LawrenceChard

What happened to turn your earlier image from gold to blue?

Definitely a fake! (If the colour is anything to go by). 🙂 I found your earlier post, where you mention it is an 1876, but a much more realistic colour. What's with the colour change? I noticed someone else using a blue saturated image. It does look like 49 over 49, unless you think the 4 is over a different digit. Thid double punching is fairly common on shields including in the legends. Yours is quite an extreme example. My assumption is that double punching is an attempt to disguise, hide, or correct the original error of punching it in the wrong place initially. It does add to the interest of collecting and numismatics.

So would I be correct to assume that any special bullion coins will also end up at little to nothing more that what an ordinary bullion coin is worth several years down the line? So a bullion Queens Beast Completer coin will be worse as a pure investment and not make back more than an ordinary bullion Britannia in a few years once sold? Probably, but there can be exceptions. Completers may be one of them. It is difficult to guarantee a correct forecast. If so, then the lesson is only pay the extra premium for the QB completer if you think the fancier design is worth it for the pleasure it gives you when you own it. Yes. (Or buy it in a few years when the premium has disappeared - if you can wait that long! 😄) Also yes. I do understand though why people buy the proofs and other non-proof designs they are very beautiful. It's a matter of balance. Proofs do also have potential for value appreciation. 1989 proof sovereigns and sovereign sets are an example. The Royal Mint failed to sell out its issue limit, but now the sovereigns sell for over £1000. 1989 Sovereign Mintage and Issue Limits Item Issue Limit Mintage Individual Sovereign 12,500 10,535 Sovereigns in 3 Coin Sets 10,000 7,936 Sovereigns in 4 Coin Sets 5,000 5,000 Total 27,500 23,471 from https://www.chards.co.uk/1989-gold-sovereign-elizabeth-ii-proof-london/281 At the time, some people didn't want them because they did not have St. George and the Dragon on them!

@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer would have snatched your hand off at 100+% all day every day, especially with the boxes and certs. It's never good to sell proof or collectable coins to a scrap metal dealer. 🙂

From an earlier answer: For "Investment Gold", almost always yes, one exception being from small non-VAT registered dealers. For platinum, silver, etc, no, unless you are or might be spending £5,000 or more, or £10,000 in any 12 month period. It is not a big deal, you don't get reported unless you raise suspicions. ... and yes we are also Bricks and Mortar (actually more steel, concrete, and cladding).

So for example lets say if I walk in dealer with my adidas hoody on wearing a 50k rolex lol, with my debit card with 10k in my bank account and buy 10k worth of silver/platinum bullion on my debit card then the dealer will report me to the taxman after me buying and leaving the dealer shop 😆? If you looked that that, we might not even let yout in! All bullion dealers have been trained by their HMRC Taxman boss on how to identify a drug dealer 😂? It would be more productive to train them to spot bankers from Wachovia, Standard Chartered, Danske, BCCI, HSBC, or any one of many others, or the Island state of Nauru. Does the dealer has the right to lose business/profit resulting from declining transactions or not doing business with pimped up looking drug dealers lol? Yes, and probably a legal and moral obligation too. 🙂 An example a banker gave me was if they had a customer with a sandwich shop, who regularly took payments of, say £30 each, the banker should be curious and try to check whether these were for legitimate business transactions, perhaps a regular office lunch delivery, or was somethng dodgy such as a different kind of wrap being sold under the counter, If in doubt, it should be reported, otherwise the bank employee could face criminal charges.

This was quite an exciting find, from a few years ago: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/die-numbers-on-victorian-sovereigns/133. The 46 over 45 overstruck die number, it is on an 1872 sov. I did not know any overstruck die numbers existed, but apparently it is, and possibly was, known at the time. The blog page is missing some of that info. It should also have a blog page of its own. That should be 65 over 64 of course. I don't know where I got 46/45 from!

The Royal Mint would be unlikely to get included in any list of 1oz platinum coins or bars deals. Can't think of any good dealers in the midlands. Nearest is Blackpool, I reckon. 🙂 I am not sure what an offline shop is, we try to be online 24/7, who isn't? Our showroom is only open M-F 10.00 - 4.30 though, and currently only by appointment.

