LawrenceChard

Dyslexia rules, KO? 🙂 How do you think he can afford to buy all these RM coins? 🙂

You should look out for the 2021 version of the 2016 coin! 🙂

Looks like it: Is it in hieroglyphics?

Queen's Beasts Silver Proof Set Photos: Black Bull with Spots White Greyhound with Spots Griffin with Globs Unicorn with Ulcers Falcon with Flashes Five substandard out of 5 so far, balance to follow...

That's a very easy question for me to answer - no! I have read some stuff about hydrogen fuel cells, but took little notice of production methods, Using platinum as a catalyst would not surprise me, though, from my old "O" level chemistry days.

Yes, probably because the EU pursued a faulty green agenda. I too used to think we should use diesel as it was more efficient, meaning less fuel used, less imported, lower CO2 emisions, and was not fully aware of the particulate problem. My main source yesterday was https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/2017_09_Diesel_report_final.pdf, which looks as though it was commissioned or run by a green lobby group, but nevertheless presents much data in one big report. (I did not read it in its entirety).

Although a consensus view is just that, a view, and nothing more... The Royal Mail example was good, thanks for providing it. My, slightly simplistic, way of thinking is "buy when something is / seems cheap", but combined with "buy when the item is out of fashion" (rather like the Royal Mail example). Also, I try to make sense of pricing, and spend much time thinking "what's happening out there", then think how is that affecting prices, are prices out of line / abnormal, if so, why? After multiple questions, thoughts, data input, I sometimes reach a conclusion. In this case, my conclusion is that platinum is much cheaper than I would expect it to be, with all or most factors included. Yes, I am aware of low catalytic converter demand in the past few years, and into the next few years, but I think the price drop, out-of-favour status of platinum is overdone, therefore I think it is considerable more likely to go up relative to gold and currencies, than stay level or go down further. As it happens, last night I spent an hour or so looking at the international diesel car market. I had not realised that Europe was the major market for diesel cars. Apparently diesel car sales were as high as about 70% in Europe until dieselgate, they are now under 50%, but... Diesel car sales only constitute about 14% of the international market. Most Europeans are likely to overestimate the relative drop in platinum demand. Also, most of the drop in platinum demand for catalytic converters is almost certainly factored into its pricing. In any market which is open for speculation, prices usually precede supply / demand factors. I don't expect rapid price increases for platinum, as I suspect it will take considerable time for investors, particularly smaller ones, to realise that prices are low. Typically, the public and press wake up to price changes when they are very noticeably well under way. I may be wrong. I am also not trying to "sell" my opinion as investment advice, simply to state and explain my views. I do also have about £200K+ invested in platinum, so I have put some money where my mouth is. It would be more, but @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer is trying to deal with long production and shipping timelines, by maximising its investment in popular gold and silver investment items, by buying what would normally be unnecessarily high stock levels. If demand drops or supply improves, this will free up spare cash, which we might then redirect into more platinum, rather than keep in in cash.

Fair enough, but in my earlier, longer, post about platinum, I majored on the gold:platinum ratio. Go back to before 2010, and platinum was usually at a higher price than gold.

Queen's 95th Birthday S.O.T.D. Proof Sovereign With 95 in Crown Privy Mark

Have you ever looked at the price of platinum before catalytic convertors?

We published this page some time ago: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/is-it-platinums-time-to-shine/978... although it fails to echo my thoughts, which I posted on TSF at about the same time, that platinum was very cheap compared with gold. We were probably too early, and may still be, be we have put our money where our mouth is, and retain a position in platinum which is long about 250 ounces. We also offer options for UK or EU investors to buy it VAT free (storage in a Swiss vault). https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/vat-free-silver-and-platinum/293

It does not matter for what purposes you are buying them (for tax purposes). What matters is whether they are "Investment Gold", and therefore exempt from VAT in the EU and UK. You might want to look at my very recent post in this same thread: Most government websites worldwide are very badly written from a user point of view. And most dealers sites don't explain it very well either. Of course, you could save yourself a lot of effort, and just buy from @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer. I declare a vested interest! 🙂

