west6

Somone on the forum once described the Maria Theresa Thaler as David Cameron in drag. I've not been able to get that image out of my mind ever since. 

George III heads horror show continued:
(I like them!)

Agreed on the 2012 Bullion Sovereign- the design simply didn't work on the Bu
 
 
I guess you are not interested in my pride and joy then? 😂... We're all different and that's why collecting is so interesting 👍
 

 
Although there are many nasty looking coins- This is by far my worse nightmare- imagine dropping £2k for this horror story...
 

The dog (with its laughing face) put me off, and then I stopped there (for silver and gold), and has only purchased the Nickel ones (for the kids).  
That being said, the little red pocket package for the 2nd (sheep) and 3rd (monkey) gold bullion is indeed a great idea!  I don't know what prompted RM to ditch the idea for the 4th (rooster) and all subsequent changes...
 
 
 
 

Don't mess with me!

Have you seen some of the obverse depictions of the queen on the commonwealth coins?
There are some truly terrible obverse designs out there. Just look at the 2021 maple OMG.
And of course there will be folk out there that don't like the queen or any type of royalty on any coin from any nation.
 

Not too terribly exciting but I added another 3.6 ounces to the stack, uncirculated 1962 vintage, fractionalized of course.
I think I got a pretty good deal too, at about $35 per ounce.

I personally believe this set looks so much better raw..than slabbed between 2 pieces of plastic....stunning....

Here you go Howie not mine obviously 😆taken from a Facebook group. First full graded set that I have seen. 

I have acquired all of the Queens Beasts 1 oz Gold Proof Coins of which I am very proud and lucky to possess. I would be very interested to know if anyone else on TSF has the same and has them all Graded? I’ve asked on two other Topics in the forum but sadly no response.  I’m in two minds about grading when it comes to Rare Coins! I enjoy them in the presentation box they come with what a beautiful sight. I understand that Collectors only buy the best and from a buyers point of view quite rightly so but given there are only, at the most 380 Sets Worldwide buyers haven’t got that much of a choice anyway! Food for thought. If Grading then I’d go for The Completer which really isn’t part of the Set but a complimentary Coin which I think is the most  stunning of the whole series. Any thoughts advice or Pro + Contra about Grading would be most welcome. 

Stay Safe y,all Regards and greetings from rainy old Germany
Howie
 

Partly as an update, and partly because some TSF members were voicing concern a month or two ago, about whether any more one ounce gold bullion QB Completers would be produced, and reach the UK market, I asked for some "bulk" photos. These got forgotten a few times because we have been busy, but finally managed to get some shots:

A stack of 100, all actually very carefully placed to avoid damage, even though it looks like a casual stack.
And...
A partial failure:

This was intended to be a 10 x 10 grid of them.
We could have been lazy, just laid them on a flat surface, and taken one shot, but Doug likes to do things right, so he and a colleague set out to photograph 100 different coins individually, then add them, in Photoshop, to one single composite image.
Adobe Photoshop is quite resource hungry, and started metaphorically groaning and complaining as the file size grew, so Doug started reducing the file size as he went along, but this is as far as he got, before Adobe downed tools and went home sulking. Tomorrow he is going to try again. He will probably have to create a larger "scratch disk", probably on a PC with a large SSD drive.
This helps to explain why there is an obvious blank area on the canvas. 53 down, 47 to go! 😎
 

You wait years for a China Construction Company gold bar to turn up, then two come along at once:

Monkey and elephant.
...and the reveerse:

Both sides quite attractive!

And here...
Set of Silver Queen's Beasts (Royal Mint), 2 Ounce

18 Krugs
2 Brits
Bought mainly from Atkinsons and HGM.
Turned up at Atkinsons looking my normal 'extreme-casual' self; pulled 20oz out of my scruffy shorts pocket and flogged the lot.
No issue with Atkinsons as they checked my ID and I also have an account with them; no issue with the banks or HMRC.
Just about broke even on the lot but I hadn't held it for too long, just stacked it over 18 months or so.

While Jill was logged into Amazon ordering yet another new pair of shoes Dan was unable to join the Royal Mint queue to purchase his QB completer coin. Solicitors are now dealing with their divorce battle .

We found time to do an unboxing video:
Short, but sweet.
 