For "Investment Gold", almost always yes, one exception being from small non-VAT registered dealers. For platinum, silver, etc, no, unless you are or might be spending £5,000 or more, or £10,000 in any 12 month period. It is not a big deal, you don't get reported unless you raise suspicions. 🙂

So you are telling me that 2021 is the first year of bullion Britannias in 1/4 oz version. Yes How come that isn't the great news we all waited for, the start of a new series. RM hype Excluding 2013&2014 1/4 oz S.S. Gairsoppa version. I couldn't find others in 1/4 except proof ones you already point. correct as for the mintages, why do you think RM started to treat them like a top-secret? to hide the fact their production is falling or to do other shady business? I suggest you ask them, but if / when you get an answer, could you post it here form our comment and amusement? I don't have another explanation for hiding information except for the fact they would be embarrassed somehow. the competition might laugh! ☺️

and me for putting them on notice that I retained all my IP rights regarding our coin photos they sometimes use

Such confidence! I don't think I have written a definitive guide to quarter ounce silver Britannias, otherwise I would normally refer you to a page of one of our websites, old or new. Failing this, here is a Wikipedia page which looks about right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_(coin) Where silver proof sets are shown, it is safe to assume these include the quarter ounce version, although Wikipedia is not always right. I have stopped making corrections to it or contributing any new material. I did recently noticed that some Wiki busy-body ignoramus had once again reverted (removed) my addition to its "Gordon Brown" page. Years ago I added that he had acquired the nickname or soubriquet "Golden Brown". Another good source would be a catalogue such as Seaby/Spink Coins of England & the United Kingdom, or a recent Krause World Coins. As for mintage figures, the Royal Mint has recently started treating these as top secret. If I revealed anything here, I could probably expect to be tracked by GCHQ, or visited by MI5 or MI6. 🙂 This old page might also be of some help: https://24carat.co.uk/frame.php?url=silverbritannias.php

Thicker? I don't think so, but will try to remember to take a closer look some time. Same design? Yes*, theoretically, although there will be differences between dies, and due to differences in striking. * Except for 1929 to 1932, with the smaller head. I sometimes play a "guess the date" game, usually with pre-decimal bronze pennies. I look at the head (obverse) side, and try to guess the date. There are 22 different dates of George V, if we exclude 1933, so it might be assumed that a particular date would occue about 5% or the time, but 1927 used a modified effigy, as did some 1926 coins, 1928 onwards have a smaller head, so if we recalculate the odds, it gets closer to 10%, although of course some dates have higher mintages, which distorts the real odds. I demonstrated this to a staff member many years ago, using 10 pennies I had scooped at random from a George V bag, with about 80% to 90% success rate. She suspected me of cheating, and first checked all 10 coins I had looked at for marks on the obverses. I don't cheat, so of course there were no marks. She then challenged me to repeat the test using 10 coins she selected. The results were similar, and she was convinced. She had generously said she would allow one year either side as correct, and I think I scored 100% on that basis. I do not know exactly how I manage to do it, but there are often colour variations in the bronze, and some have a streaky appearance, some appear lighter, some darker. I am sure there are subtle design changes over time. I can say that I have probably handled more old pennies then most people, spending time sorting and date checking them, so I may have sub-consciously registered some of the differences, so let's say "years of experience". I don't guarantee that I can replicate 80% to 90%, but would hope that the next time I try, I should be able to get better than 50%. I also informally play the same game with myself when checking sovereigns. The success rates are lower, possibly because the alloy of the coins is more uniform. I also include guessing the mintmark in this game, which adds another level to the challenge. I don't remember ever conducting a formal experiment to check my accuracy with sovereigns, but am certain it beats random probability.

No, I guess they forgot to mint the Struck on the Day coins. 🙂

I wouldn't bet against it! 🙂 Issue limit 90 or 110?

50+ years on, and I'm still learning... Might be getting quite good in another 50.

