LawrenceChard

TSF shows your location as "Britannia". San Jose is ambiguous. It could refer to San Jose, California, United States San José, Costa Rica or any of more than 100 other places, none of which are in "Britannia": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_José In fact "San Jose" without the acute accent is generally recognised as being the one in California (Do you know the way?) Whereas most of the San Joses are actually San José with an acute accent. As you presumably know where you are more accurately than anyone else on TSF, then it is likely that you are best placed to find the information you are requesting! 😎

I wish I could have given you a quick answer from memory or contemporary notes, but I had to do some research including price look-ups, which are more easily available in US dollars than in pounds sterling, so I would also need to find historic exchange rates, feed them into a spreadsheet, and more. I think my first awareness of silver prices, and silver content in coins, was about American coins, probably because they were still using 90% silver in coins up to and including the 1964 Kennedy half dollar. The Silver Institute https://www.silverinstitute.org/silverprice/1960-1965/ has this: "Once the Treasury stopped selling at that price, market quotes for silver quickly rose. In June 1963 the Treasury replaced the $1 silver certificate with Federal Reserve notes. By 1963, silver prices reached $1.29, the monetary value of silver in coinage. At prices above this level, holders of silver certificates would have been able to redeem them for more valuable silver, under the now-defunct silver certificate legislation. (The other trigger price the Treasury worried about was $1.38, at which level it would have become profitable to recycle coinage for its silver content.)" I can remember silver certificates selling for a slight premium, and this must have been around 1963/4. While checking historic silver prices in pounds, using https://www.chards.co.uk/silver-price/silver-price-history, I noticed a price as low as £0.07 in January 1932. Prices from 1792 to 1891, they had been about £0.30 to £0.20 per ounce, with a few peaks at around £0.36; I can only assume that the 1932 low was due to the Great Depression. Silver would have need to be above about 0.30 per ounce to make pre-1920 coins worth a premium for their silver content, and back then we were not aware of anyone stashing silver coins as a precious metal investment, mot of the market activity was aimed at scrapping it, and refining cost could easily have been as high as about 20%, meaning prices above about 40p would have been needed. This was reached in 1960, but I was never aware of any big volume market. For pre-1947 coins, spot silver would have needed to be above about 60p, and this was reached in 1966. Again, I was not aware of any volume market until later. I can see that spot silver was £1.88 per ounce in January 1974, and I can remember having an extremely busy period, or about 6 months during 1974, which entailed 16 hours working days, with perhaps 12 hours on Sunday. At one period, we were shipping up to 1.5 tonnes about 3 times per week, to be scrapped. Some time before that, we did sort through bank bags, and often got about 20% yield of pre-1947, with a few pre-1920 finds. Before the end of 1947, most tof the pre-1947 coins had all but disappeared form circulation, although some still turned up from bank's old "bullion" stock reserves. By the time silver hit over £21 in the crazy Bunker Hunt days of 1980, most of the scrap silver we handled came from silver items such as cutlery, trophies, tea sets, etc., rather than coinage. Some of the dates and values above may be approximate, because it is not quick and easy to find daily prices in sterling for the period.

Doug could not resist doing a "Focus Stack" on this coin: "Focus Stacked using Picolay - Helicon Focus is better but licence expired. Picolay saves in 72 bit - no option to increase before stacking (no paid version either) Still worthwhile with Picolay. I've asked management to consider renewing Helicon now that we have 3 togs." Although it looks like we need to renew our software license to use a better DoF program. High relief indeed! Especially as it is only about 19mm diameter (similar to a half sovereign). 😎

Quite right! 😎

Most TSF members could tell the difference between silver and cupro-nickel at about 10 metres, possibly by smell, but mainly by colour. 😎

While we are at it, none of the "copper" coins will be copper, most of them will be bronze. Some of the later "copper" ones may be copper plated steel, but I am mainly being pedantic. 😎

Because you have included things like 1967 penny, my guess is that most of the stuff is near junk numismatiically. You may have spent more time listing it than it's worth. I guess the 1869 might be "date only". I / we would pay a few thousand pounds for it if "mint" (without a hole). Circulated does not mean something is not proof. "Circulation issue" means not proof.

