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This might be slightly left field but just a suggestion! For some reason there's a massive stigma with some people about second hand rings and to be honest I don't really understand it, the gold that goes into new rings has probably been reclaimed from other melted down bits of jewelry. A quick anecdote: When I was getting married in 2019 I told my now wife that I wasn't going to buy a new ring and was going to get mine second hand (the inner stacker was talking) - she hated the idea. She came out with some nonsense about how its bad luck or whatever else and said that she wanted a new one. No problem I said! You only get married once I thought so I agreed to buy hers new and I bought it online from one of the mainstream dealers (her choice). Some of these dealers you will note use terms like "super heavy" & "extra heavy" to describe the weight of the rings rather than actual grams. The look on her face when it arrived was priceless. This was the smallest most pathetic excuse of a ring you had ever seen, I remember I weighed it and it was 1.6g which worked out at an extortionate premium for the price paid - "extra heavy" indeed! Needless to say the ring got returned, we shopped around and also found her a nice weighty 18ct gold ring at a very reasonable premium over the actual gold value. They arrived nicely polished by the independent jeweler and you couldn't even tell they were secondhand. Also (touch wood) having second hand rings hasn't brought us any bad luck yet either. Admittedly I appreciate this wont be for everyone but search the web and most independent jewelers have a section for preowned wedding rings. Worth a browse if nothing else.

Thanks both, and yes I suppose I was missing the point there really. Who cares if it’s cleaned if it’s fake!

A coin I desperately want to add to my collection and am umming and arring about purchasing the one in the below video. I’m not too sure on it polished/cleaned/brushed perhaps? The obverse seems worse than the reverse to me. Any and all opinions welcome and would be gratefully received. IMG_4049.MP4

Meanwhile at The Royal Mint product development desk….

I can’t really get on board with that. If the seller doesn’t like the terms of the auction (I.e. no reserves) they shouldn’t enter their coins in it. I don’t see it as anything other than fundamentally dishonest and as you say it artificially inflates prices for all. The danger of potentially winning their own auction isn’t a particularly good excuse for it either, I’m sure these individuals are extremely proficient at finding the right balance to ensure they don’t win. I do remember the member that @Nick1368 was referring to in his original post and I was honestly surprised that some people genuinely believe this is an acceptable practice and par for the course. It begs the question of how many people/members shill on a regular basis without a second thought. It seems systemic.

I sometimes find myself drifting into collecting modern proofs. What swiftly makes me drift back out is flippers, ever increasing premiums and the need I seem to feel to have PF70s. All these things just sap the life out of collecting modern proofs for me Sad but if it’s less than a 70 I just don’t want it, anything less than perfect with the prices they charge just won’t do for me 🤷‍♂️, and if buying from the Royal Mint it just isn’t good odds. Also I have nothing against flippers at all, I just don’t like getting involved with chasing premiums.

Whilst we’re on the subject of conmen, the London Mint Office are flogging high mintage 1911 - 1914 George V Half Sovs like they are a numismatic rarity. How much you ask? For the paltry sum of £249 you could own one of these fine examples of British history at only a 62% premium over their actual worth. But wait there’s more! It comes with a “no quibble guarantee” and free postage. Oh and don’t forget the certificate of authenticity that will be fit only for the purpose of wiping your behind on. An “ultra rear” opportunity to own a high mintage coin at a “lowe lowe” price I’m sure you’ll all agree. https://www.londonmintoffice.org/kg-v-halfsov?Ac=92014311&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI47-e0tX28QIVAzDTCh1j5wrfEAEYASAAEgINgvD_BwE Honestly it boils my blood when I happen to catch one of their ridiculous adverts filled with hyperbole and nonsense on day time television (clearly targeting the old or those who may not know better). In my mind these kind of outfits and their snake oil salesmen are little better than eBay scammers themselves.

Not sure if you’ve posted the wrong link there but thats a 1/2oz Britannia for £755 at around a 15% premium.

Became aware of these recently on a resurrected sales thread. Loved the story behind these coins and just had to have one. Chards blog post about the coins for those who are interested: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/the-bank-of-canada-hoard/1002

“Ultra rear” apparently 👌🏼 Looking at his other sales he seems to specialise in selling viagra as well as ultra rears. 1x eBay lizard reported this evening for me.

