Magritte

Certainly.
I am basically not stacking for a crisis scenario, precious metals are a wealth preserving cornerstone in my investment portfolio. While I won't deny that we could drift into a crisis scenario, hyperinflation, partial breakdown of society, I'm too lazy to prepare for that.
The reason I'm using a safety deposit box is security. My living situation is less than ideal for hiding precious metals at home. I live in a rented apartment. This rules out works on the building substance which is usually needed for the best hiding places (hint here). I am also away from my apartment regularly, over weekends or for whole weeks. The idea of leaving part of my wealth unattended would make me nervous.
So I got a safety deposit box with a large precious metals dealer (my bank accounts are with an online bank), at a city with multiple dealers and pawn shops, where I'm doing most of my trades. It's reasonably secure, it's insured. I can sleep better. It's added expenses, but I'm not only keeping precious metals there. I need to get there to use my precious metals, but I would need to travel to be able to sell at reasonable prices anyway - no opportunities in this remote place.
 
Hypothetically, if I had an owned home, I would include something like a strong room, a built in safe. Also several built in compartments. Hide some decoys in the more obvious spaces. Also have an alarm system with responders.

as Jultorsk said, you have your side profile on show, people will recognize you, plus your ink, your dog and your back garden, i'd look at improving your PERSEC before you buy a safe or find a hidey hole... mine is found on a treasure map where 'X' may or may not mark the spot!!! 😂 seriously though, its hidden away and i only talk about my 'hobby' with mates i trust and family who know, other family members don't know as loose lips sink ships....

For some reason this reminded me of a character in Mario Kart 8...

If there is a Q&A can you ask them if they intend on employing any quality assurance for this series? Unless the milk spots on the QB series are supposed to represent bird sh*t on the statues....

I actually got an invite a few weeks ago to attend the release at Hampton court next Wednesday... the Missus an me are going

Don’t ruin it for us. 😂 Some of us have had to sit on our wallets for months.
Have you ever thought about getting a job at RM as a quality control person?
c**p - bin it.
c**p - that’s not a proof.
c**p - scratched.
c**p - In the melting pot for you.
Just chuck ‘em all out. 😆

More Misinformation from the Royal Mint.
In today's marketing e-mail from the RM, about the 2022 gold sovereigns, the RM say:
"Today, it is extremely rare for The Sovereign to feature a design other than Benedetto Pistrucci’s iconic depiction of St George and the dragon..."
I disagree, and I guess most other TSF member will also.
The special one-off designs in 1989, 2002, 2005, and 2012 did not feature Pistrucci's depiction, although 2005 and 2012 did have alternative versions of St George and the Dragon.
We went from 1887 to 1988 with Pistrucci's design, just over a century without change. Next year's coin will be the 5th different design in "only" 33 years.
The interval, or gaps, were therefore 101, 13, 3, 7, and 10 years between different designs. This makes these "new, different" designs anything but rare, and to call them extremely rare is gross exaggeration, propaganda, hype, and misinformation. I don't understand why the Royal Mint and its marketing team feel they need to make deceptive claims, which surely put the Royal Mint reputation for trust and integrity in jeopardy. 
I guess the same misinformation will go out to the world's media, and because most journalists don't know anything about gold sovereigns, they will simply re-publish and repeat the claims without question, the public will believe it, and a new urban myth will have come into existence.
In 1989, the statement quoted would have been true. Perhaps someone at the Mint is still using the same template, and will keep doing so as long as it keeps working. I should try and check whether they said the same thing in 2002, 2005, and 2012. It is almost certain there will be another major sovereign design change by 2026 at the latest. Dare I forecast that it will also be extremely rare? How about extremely unique?
I am sure most of us will like the new design, and want to own at least one, but it would be nice to hear the truth from the Royal Mint, instead of them sounding like snake oil salesmen.
Thoughts?
🙂

Hi Kevin - this is a must read - give me a shout if you would like other remarkably interesting treasure book recommendations!

Hi All
I collect coins, pens and have a particularly have an interest in treasure wrecks.  
One object brings all of these together… the 1966 Parker 75 Spanish Silver. 
The pens (fountain and ball point varieties limited to 4000) were made with silver recovered from the 1715 Treasure Fleet that was wrecked off of the Florida coast and primarily re-discovered by Kip Wagner (Read his excellent book “Pieces of Eight” for the story).
The silver was being transported from Bolivia, Peru etc via Cuba when a hurricane hit and wrecked many ships on the Florida coast now known as the “Treasure Coast”.  Coins and artefacts are still being discovered despite the area being one of the most heavily searched and metal detected in the world.
A lot of the coins had lost any detail and as such a deal was struck with Parker to melt them and turn them into a limited run of pens, which were:
- Supplied in a presentation case
- Had a CoA signed by Kip Wagner
- Contained a silver coin from the 1715 fleet

