push you in to negative territory. Even taking in to account the increased asking price on the likes of eBay ( about 7 or 8 times the scrap value). There are lots for sale, so competition is high then there is the fee's involved with the sale. Lead is worth more when melted in to sea fishing weights. Best to do what you are doing. Also the coins have different percentage's of metals. You could just put them in the melting pot with your scrap as and when you come across them. But i personally wouldn't be purchasing them to melt. A better metal or items to collect would be pewter. Old bashed up tankards, picture frames, vases etc. They contain high levels of tin. Their intrinsic value is quite high and can be picked up quite cheap.

I have a friend that stacks copper and brass (not quite bronze I know). When he told me I thought, Ummm, don't think that's a good Idea. However, when he continued to tell me what he does. Actually I thought that quite cool. He treats it as a pass time and what he has actually managed to create is quite unique. I don't think everyone would be able to do what he's managed to do due to space inside and out. Also his ability to collect the raw material. He works as a handyman and as such he has been able to collect for free copper and brass. He's been doing it for many years. at first it was a case of just store it until there was a nice pile then dash to the scrap yard cash it in. usually end of November, Christmas cash. When he bought the place he's in now, he decided to do something different. he has a large yard that has a number of outbuildings. He turned one of them into an office. What he does is, On his down time he melts it in to ingots of about 2 kgs. At first he just stacked them against the wall. But now. he's part way through his design. He has been polishing the ingots. and trying to create a picture of a welsh dragon. the colours are not quite right as he gets more copper than brass so his dragon is gold in colour and the back ground is copper red. Its looks a bit blocky but the wall and the room is big enough that when you stand back it looks quite impressive. Its nowhere near finished and he has a lot to do but he has a drawing of the design as it will look and its pretty good. Its cost him the price of the forge (which he made himself). Time, but he treats it as a pass time. With his biggest cost being the gas. He did say he wished he'd kept a tally of this but its not some thing he's thought of selling, and the copper and brass is free. He did tell my the approximate weight he needs to complete it from how many ingots he needs but I've forgotten, However, Its tonnes. but at worst case scenario he'll have scrap value. Which I think copper is about £6000 a tonne. I'll ask if I can have a picture for the forum. Back to the question. I don't think stacking generic copper or bronze coins will build up much intrinsic value. Might be nice as a collection and certain coins will have a numismatic value but this is likely fluctuate. Buying the copper rounds and the bars is a big no no. The cost is usually many times the intrinsic value.

Just get a sovereign. Looks like when package arrives, it'll be wrapped in buyers remorse.

You can't contribute to 2 ISA's in the same financial year. Be careful not to fall fowl of the rules.

If your saving for your first property. Look in to using a lifeime ISA. The government tops up this ISA with an extra 25% of your contributions. Give this a look https://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/lifetime-isas

Be careful when changing round your ISA. If its a stocks and shares ISA you'll find a lot of the funds have dropped significantly lately. You may find you could loose more in the long run. There's nothing wrong with 7%. For the longest time I was only about 2%. Probably best to open an instant access savings account. I know they aren't great but put your savings in it that you wish to use for your PM's. When you have enough for your desired coin withdraw the funds. Keep doing this and you'll be amazed at how fast it builds up. Also don't try to stick to your % amount too rigidly. This month you might make 7% then for the next few months its 5%. A bit later on perhaps 10%. Never leave yourself short.

Its CCCCHHHHRRRRIIIISSSSSTTTTTMMMMAAAASSSSSSSS.

Welcome. I'm relatively new here myself. I've been made to feel very welcome and there is some great info and deals here.

Yes. I was told by the royal mail customer service operative that the guaranteed before 1pm next day service has been suspended. You can still pay for it, but you won't get it. I had a couple posted on 15th. only just arrived on 20th. I was also told it wouldn't be classed as lost until 23rd.

When bartering, both parties should assign a value to their item/ items. Usually both parties end up having a similar value for their goods. It's then up to the individuals to then declare to HMRC the value they had for their item. Any increase then on CGT exempt items would not be included in your capital gains for that tax year. However, non CGT exempt bullion, Any increase would be included and would be taken from your allowance. Care has to be taken that the value that is assigned is reflective of the market value should the items have been sold instead of swapped or exchanged. Not a tax expert or adviser. This is only how I understand it. I could be wrong, But I have asked the question in the past and its how the accountant explained it to me. Please do your own research as things change and my understanding may be at fault.

Trading 212, eToro, etc, They are more akin to casino's. As I understood it, the trading site owns the stock and its allocated to you. I could be wrong, but that's how it was explained to me. Your trading in CFD's (contracts for difference). They normally have some where as a disclaimer that about 70 odd % of retail CFD accounts loose money. I've used eToro and did ok for the short time I was on there. But didn't like the set up the more I thought about it. Works for some. Just not everyone.