I agree with you. I can see the merit in some of these “paper” gold accounts but like you, it’s not for me. If I’m buying PMs it has to be physical. I don’t want any agencies/organisations/governments to know how much I’ve got or who I choose to give it to. One of the last, and most likely will be the last bastion of some form of financial privacy after they inevitably do away with cash.

Haha I like your analogy and I see your point but the issue stands that in the U.K. if you need to sell your stack quickly for a milestone purchase, emergency, whatever, you’re going to need to sell to a dealer and you’re going to get absolutely smoked. Yes I agree you can sell piecemeal to individuals and pass on the VAT premium. If you truly need to get out of your stack it’s going to be difficult to do that and not take a pounding at the same time.

Don’t feel upset about it, if you want it buy it 🤷‍♂️. If you’re buying to build a stack and not as a collector, bullion silver just doesn’t make great sense in the U.K. at the moment. If you’re buying to collect as a hobby then that’s fine but if you’re expecting silver to preserve wealth I think at the moment gold is a better option (for many of the reasons explored above). Yes you might have to save up more and would have less coins coming in each month but ultimately it’ll probably do more for you long term. I don’t know about others but every time a read a topic about gold or silver bullion that involves the word “invest” it makes me cringe a little bit. I think it’s a slightly misleading to think about bullion PMs in this way, especially if new to the world of stacking. Typically an investment grows and actively makes money. As we all know, bullion PMs typically just preserve the value of that fiat money which you bought in with, and at the moment in the U.K. I would argue gold would do a better/less risky job of that for you. @FutureStacker Just for my own curiosity, why does it specifically have to be silver for you? Is it that you like it more or is it that the price per Oz is more attractive to you than that of gold?

I would agree with @Foster88. They must knock out hundreds if not thousands of bullion sovereigns an hour when they’re minting them and most likely it’s just a mistrike rather than anything nefarious.

Yes completely agree with you there regarding select numismatics. I should have clarified in my post, I was speaking from purely the bullion stacking side of things for a newbie.

Unpopular opinion incoming: Stay firmly away from silver. You’ll hold it for years and unless something magical happens you’ll possibly break even if you come to sell it. If you’re purely wanting to preserve your wealth or as you say make an “investment” stick to low premium gold. (All IMHO and apologies to silver stackers)

I’m sure a great number are already aware but Token publishing offer a free printed issue of Coin News delivered to your door as a trial. I had a punt when I bought Marsh from them a few months ago and from the issue I received it seems like a good quality magazine, filled with lots of interesting content. If nothing else it’s well worth taking them up on the free trial. https://www.tokenpublishing.com/subscribe/coin

£1195!!! I almost sprayed my coffee across the table reading that! How on earth do they justify that price for two bullion sovereigns in a fancy box.

Ah no I didn’t mean to say you were, i simply meant “before taking it further”. Poor choice of words on my part. Hope it works out for you 👍

Before getting heated I would give them till close of play Monday, which unless stated otherwise is when in theory they should be sending you confirmation of postage by.

I sell a little on eBay but since the managed payment system was fully introduced I have avoided it to see where the dust settles. If I may, the fact that it’s a cesspit aside, why has managed payments specifically made using eBay untenable for you? (Not a loaded question, just asking purely out of curiosity and for the fact I don’t fully understand the negative connotations of using this system).

@darkninja1985 “Both items found on demolished site. Items have been weighed and magnet tested. Not 100% sure they are genuine.” Please read as: “I’m 99% sure they’re fake but im going to try my luck and see if I can catch a sucker”

I would argue this is exactly what appears to be happening on many dealers sites. Talking specifically about bullion products, when spot falls, prices do not seem to fall at the same rate as they rise and therefore the relative premiums over spot increase. Either that or as you also alluded to, they seem to misplace their entire inventory of bullion immediately upon any large drop in spot and nothing is available for sale. I’m being cynical, perhaps it just sells extremely quickly, but it’s hard not to see it as a little bit of price manipulation by dealers.

Much like everything else, dealers prices go up like rockets and come down like a feathers.

High mintage for a SOTD and yet another addition to the ever growing legion of matte finish / privy mark sovereigns. Doesn’t feel particularly special to me and imho doesn’t feel like a long term winner. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but with these releases i ask myself - if I was buying from the secondary market is there anything about this sovereign that would make me want to pay more than bullion for it. In this case the answers no. Matte finishes and privy marks have now firmly been done to death for me.