We have a page explaining concisely What Is Investment Gold? https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/what-is-investment-gold/428 This was ported over to our new site from one of our heritage sites: https://taxfreegold.co.uk/whatisinvestmentgold.html I wrote this page in about December 1999 or January 2000. In this sentence "of a description of coin that is normally sold at a price that does not exceed 180 per cent of the open market value of the gold contained in the coin.", the word "normally" is very important. A good UK example would be gold proof fifty pence coins, for example: https://taxfreegold.co.uk/19921993fiftypencegoldproofeu.php When the Royal Mint first issued these, they were not included in the schedule https://taxfreegold.co.uk/customsexcise701-21a.html... as they were new and the mint was asking more than 180% premium, a very short-sighted decision in my opinion at the time, and now. As often, in the secondary market, they (gold fifty pences) normally sell for less than 180% premium, so they now qualify as investment gold, and are exempt. This also includes any new releases which may be issued at more than 180% premium, because gold fifty pences as a whole normally sell for not exceeding 180% premium. This legal and tax logic is not unique to the UK, it also applies to the entire EU. What happens in practice is that "Customs" officers worldwide see their job as extracting as much money from everyone as possible, and if in doubt, they interpret rules in their favour, charge tax, collect money, then try to resist giving it back. I have a feeling that French Customs may be particularly pernicious about this. Do you happen to know whether they work on any kind of commission, bonus, or target system? I will tag @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer into this post, so that we can think about adding my explanation. It probably already exists on at least one of our heritage sites, but not everything has yet been ported over.

Yes of course a silver blank is a silver blank, but quite often proof coins are made using specially prepared blanks, which may be pre-polished before striking, this would never happen with circulation strikes, and unlikely with bullion or Brilliant Uncirculated strikes.

Most government websites are like Royal Mint Quality Control! 🙂

They already exist, and are called half guineas: 1809 George III Half Guinea Reverse

Think positive, that means 6 or 7 of them are good! 🙂

The weak striking on the reverse is typical for some of the branch mints, and also for halves in general. The ragged raised line looks like a die crack, which I consider to be a good sign. Time spent discussing differences and anomalies is rarely wasted, it's an investment in education knowledge, and experience.

I guess you were looking at this page: https://www.chards.co.uk/1915-gold-20-corona-austrian/1721 If I tag @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer into this thread, someone might add a translation to the page! I hope it doesn't mean that Franz Joseph was HUNG, or even "well hung" 🙂 Similarly here: https://www.chards.co.uk/1915-gold-one-ducat-austrian-coin/692 It is quite common for smaller size denominations to have shorter legends then their larger counterparts. Size does matter after all!

All? That's bad news! 🙂

If you are "being offered Gold at prices slightly too good to be true", then they are not true, and you don't need to even think about any tests. 🙂

It also says online that Donald Trump won the 2020 US Presidential election, giants lizards control the world, Covid vaccinations contain microchips, the 1969 moon landing was fake, Covid-19 does not exist, 5G phone masts give you Covid, silver will imminently crash to $4, and gold drop to $400 (and these last two were on TSF!) 🙂

Even if you believe the ebay vendor is OK, I would always prefer to see or include their ebay ID, and preferably the item number. This does not imply the dealer is dishonest. From the name shown in the response "Ernie", it could be Dorset Coin Company, but I am having to guess, and may be wrong. Is is also not clear from your screenshots which were before, and which after, you alerted the seller. In my experience and opinion, high ebay feedback score and / or high percentage, do not actually count for much, for various reasons, including that dodgy sellers often include a refund policy, and ask buyers to contact them direct if there are "any problems". I further believe that many buyers opt not to leave negative feedback in case it interferes with getting thier voluntary refund.

It probably would have still been in print when his book was first published in 1870. 🙂