LawrenceChard

Yes, it seems clear he is talking about @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer. Although we would rather sell coins we have in stock, but in times of high demand like now and the 2007/8/9 credit/banking/sub-prime crisis, readily available bullion stock dries up, and not just on a UK level, but worldwide. During the Covid crisis, production and transport has also created supply tightness. Some dealers simply hike their premiums to rip-off levels, some shut up shop. We are happy to sell new coins which we often have to wait for too. We also make a market in secondary market bullion coins, but only those we have a reasonable expectation of covering in a reasonable time. While @Paul is entitled to his opinion "Not a great business practice, selling stuff you don't have", we disagree. This has been discussed on TSF previously, at great length. We always make it as clear as we possibly can whether we have coins in stock, and for items not in stock, expected supply times for new coins, secondary market supply is much harder to forecast. There is no need to "read the small print". If there is any likely delay, we show a very in-your-face pop-up banner which spells it out very clearly. This pop-up cannot be closed or dismissed withour making a positive choice about whether to continue or choose an alternative. The main point is that we offer a choice.

It sure is getting late!

Yes indeed. Earlier I had commented "A fine example of British engineering at its best!". Doug, our photographer, replied "He would have fixed it with a bit of spot welding"

We sure do, here's another photo: We did once have 66 x one kilo gold coins in stock, although they were not RM proofs, they were various Australian Nuggets and Lunars by Perth Mint. That was back in the sub-prime, credit, banking crisis of 2007/8/9.

That's why I said only if you're lucky. Doge is a derivative of Luckycoin.

Who wants to be a trillionaire? (cue music).

Only if you are Lucky!

Does this qualify?: One kilo gold Queen's Beasts Completer coin.

If the issue limit or mintage was zero, they would not be collectible at all. Low issue limits only enhances the perceived investment potential, and does not per se make them any more desirable or collectible. 🙂

Special request: I hope you don't want it animated!

Yes, particularly with the flipped mirror image of the Queen.

It's funny you should mention the corgis: Looks like we were too late with this because the last Year of the Dog was 2018, now we are going to have to wait until 2030.

I don't know, but it gave us an idea: Creating our very own "mules"!

Good thinking about a swivel. From long past experience, it needs to be precisely done if it is going to work properly.

That's nice to hear. International shipping (in either direction), has been a bit of a nightmare since Brexit, with extra documentation for almost everything. This has been doubly affected by Covid delays. Happily, things seem to be getting nearer to normal again recently.

If you send the coin to the Royal Mint, they are likely to confiscate it, but possibly pay you 80p for it. Regarding the £1 trial coins, these were supplied to relevant parties on the strict condition that they were all returned to the Mint, who were very active at the time, clamping down on ebay and other listings for them. The RM stance is that they are legally the property of the Royal Mint. Although I am sure they are perfectly entitled to do this, I believe it is s short-sighted, uninformed attitude. While I would not encourage you to illegally remain in possession of the coin, armed with the above knowledge, you can consider carefully what action to take.

We have seen and heard about "separation" problems with base metal two pound bimetallic coins, probably because with any mass-produced items, some manufacturing defects are almost inevitable. This is the first example I am aware of involving a gold proof version: We only checked our existing stock because a customer told us that he had two similar coins which rattled, and asked if they were faulty.

It certainly is very difficult to find any sovereigns with a London mintmark, mainly because the Royal Mint (London) never used a mintmark. 🙂 "London mint tended to use all copper I believe." - No. Hundreds of Niton tests we have done show typically about 3ppt of silver in most pre-QEII sovereigns. Previously I did notice the RM publish some misinformed garbage about sovereigns and/or other British gold coins traditionally being struck using red gold. They were / are wrong, as they often are. Sure, some very early, circa 1817, contain more silver, as do some of the Australian mint sovereigns. We published this blog article in 2018: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/analysis-of-alloy-content-of-gold-sovereigns/180 We are overdue to update it, and add many more sample years. Differential toning on older coins is likely to be related to how and where they have been stored, possibly atmospheric pollutants, possibly humid conditions. Some yellow sovereigns may have been gilded, reddish ones may have been in acid or other chemical. The best non-destructive way to tell is to use XRF.

I think you were spot on!

Probably not, they appear to be particularly stubborn. I guess it is a type of arrogance. "We are the Royal Mint, have been making British coins for 1100 years, we are the experts, so we are not going to listen to anyone else, what do they know". I have been observing this sort of attitude from the Royal Mint since 2000, and it was probably around earlier. The people at the Royal Mint Museum (Historical Services) have always struck me as very good, it is mainly the marleting department that seems to be the worst.

That's mainly because the Royal Mint have been making them in "red" gold, only alloyed with copper. The addition of a small proportion of silver produces a much more attractive and natural looking yellow colour. As little as 3 parts silver per 1000 is enough, and the extra cost is negligible. This page of our website gives an insight into this, and we will shortly be filling in some of the gaps in the timeline. https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/analysis-of-alloy-content-of-gold-sovereigns/180 I believe the someone in the marketing or production department of the Royal Mint mistakenly believed that sovereigns were historically made of red gold, so almost all Queen Elizabeth II gold sovereigns contain little or no silver.

You do have import taxes into Australia which affects many coins, including sovereigns.

It still does! Or at least, we have left it, and at least two of our other "Heritage Sites" online, but rarely updated. There is still some information on them which we have not yet copied to our Chards site (although a lot of other people have copied them).

Thanks to pinball, I have equally ambidextrous wrists, unlike most of my old schoolmates.

I hope the reported the seller to ebay, although from experience, ebay don't care. There will be dozens of other crooks flogging similar fakes, and even when or if ebay ever close sellers' accounts, I am sure they just set up another account and carry on.