LawrenceChard

Who mentioned Birmingham? 😎

It looks like a bargain... ... until you go to checkout: Shipping price:£15.95 Total Price (including delivery): £38.37 IMPORT DUTIES NOT INCLUDED Although there will be no "import duties", you will probably have to pay VAT,which might be 20% of the total cost, adding another £7.67, subtotal £46.04, and there may also be a shipper's customs handling fee. Does this answer your question? Do you really want a QEII? This offer is for KCIII: https://www.chards.co.uk/2023-king-charles-iii-silver-britannia-bullion-1oz-coin/17653 Quantity Premium Price Per Item (Exc. VAT) Price Per Item (Inc. VAT) Total (Inc. VAT) Est UK Delivery 1 £3.50 £23.03 £27.64 £27.64 £3.50 5 £3.45 £22.98 £27.58 £137.90 £6.00 10 £3.45 £22.98 £27.58 £275.80 £6.00 25 £3.40 £22.93 £27.52 £688.00 £6.00 50 £3.20 £22.73 £27.28 £1,364.00 £11.00 100 £3.10 £22.63 £27.16 £2,716.00 £27.60 250 £3.10 £22.63 £27.16 £6,790.00 £30.60 500 £3.10 £22.63 £27.16 £13,580.00 £50.20 1000+ £3.10 £22.63 £27.16 £27,160.00 £100.40 So, for 1 piece £27.64 + £3.50 = £31.11 Your choice? ... and don't ask for free postage! 😎

... or worse? 😎

At least one dealer broke the RM embargo by sending out e-mails yesterday. This is a repeat offender. Doing this risks having your allocation / order cancelled / postponed, or having your trading agreement revoked. IMO, this is a ridiculous risk for an unfair short term gain, at the potential cost of a long term side effect. Anybody ordering from embargo breakers should be aware their orders are also at risk of being delayed or cancelled. In addition to this, do collectors / stackers / investors want to buy from dealers with such an unprofessional, unethical outlook? 😎

There is some free advice here: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041 Which you might find useful. 😎

Were those images from the RM website? 😎

Being slightly pedantic, 1 coin does not constitute a set! But good luck with the sale. 😎

That surprised me by being so low, at about 0.39%. In the past, I used to hear of people being quoted around 2%, but sometimes as low as around 1%. To put that into further perspective, one UK bullion source charges 1% + VAT for their storage, which I think is limited solely to bullion you buy from them. Ours is 0.5% + VAT on gold, 0.6% + VAT on silver. All our prices include insurance. Before we moved to Harrowside and installed not one but two strongrooms in our "bunker", our typical stock insurance cost about 1% per annum. 😎

This puzzled me for a few moments. At first I thought you were referring to quintuple sovereigns; I think the Royal Mint now call those "£5 sovereigns". I had to read back through the thread to realise you meant a sovereign for £5. If you had used the "Quote" button, (and made it idiot-proof) I would have understood instantly. It was probably me being a little dumb, but my mind has swiched between about 20+ different topics in the past half hour, and I have only had one coffee. Time to take a short break... 😎

It doesn't seem too long ago since we (Chards) had the 4 coin 1937 gold proof sets for sale at £3,500 each. Loads of people called up interested, but we didn't sell any of them for about 2 or 3 years. We bought a few more in, and I think we had 4 in stock at one time, We ended up selling 3 of the sets off to a fellow dealer at a very slight discount, after which everyone wanted to buy one, and the market prices shot up. I don't even know how much they are trading at now. 😎

It would be interesting to hear what percentage premiums people get quoted. 😎

What is it exactly? 😎

You could use a Coke tin! 😎

I am sure you will spend many happy hours reading it! 😎

This may help you: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041 😎

Perhaps they are not sure either... ...and I'm going to bed! 😎

" Sometimes people want a date" Or you being sexist again? "Some people like buying from auction - safety blanket" The number of auction houses, general and specialist, listing obvious fakes recently is appalling, so it's an illusory safety blanket. There are probably an infinite number of reasons, all connected to stupidity. 😎

