Shep

This latest addition to my Platinum Jubilee collection is very nice 👍 





 
 
 
 
 

Managed to get this for 15% below spot, happy days! Also my oldest half sovereign by about 100 years.

Thanks to @Johnboysilver for my mandalorian bars today 

A love days like these 😊

For anyone interested, I was just on phone to RM and asked them to check the stock on a couple of things including this,
They had three in stock, I wasn't greedy and only ordered one, so there are two left - if anyone wants to do the same the product code is PJ22STD 

I found a nice Italian resource on Marenghis as to how they refer to LMU and other 20 Franc-sized coins. While there doesn’t appear to be a clear reference, the 20 Franc pieces of the Cisalpine Republic which were introduced by Napoleon after his victory over the Austrians at Marengi marked the introduction of this new coin format in Italy. Ever since it seems the Italians refer to these coins as “Marenghi”. Reminds me a bit of the story of the coining of the term “Americano” for watered-down Espressi.
This resource is in addition to the German resource @whuamai introduced and covers some later proof issues to similar spec that I wasn’t aware of. Since it is a little database, it also shows the different mints that used to coin 20 Franc pieces. (There are a few gaps e.g. 1879/80 20 Bolívares were minted in Brussels and 1886-88 in Caracas, which isn’t mentioned). 
 
https://marenghi.collectorsonline.org/cat/M-1?mylang=it
The translate buttons don’t seem to work in any language though. 

It’s an excellent idea….if your aim was to ruin your coin.

Right behind you mate, I cancelled £8-£9k worth of silver. Voting with my money and trying to hit them where it hurts, but then again someone will snap them up 🙄 
Bought 2022 Bullion Sovs 😃 

It’s an excellent idea….if your aim was to ruin your coin.

I know, this topic has come up a million times, I searched the forum... the reason why I decided to post is that, while we are on The Silver Forum and I see many stacking Silver, I just don't see any reason in it and I'd like to make the case for it, mostly because I want to know if I've got a point or I have missed something and I am flat out wrong.

EDIT: I am adding this at the top as it looks like it is being missed in wall of text. My whole point here is to look at capital conservation from a low budget perspective, I don't have much to spare and some of what I can spare I have decided to put into precious metals rather than keep it in the bank, where it only loses value thanks to inflation.
A little background:
To get started, a little about my background, which is none, as I have only recently gained an interest on the topic after discussing it at lenght with a couple of friends. I've done my first purchase nearly a month ago, getting 2 Silver Britannia from an online dealer (Bullion by Post) to get my feet wet and then I started researching, which is how I ended up with you lovely bunch of degenerates. I adore research, and Excel, I know, I'm a strange person. Anyway...
Define the goal:
The key component here is to define what we want to do and, as a stacker, I want to get the most value for the least amount of money.
Let's be clear, even as a stacker I don't see anything wrong in looking to diversify and getting different coins, as long as the price is right, when it comes to sell the worse you'll get for your 10 different 1oz coins is the same money, as they all are 1oz of precious metal, however, different coins could fetch different prices if offered first to a someone with a specific interest. On the other hand, someone might like to stack the same gold dollar and have a Scrooge McDuck bath, who knows. However, I'm going to ignore this and focus on one topic only, bang for my bucks.
The Theory:
1. Gold is King.
2. Silver bullions/bars for stackers are the worst possible option and should be avoided, I really don't see the point in it, the premiums are far too high.
3. If you want Silver, treat it as collection or buy scraps.
The Data:
I am planning my next purchase and I wanted to understand better this unholy topic that is premiums, so I went to the first website that came to mind and started looking at prices, for reference, I have used Atkinsons. Values were collected earlier this morning.