Have some 1oz silver brits in a display case and was gutted to find the 2019 brits x2 had milk spotted.
Now as they are only bullion coins i took the chance and used a rubber to get rid of the spots on one of the coins. Although it removed the milk spots i was not impressed as the coin lost some of the shine. 
I watched the video on you tube of Backyard Bullion doing this but he did it on some kangaroo's but they do not have the same really bright shine as the brits.
I really like the Brits because of the way they shine as you tilt them and this really took the shine away.
 
Coin collectors please stop reading now as this may upset you.
Well today as i was not happy with the coin so had nothing to lose i put some car polish (Auto Glym super resin polish) on the coin and used a small polishing disk on my dremel  then wiped off with my cotton glove.
The shine was back to what it was like before i used the rubber and could not see any sign of scratching. I put next to another coin that had never been out of the capsule before and i could not tell them apart by eye.
As i have 2 coins from each year in the box and the other 2019 had milk spots on the queens face side i though i would polish that one with the car polish without the rubber first to see if the polish removed the milk spots. 
The queens face on the brits is a really nice shine so was worried even tiny marks would be seen with the naked eye but again i had little to lose so polished with the dremel which quickly removed the milk spots.
Most coin collectors if they kept reading would be having a heart attack by now but i was really really amazed at the result.
Tilting the coin under a light i can see no sign of even a slight scratch and thats on the glossy part of the queens face.
By looking at an uncleaned one side by side i honestly can not tell which one i have cleaned.
 
I took a photo of before and after but is a poor camera on a cheap phone so is impossible to show just how well it came out.
On the photo after cleaning it looks like there is still a milk spot on the queens neck but that is just light glaring back when i took the photo.
 
Remember the photo's do not do it justice but if you have a cheap badly milk spotted coin around give it a go.
Also remember i did say i would only try this with a cheap bullion coin as i had nothing to lose.
I only posted this because even though they are cheap bullion coins i was gutted to find the milk spots and am sure others have felt the same.
 
 

First in their 1100 year history. Must be a flawless coin. 😂😂

I have searched high and low but across the seas in a strange land I find you poor souls. Do not despair do not weep today you come home and are rightfully repatriated back to the UK.
Bought six more 1oz Gold Queens Beast Yale's from the USA to complete stack of ten.

2009 Royal Mint UK Silver £1 BU
In 2009 the Royal Mint produced the first of five consecutive annual silver BU one pound coins. Issued in a flimsy card box and an absurdly pliable capsule with the structural rigidity of clingfilm, the coin was an immediate and comprehensive sales debacle.   In focusing the coin on a somewhat questionable target-market of those on a quest for an imaginative 30th birthday present, we can only assume that RM advertising team must surely have been "moved along" pretty sharpish. If the evidence is anything to go by, they were, to a man, redeployed to the Quality Control Department.   According to their own website, out of a total maximum mintage of 50,000  just a derisory 359 were actually issued. I await confirmation of these figures from the mint. As my requests were only sent earlier this month, I expect  to be apprised in the New Year.   The happy result is that the mint's most poorly packaged coin, with the most ill-conceived marketing, has turned out to be the rarest silver definitive coin ever produced by the Royal Mint.    The coin itself is a good clean strike and will make an excellent new addition to my Ag One Pound collection - which has an updated target total of 80 designs.This is the first example I have ever seen and I was delighted to snaffle it for a bargain-basement £25. Huzzah!   I still need the 2010 and 2012 silver BU £1 coins, if anyone can help. They were both sold in "Baby", "18th Birthday" and "21st Birthday" sets.  



 
 

That concludes my 2oz silver Queen’s Beast collection 😊

The second coin in the Magic of Gold series from Austrian Mint is set to be issued on November 4th.

The new 24-carat one troy ounce of gold coin has been produced with 'micro-detail' so the waves in the background appear to roll as you look at them from different angles.
The illusion of moving waves is a security measure introduced to make it difficult for forgers to copy. There are others, including a disk by the bottom of the regal figure's dress that also acts like a hologram so you can see either a padlock or trident on it, again depending on what angle you look at it from.
Full Article This is Money
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-8801321/Is-new-Britannia-coin-golden-opportunity-stocks-slide.html