As (almost) ever, the answer is on our website: https://www.chards.co.uk/1925-gold-sovereign-george-v-london/6021 However, we believe that the restrikes can be distinguished from the originals by the more pronounced rim around the edge of the coin. Despite the lower mintage figures for the restrikes, the high-rimmed restrikes are actually much more common than the low-rimmed originals, due the fact that the originals were melted down in huge quantities for bullion. I have XRF tested a few 1925-L sovereigns, but this is still an ongoing research project, as and when any low-rims turn up, which is infrequently. Detailed visual inspection is still more important, and I often use zoomed in high resolution photographs, but an XRF test is a nice quick, albeit lazy, resource.

Thanks @Booky586 for the link to our new newbie page. This in a page I wrote in 1998 or 1999, although we have updated some images, and probably corrected a few typos. https://24carat.co.uk/collectingcoinsframe.html

For a real challenge, and great rarity, look out for shield front sovereigns! 🙂

Still a beginner then? 🙂

You might need to ask the Royal Mint, but I doubt anybody there actually knows, or can give you an accurate answer. One approximate answer would be from the start of our current queen's reign, so for practical purposes, 1957. @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer have a brief blog page here: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/analysis-of-alloy-content-of-gold-sovereigns/180 I have tested many more sovereigns than shown in the table, and intend to produce a more complete list, possibly an exhaustive one, at some time in the future. Currently, the page omits some important information: Niton XRF Test Results We used our Niton XRF machine to analyse the alloy content of a number of British Gold Sovereigns. The table below shows coins from a representative selection of dates and mints. Even though XRF machines are quite expensive, they do not give precise results, and are subject to tolerances and small levels of error. See for example our Substandard Krugerrand blog. https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/krugerrand-gold-content/507 Bearing this in mind, do not worry too much about the apparent variations in gold content, but do note the variations in the silver content.

They could hoard 1925-L London Mint sovereigns, many of which were made in 1949, although some were made in 1950 and 1951. Believe it or not, some were even made in 1925. 🙂

I just answered Shell's similar question, but as he had previously mentioned silver, I answered in respect of silver. The answer in relation to gold is very similar. 22ct gold has long been a standard for British gold coins, sovereigns for example. It is only with the recent introduction of fine gold for bullion coins, which do not need to be durable for circulation, that investors, and to some extent collectors, have had the choice of fine gold. Also remember when the Canadian gold maple leaf was first introduced, in 1979, it was only .999 fine, and not .9999 fine. If mints made all their commemorative gold coins in fine gold, they would either make them lighter, or increase the price, so there is no real benefit for the stacker or investor. One dumb thing that does apply, though, is that the British Royal Mint have apparently decided that its gold coins were traditionally made of red gold, rather than yellow gold. In this belief, they are wrong, and typically for the Royal Mint, they will probably never realise or admit it. If any Mint officials were sufficiently interested in coins or numismatics, and bothered to look at "older" sovereigns, they would notice that they look yellow, similar to pure gold, whereas very recent sovereigns look a cheap, nasty red colour. The difference is made by the use or addition of small amounts of silver in the alloy. Three parts per thousand is more than enough to ensure a pleasant yellow colour. 1887 Victoria London Mint jubilee head sovereigns were deliberately made using about 6 ppt of silver, and these can be easily picked out by the colour alone.

Fifty pence coins are basically a circulation coin, so nowadays are made in base metal. Silver proof ones follow a tradition of UK silver coins being made of .925 sterling silver (as in pound sterling), or after 1946, from .500 fine silver. They are not intended as a bullion coin, and are not priced as a bullion coin. Silver stackers wil prefer to buy bullion silver coins, most of which are now made in .999 silver, but do remember that when silver Britannias were introduce, they were made in Britannia silver .958(33) fine silver, which was 23/24. (23 carat silver? 🙂) There is no good reason to make UK silver proof coins in 999 silver (and also note that even .999 silver is not pure silver).

@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer had a customer enquiry for the one ounce gold coin today, he did not want the fifty pence, only the one ounce Team GB Olympic one ounce gold.