I have ported everything to grams so that I could compare 1oz coins with Sovereigns, which are listed in grams.
From left to right, coin type, weight (in either g or oz), conversion value (31.10 for oz to g, 0.9167 to get the actual gold weight in Sovereigns, as they are 22 carat), actual weight in grams, value at spot, price on the site, premium.
Left hand is Gold Sovereign and Britannia, right is Silver Britannia. Don't mind the 1/20 oz, I've seen some funny ones and included it here for curiosity, I might get a 1/20 Panda for a laugh one day, in the future, if I get really bored, and I win the lottery.
I am considering only British coins due to capital gains tax regulations, a collector might want to get Eagles, Pandas or whatever catches the eye, a stacker should look purely at value, Sovereign and Britannia.
I am looking at this from a low budget stacker perspective, so I have considered individual coins when discussing gold as I would not be able to purchase multiples, lower premiums means that you don't really get much of a discount online buying bulk, might change when dealing in person, I have no experience, so I'll stick to what I know. With Silver is worth looking at multiples as the premiums drops significantly, if I was on a budget and wanted to spend £100 a month in Silver, I'd rather wait 3 months and get 10 coins as the difference in premium is noticeable and would net me an extra ounce for the same money.
Looking at these premiums though, unless you really want Silver for whatever reasons, as a stacker Gold beats Silver hands down, there isn't even a game here, the worst premium on Gold is a Quarter Soverign at 21% versus the best premium for Silver at 45%, considering the same budget as above, going Gold I'd stretch it to 106 to get a Quarter Sovereign a month or, even better, get a half every other month. In a year, £100 a month side by side with Silver and Gold, buying in 10 x 1oz of Silver or Half Sovereign makes a huge difference.
At spot value, this is how you end up after 12 months:
With Silver you have 40 x 1 oz Silver Britannia, worth £778, and £52 change. £830 total.
With Gold you have 6 x Half Sovereign, worth 1,058, and £39 change. £1097.
It's huge, that's a 30% extra in net value, mostly VAT.
The missing factor, scraps:
There is one item that I have discussed several times with friends which I have not really seen discussed here, aside from one user that has done a very interesting post in a thread, which I really should have saved... I'll find it again, anyway, thatwould be Silver scraps. Sterling Silver can be sold easily and can be bought second hand without VAT, it should be worth to keep an eye out for auctions, drop the maximum you're interested in paying for the quantity and if you win is all gravy and you've got some nice Silver without premiums, however, I am going to ignore for the time being, haven't budgeted for this yet as it needs more research, I am considering getting involved in a few low value auctions for the sake of getting in and starting to learn about markings and metal identification, the best way to learn is by doing it.

EDIT: found the post I was referring to that made me think about premiums, only applied to Silver and Gold, rather than just Silver as in the original post, the user in question is Stefffana.

Conclusions:
My Strategy will focus on Full Sovereign for stack, I don't have the resources for Gold 1oz Britannia and the premium is the same so, why bother? Also, to the best of my understanding, Sovereign are sturdier due to being 22 carats.
I will look at skipping the odd Full Sovereign for some Quarter and Half, maybe once a year get one of each instead of getting a Full one, could be useful to have a few smaller denomination about.
For Silver I am going to nearly ignore it, I will look at getting a single Britannia for the sake of having the year and I might look to diversify into the odd release, throwing the odd quid at a Silver set twice a year doesn't sound too bad, in the future could be worth something to a collector, but I'm going to do that for entertainment and is going to be on a very limited budget, say 2 or 3 coins per year, nothing that would get in the way of the stack.
Have I missed anything?
Other than for the sake of collection, primarily due to VAT, I don't see any valid reason to buy Silver for stacking, am I missing anything? Is there something I am not understanding? As the only reasons why I see people getting on Silver, rather than gold, appears to be either budget, as they feel like they're getting more in their hands, or this idea that Silver will explode one day, but I don't really see any other reason. Am I wrong?
 
If you made it this far, thank you very much for your time, it is sincerely appreciated.
Thanks in advance anyone that is willing to contribute, I am here to learn.

I am looking to buy from long time three beautiful coins to add to another two I have already (100Pesos and 300 Pesos) from a series (Battle of Boyaca):
1. 200 Pesos Colombia 1969 - Battle of Boyaca, 
2. 500 Pesos Colombia 1969 - Battle of Boyaca;
3. 1500 Pesos Colombia 1969 - Battle of Boyaca.