It depends on the exact circumstances... ... but if anything untoward happens to them anytime soon, there may be a lot of TSF members with long memories. 😎

You can say that again! 😎

It would be highly unusual for any of these coins to be "floating around", as they all have a specific gravity greater than 1, although there were some recent discussions about metals with a lower density. As you mention that you have a "big list", I suspect they will not continue floating for much longer. Many TSF members report have had "boating accidents" Time to abandon ship! 😎 Don't put cupro-nickel in puddings. Nickel is a known allergen! 😎

It's not so much whether a cetificate could be traded as a separate entity, although it happens, more that a certificate is not an integral part of the coin. Certificates could be interchanged. It would be rather difficult to transfer a banknot serial number to a different banknote, or to lose it. Your A 02020 serial number looks good, and probably does add soome saleability and therefore value, to the right person. 😎

I doubt if that would / wll apply to a coin with an RM issue price of £5010! Who could that dealer have been? 😎

Of course 007 would be the best on a James Bond coin. I think cert numbers might make greater percentage difference on lower cost coins. With banknotes, the serial number is an integral part of the note, whereas with a coin, the cert is separate.

@Brucey? 😎

I have zero idea, six times over. Interesting though! 😎

I would never rate an ex-Pyx trial coin very highly, partly because of the handling and possible damage they would have received, which all makes them less desirable and valuable. Marketing them as something special is probably creative, but gimmickly IMO. Random? If the production is all done as one batch, then possibly, although if not all coins have been sold, I think certificate numbers will be used in batches, with lowest numbered batches used first. So if the issue limit is 1000, but the Mint make a first batch of 250, then these will be numbered 1 to 250, but may be random within the batch. A sceond batch might be numbers 251 to 500, etc. 😎

How Much is a Low Certificate Number Worth? e.g. #001 on 2022 Two Ounce Gold Proof UK Monarchs George I This is not a request for help in pricing, more a platform for discussion. What does everybody out there (or in here) think about certificate numbers? From 1714 to 1727, George I was on the front side of British coins, now he is relegated to the backside. It does look good on a large gold coin. ... and the booklet: All comments and opinions welcome. P.S. Don't tell Barry! 😎

True, if the price is a rip-off, then "free postage" is the answer, and vice versa! 😎

For London Coin Company, overpriced is standard, although ridiculously overpriced might be more accurate. and who in their right mind would buy that on ebay? 😎

Very well spotted! 😎

Australian one kilo Chinese gold lunar calendar coins, by Perth Mint. Moderate premiums, but would still be a challenge. In the bonus side, you do get a different design every year!

This auction: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/royal-Mint-team-Gb-Tokyo-2020-Olympics-Held-In-2021-uk-50p-GOLD-Proof-Coin-RARE-/234579692961?hash=item369e0a0da1%3Ag%3Az3IAAOSwQTxiEqrm&nma=true&si=g%2BxzvzlFd2uTwQb0eskyDFlLLZM%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 sold for £770 But I'll bet the actual coin is dated 2021, and that the seller bobun24 is yet another ebay scumbag. If not, he is stupid, because he did not show the date in any of his 5 photos. My money is on scumbag / binlord, rather than stupid, but he could be both! 😎

What? This page: https://www.chards.co.uk/2021-olympics-50p-team-gb-gold-proof-coin/14673#:~:text=2021 Tokyo Olympics Team GB Gold Proof Fifty Pence Coin,(22 carat) fine gold. But it is 2021 Why don't I know about the 2020 issue? 😎

It depends if you are trying to buy it or sell it! 😎

Certificate number 1 Issue limit 126 The coins are very nice too! 😎 Edit: I just posted photos of the coin here: and also asked How Much is a Low Certificate Number Worth? e.g. #001 on 2022 Two Ounce Gold Proof UK Monarchs George I 🙂