The pens retailed for USD75.00 - expensive in 1966.
If you can find one in unused condition with the box, paperwork and the silver coin, I think you would need to pay GBP2000 plus for it.
A great bit of history and at the time a marketing masterstroke from Parker 
Best
Dicker
 
 

World reserve currencies last various times. We must remember many of these periods had partial backing of currencies with gold. Today we have the full fiat system. Monopoly money.
https://satoshichris.substack.com/p/world-reserve-currencies-last-on
If the US had kept out of wars and other follies, as well as acting like it did before 1913, then the dollar would never have been called into question. Following WWII America was a goliath. Most of the gold and most of the industrial base was in America. Since WWII it p*ssed it all away. All the treasure and advantage has been squandered. 

i saw a speech from Ronald Reagan in the early 1960's. He was saying then that there were more dollars than there was gold to back them. 
Since Nixon took the USD off the gold standard there was a brief period in the early 1980's when gold got to a high enough price and there was (allegedly) enough gold to back the dollar. They could have gone back on the gold standard and been sensible. But what we had was the financialisation of the US economy at the hands of Reagan. The same happened in the UK with Thatcher. It was Champagne Charlie, Big Bang and banks running amok. It was the end. The industrial base was gutted and we saw the advent of the service sector economy and consumerism.
From what i hear there will be no world reserve currency after the USD, unless we count in gold. The Chinese do not want the yuan to be world reserve. They want to internationalise it but not to take on the mantel of world reserve. World reserve is something of a kiss of death b/c you have to run trade deficits. Other countries want your currency, so you buy goods and services, you send them your currency. This creates balance of trade deficits, encourages the run down of your economy, makes it a consumer economy. There also emerges the likes of the Eurodollar when non US banks start issuing dollars They are creating your currency and you have lost control. It all becomes very messy and it ends in tears. 

Can I be the culture secetary? My first policy will be free obligitory BJs for war veterans!

Im not playing any game. I use metals as protection.

Apparently the sequel to the Royal Mints Queen's Beasts series is The Tudor Beasts series.
Thats all I know.
 

They say they use a verified lab for the assay but in any case i've bought from Gerrards in the past with absolutely no issues, if they wern't legit they would soon go under, just like a french deisel/electric submarine contract .....😂

I couldn't possibly comment as im more addicted to the shiny stuff than Kim Jon-Un is to dodgy haircuts.... right now i'd say get yourself some more due to the dip but do you really think you will be able to stay away from it? after all you are literally buying money with money... its not like you are collecting model cars or train sets... just tell your missus you know what you're doing and hope the postie comes when she's out... 😂😂

I agree my sentiments exactly, they have a considerably rich history that they could include. Spotlights on historical coins etc.

Hi All
I am not much of a “whinger” but I just received the “August News Letter” from the Royal Mint.
Pretty much all of the links / articles / sales focussed.  Whilst I appreciate that is how they market, it is disappointing that there is nothing interesting and incisive from their museum, collection etc.
Why am I disappointed?  A couple of dealers way smaller than the RM have, via their websites provided me with fascinating articles to read in the last two weeks (Chards and Top end Coins - a very remote dealer in the Northern Territory of Australia).
Sales balanced with history of the mint, perhaps with historic coin deep dives would be much more palatable  
I have cancelled my subscription.
Best
Dicker
 
- 

@Ceaiu - I spoke to a customer service agent from Perth Mint’s retail sales.
Good news… maybe… she said there’s no definite release date yet but they’re looking at an October release timeframe. 😀

We wrote last week in The Impressive Long Term Purchasing Power of Gold & Silver about how brand-new Corvettes go up in price every year, but a Corvette in terms of ounces of gold and silver ounces had the same purchase price in 2020 as in 1971! 
For decades General Motors have poured all their best science, technology, and labour into this sports car, and the value of silver kept pace. In both 1971 and 2020, a brand-new Corvette could be had for 3,600 ounces of silver. 
This proves silver was a better currency for investors to store value than paper money. The paper cost of a Corvette moved from US$5,500 to US$68,000!
So, we know that silver is a great saving vehicle. How do we know? Because both silver and gold are better saving vehicles than paper money, especially over periods of time longer than a single year.
This is because government and banks keep inventing money and leverage so that more fiat money exists every year. No one can invent or print precious metals so they retain purchasing power while fiat money cannot.
Every time that government announces new spending or new liquidity it means they are dealing in things that can be printed to solve problems which they believe can be papered over.
Gold or Silver- Which is a Better Investment?
Either precious metal will preserve purchasing power better than fiat money can … just ask anyone from Germany. Gold and silver move together against paper money; thus, we say silver and gold correlates to each other. But is silver a better saving vehicle than gold? 
This is a vital question for precious metal investors. The long answer is that sometimes gold is better, sometimes silver is better, and below we explain how to tell. Essentially when the correlation or ratio between silver and gold is at historically extreme levels, it’s best to buy both metals, but buy more of the cheaper metal.