2022 Double Sovereign PF70 UC to add to the special reverse collection. Heres hoping there won’t be another for a while!
 

So are you saying you cannot distantly buy unless you attend to inspect the goods?
Even then, do you have to check the coin for metal alloy? Do you have to take a XRF analyser with you or will they let you acid test it?
All of this is plainly absurd, surely they have to take responsibilty for making sure PM coins are genuinely PM?
Is asking for a condition report classed as "inspecting the goods"? Are they liable for the accuracy of a condition report?
Do they really want 50 people asking for a condition report of the type "Is this real gold, is it a genuine sovereign?"
 

2022 Double Sovereign PF70 UC to add to the special reverse collection. Heres hoping there won’t be another for a while!
 

I know it's not much, but thanks to these little beauties, my first ever gold stack now stands at a mighty 0.47ozt and I couldn't be more thrilled. Here's to bringing many more of their siblings into our shiny little family in the future.
 

 

Yes I think silver is attractive due to price. Another point I would make is diversifying between coins and bars is not actually diversifying as both are still silver and one is harder to sell than the other - thus making it harder for yourself to sell some of your silver. 
 
A small amount of it for a punt I think is ok but not holding a large sum of it. You have lower premiums on gold - it is easier to shift and you get no issues with milking. You will sell easier on here but people will expect it to be at the cheapest per ounce as possible. I would at least look at dealers for the coins you are buying and look at the spread just so you can see what kind of loss you would make if you ever had to liquidate quickly. 
 
There is always the option for you to buy paper silver as an ETC. This would be close to spot and easy to liquidate at any point at the spot price. No need to deal with trying to get the best price.
Just a few pointers I hope help.

I'm in this for the long game, so I'm hoping that I won't be stung that badly, if and when I chose to cash in any of my silver. How bad can it be, assuming that I'm already resigned to the fact that I'll lose whatever premium I originally paid? Unless the floor falls out of the silver market completely.
All that said, with premiums what they are ... I have quickly come around to the fact that gold is a better (smarter?) fit with my long-term investment ambitions and I just need to come to terms with the fact that it will mean stacking coins with a much smaller diameter than I'd originally intended. 😆
But I can't promise I won't stack any more silver... there's just something about those goddam Maple Leaves...
Thanks @FlorinCollector, I really appreciate the feedback.
FNF.

2022 Double Sovereign PF70 UC to add to the special reverse collection. Heres hoping there won’t be another for a while!
 

2022 Double Sovereign PF70 UC to add to the special reverse collection. Heres hoping there won’t be another for a while!
 

2022 Double Sovereign PF70 UC to add to the special reverse collection. Heres hoping there won’t be another for a while!
 

It depends very much on the set, but generally I would say that you'll get the best prices by splitting up sets unfortunately rather than selling as a whole. E.G. the number of people willing to pay top price for one coin will be much larger than the number of people willing to buy a whole set they don't need most of just for one or two coins.
The QBs on the whole did very well indeed but I personally do not expect the same from the Tudor Beasts and am not touching them.
Maybe the Monarchs could buck the trend (?) but not inclined to find out!

Lovely George II crown 🙂

Today I received, a couple of bullion Sovereigns from @1stsovereign. Nothing overly collectible, just simple honest bullion examples to go towards a date set. Thanks!

The obsession continues…! Couldn’t resist getting a second Black Panther silver mask from the supremely talented @StBeesSilver. With the Black Panther 2 movie’s release later this year I thought it’s only right (well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it 😏). The the differentiation from the 1st one I got with the iridescent stating is perfect. Also the 1/12 and 12/12 COAs are a nice touch. There are still a couple more left of the 12 if anyone wants to get one.
 
Icing on the cake is I discovered that they fit perfectly into a couple of Scottsdale stacker bar boxes I was going to either sell or chuck, result!

2022 Double Sovereign PF70 UC to add to the special reverse collection. Heres hoping there won’t be another for a while!