Quite a few years ago now, when Marsh's The Gold Sovereign went out of print, secondhand copies were changing hands for around £75. or perhaps more. The recent editions now incorporate The Gold Half Sovereign, along with Double Sovereigns, and Quintuple Sovereigns, and the new price is a bargain at £40. There is also one well known Blackpool dealer who is daft enough to sell it at a generous discount. It would be worth the OP investing in a copy. I know I read the original edition from cover to cover, and learnt a lot. I have become rather complacent or lazy, and have not found time to study the most recent editions as intently. Personally, I don't really take too much notice of the Marsh or any other scarcity / rarity grades, as many are somewhat arbitrary. I do tend to use my own experience though, and consider that any half sovereign with a mintmark is scarcer than a typical London Mint half. They usually turn up in very worn or damaged condition, presumably because they were popular, and circulated with higher velocity than (full) sovereigns. Higher grade ones are defintiely desirable, and I do know that Marsh used to take grade into account when assessing and applying rarity grades. I had a conversation with Michael about it once. 😎

I don't think it is sexist to prefer female monarchs, or females in general for that matter. I might have a shave in the morning! 😎

Albert Einstein — 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' It's not new. Way back when @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer was still called R&L Coins, and still in Dale Street Blackpool, I / we used to sell gold sovereigns at £4 each, with quantity breaks down to as little as £3.50 each. We also used to sell scarcer dates and better grade ones at £5 each. We used to have few local collectors who would call in regularly to see what we had to extend and complete their date ranges. Sometimes they would haggle, or try to, if we had more than just one or two "new" coins for them. One day, someone told me there were some sovereigns in a forthcoming local general auction sale. I went along for a look. They were all modest grade, i.e. nothing special. Two of our regular customers were there, and each bought a number of very ordinary sovereigns, and astounded me by happily paying around £6 to £7 each. The next time they called in, I mentioned this to them, and they both looked in their notebooks, before telling me "Oh they were dates you coudn't get for us", or words to that effect. They didn't seem to realise or care that we would have got them almost every date eventually, and at just £5 each, even when I pointed it out to them. I don't think they ever tried to haggle again. I learnt a few things that day, but I still only asked them £5 for our "better" sovereigns. 😎

Many or most of the traders who used Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd did not have any insurance, for various reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_burglary Safe deposit companies would probably need to know and have evidence of the contents before they could or would insure it. You could look to other insurers, but they would almost certainly want similar information, and they may not know the level of the security provided by the vault. 😎

I fully appreciate Krug https://www.krug.com/, and multiple Krugs are surely better than single Krugs, however we digress. Although I would be pushed to call Krugerrands beautiful, they are a nice enough coin, and I hope I give them the love and respect they deserve. As the world's first modern gold bullion coin, there will always be a place for them. Of course, there are many who prefer the beautiful golden yellow colour of pure gold, rather than 22 carat, so when the Royal Canadian Mint introduced their gold maple leaves in 1979, it is understandable that they were preferred in some countries. In the UK, the fact that sterling is CGT exempt tips the balance slightly in favour of investing in UK coins. Choice is generally good. We almost have too much of it! 😎