For thousands of years of human history gold and silver have competed with each other to be used as money and be used as a savings vehicle.
Today we can look back over time to see the price, or ratio, at which silver traded in comparison to gold.
This look back is exactly the same idea as measuring Corvettes in ounces of silver, but we measure gold in ounces of silver [or silver in ounces of gold, it’s the same thing].
Gold/Silver Ratio: What is it and Why We Must Care

Below is a chart of silver against gold for the past 50 years.  Keep in mind, this chart begins in the period of time when gold was still mandated against the US dollar, but silver was not.
So, it’s fair to expect gold to climb against silver for the first 15 years, starting from levels that are unlikely to ever be repeated.
We show a straight line on the chart at 63 ounces of silver per ounce of gold, the calculated average price of silver against gold for the 50 years shown.

Today silver looks super cheap against gold on this chart.  We can see that it currently takes 75 ounces of silver to equal a single gold ounce. During the COVID crisis, it was best to buy both metals since so much fiat money was printed. However, it was also super smart to buy even more silver because 120 ounces of silver was equal to one ounce of gold.

Why does silver get to these extreme values against gold?  Well, the two metals certainly have a correlation or relationship like brothers, but one brother is into Etsy and the other is into meditation, so different things get them excited.
Silver is like an Etsy maker. It’s so much more tied to industrial production, it is used in appliances, cars, healthcare, science etc. But gold is more like a patient meditator who is aware its role in the universe is to reflect others. So gold reacts to the panics of fiat money.
During COVID we see that silver went way down compared to gold because of both
A) the economy shut down so industrial demand for silver dropped and
many investors began to worry about governments printing fiat money so they moved into physical gold.

It looks like a great plan to buy silver faster than gold. When silver is priced worse than 80 ounces of gold and combine that idea with buying silver slower than gold when silver is priced at 40 ounces or less per ounce of gold.

Gold to Silver Ratio Chart

So in addition to the above post, thanks to @ChrisSilver for curating a platform where 'people like us' with trusted ratings can buy and sell with a great deal of trust.
Best
Dicker

Hi All
I purchased a *stunning* collection of Kooks (as well as a collection of Sovereigns) from @Lucylucy for a price that was I believe fair to both of us, and of course done in an entirely gentlemanly way.  I purchased to build the collection (to completeness) and keep it going (as you may have seen on another thread).  The quality and depth of the collection was enough to break my new rule of not buying more silver!
In my collecting early days I bought coins from ebay and other non TSF sources (a long time ago now) that I was genuinely disappointed with, so it really has been a pleasure buying from @Lucylucy who was kind enough to invite me to see coins at his home.
Those of you who I have bought from will notice that I don't ever haggle on price - I pay the asking price if I think it is fair, which is why I think the forum is the best place to buy and sell, but there are limits to what forum members will pay for larger collections of well priced silver - so I think don't be harsh in judging by selling on ebay if it doesn't sell on the forum. One caveat to this is that if left long enough, I think listings do sell eventually but it takes time (I have approached sellers about items on very old listings and have found them still available).
Not everything that is sold between members is necessarily advertised on the forum (although I think this is not so common).  The forum (from my experience) fosters trusted relationships where members occasionally reach out because of known interests with items for sale.  This is something that I have not ever seen on any other platform, and whilst is not an obvious selling point, has worked very well for me, and I suspect others.
Best
Dicker
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I've seen these before and i finally made a purchase . The Lord's Prayer engraved on the back of a 3d Coin. 66 words on 16.20 mm ?  

Agreed, I’m getting a graphic designer on Monday, we just can’t get it right with actual photos. Silver is very hard to photograph 😁
Not planning a gold coin yet but will let you know if we do in the future.

Thank you, @BackyardBullion! We have to give credit to the Bulmint team as well. They have been a great partner in designing and manufacturing the coin.

We have already been approved to continue minting the 1kg Goddess Europa Coin Bar and the 1oz coin in 2022 with no change in the design (perhaps we can touch that forehead). These will be exclusively sold on EuropaBullion’s website in the EU, USA and Canada markets and by @GreatBritishBullion in the UK. As you mentioned, they are very low mintage so  there is no point to distribute them to other dealers.
However, Goddess Europa Series were just the warm up. We have a new coin approved that will be released in the beginning of October with a mintage of 500,000 and will be sold to dealers worldwide. I would say it looks even better than the 1oz GE and it’s not connected to the brand. The wholesale premiums of the coin will be lower than those of all government mints so this coin could have a major impact. Stay tuned!
Once again thank you for the great (and) honest feedback!