Good spotting! It is probably worth showing their entire post here, before I comment: Why Were Krugerrands Illegal? Published on December 15, 2022 by APMEX Krugerrands are bullion coins that were first minted in 1967 by the South African Mint and the Rand Refinery. The coins are made from gold and have a face value of one South African rand. They have been popular with collectors and investors worldwide since their release. Although importing Krugerrands was illegal for a brief time in the United States, there is still some confusion on the legality of the bullion coin today. The Controversy Over Krugerrands The South African Government introduced the Krugerrand in 1967. Gold demand stayed high for the following ten years. At the market’s peak in 1979-1980, the Krugerrand was one of the bestselling Gold coins globally. As more people worldwide became aware of South Africa’s Apartheid policies, the Krugerrand gold coin lost popularity, especially as other competing gold coins were introduced to the market. In 1985, the United States Raegan administration called for the ban of importing Krugerrands in protest of apartheid. This American ban had a significant impact on South Africa’s economy. Premiums on Krugerrands fell below those of other competing bullion coins. Many investors misunderstood this ban and thought Krugerrands were illegal to own in the U.S. when the ban was on importing more Krugerrands rather than owning them. The ban was lifted in 1991 when the South African government took serious steps to end apartheid. Ever since then, Krugerrands have been legal to import, and they have always been legal to own. The ban on Krugerrands had a dramatic impact on the global bullion market. The 1985 ban on importing Krugerrands directly led to the creation of the American Gold Eagle. The US Mint stepped in to fill the void left by the Reagan administration’s ban and modeled the iconic coin after the Krugerrand. Vintage gold coins produced in America before this were made of 90% gold and 10% copper. And most modern bullion coins are .999 fine gold, also known as 24k. The Krugerrand is 22k gold. This is a mixture of 91.67% gold, 3% silver with the remainder comprised of copper. The US Mint followed the roadmap laid out by the Krugerrand, and the Gold Eagle remains 22k today. Not only did the US Mint copy the composition, but they also mimicked the dimensions by offering four sizes that were identical to the Krugerrand. The Gold Eagle replaced the Krugerrand as the gold bullion coin of choice during the import ban and it has remained so even after the ban was lifted. Krugerrands Today Today, Krugerrands are still considered one of the most popular gold coins in the world. They are legal to buy and sell and for countries to import and have been since 1991. These coins remain a smart and secure investment if you are interested in investing in gold. ---- It is a typically US-centric post, as though the USA was the only country in the world, or the only one which matters. In addition, there are a number of error or curiosities: First, their page URL includes "are-krugerrands-illegal", but the title says "Why Were Krugerrands Illegal?" Later the article concludes "and they have always been legal to own". I wonder who was this "Raegan administration"? Some time ago, I Niton XRF tested a 1967 Krugerrand, and I need to find the results, however I doubt that there was 3% silver in these early coins. There certainly was a silver content, but I suspect it was lower. I also feel sure there was nothing in their original specifications which dictated the percentage of silver content. The article omits the fact that more recent dates of Krugerrand are purely gold:copper alloys, with zero silver content: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/krugerrand-gold-content/507 Another point "And most modern bullion coins are .999 fine gold, also known as 24k." I would certainly disagree with that. Many modern gold are .9999 gold, with some even being .99999 fine. Only a few were ever .999 fine gold. As to these being know as 24k, although sadly this is true, they should strictly speaking not be known as 24k (or 24ct). Three-nines .999 gold is .999x24 = 23.976ct, which is not 24k! While I can understand amateurs being sloppy with their facts, I don't think it is great for professionals to do the same. Having said that, I am aware that our own website does sometimes refer to .9999 gold as 24ct, although on at least one of our factual information pages, we do present the facts accurately: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/0.999-gold/419 I have previously Niton XRF tested modern American one ounce gold eagles, but again, I would need to refer to my notes about them. The do contain some silver, but I don't know from memory what percentage. I half expected the Apmex article to wrongly state the number of edge serrations, but they did not mention them. Some years ago, I was introduced to a couple of Apmex. This was probably in Berlin or Frankfurt, and I was happy to hear a great compliment from them, that whenever they wanted to know anything about gold coins, they referred to our (old) TaxFreeGold website! 😎

Let me know if you ever want to chat about gold! 😎

I wondered something similar, and took a quick look at Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01390064 This is for STEPHEN BETTS AND SONS LIMITED. and has an alert "Accounts overdue Next accounts made up to 31 December 2021 due by 31 December 2022" This is not necessarily as bad as it sounds. Many companies file their accounts late, although penalties for late filing has been increasing in recent years. I was already aware there were multiple incarnations of "Betts", There is a Betts History page here: https://www.bettsecology.co.uk/betts-corporate-history There is a "Betts Metal Sales" in the USA, and Betts Refining in the UK. There is also a Betts Investment website, which states its company number as 01390064, the same as Stephen Betts and Sons Limited. There was a JOHN BETTS REFINERS LIMITED which was "Disolved" in February 2022: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01329560 If you read the auction title and subtitle: Government Proceeds of Crime Auction of Betts Fine Gold Grade 9999 Bullion Bars Finance Repossessions Although it is not very informative, there is nothing about liquidation or insolvency, so I strongly presume that the gold bars in the auction were not directly connected with Betts, except as the original refiners. I am slightly surprised that I have not seen or heard any news story about a £1 million "bust" of a drugs or money laundering crime syndicate, and hope we might hear more about the background of the auction eventually. We did not buy any of our Betts bars in the auction, and I do not even know if our supplier bought his in the auction, direct from Betts, or elsewhere, although we did carry out the required level of due diligence before we bought them. 😎