silverin

1997 China Mint Traditional Chinese Auspicious Matters 1/10 Gold Coin which was highlighted by @mr-dead.  Big thanks.
Should be pretty much guaranteed authentic.

That looks like a die crack/flaw off the nose and makes it look like she has a runny nose.
Mintage figures are pretty irrelevant for the early shields. Although the '52 is fairly common, it's a question of how many have survived unscathed relative to later years. The Sydney date range coins are plentyful in EF grade making the lower grades less popular.

My shield arrived too.
 

I like the 60's/70's French silver.

The Panda's have arrived, 4.5kg of Panda goodness
 
  , a cracked case or 2 but genuinely pleased with the order

They are scans. Not so good for showing off the coins in all their glory but you can see the level of wear exactly and any blemishes. It's very difficult to get a really good HR photo of gold coins that show the same detail without any reflections and glare.

I also bought my first Shield Sov from jonblyth.

 
Hope we didn't bid each other up..  
 

Various Chinese Medals

Ok, Ive been very naughty today.  I just purchased 150 2016 Pandas #pandamonium

Just came home to find this posted through my letter box.  It's a 2014 Smithsonian Panda Medal.  Only available in slabs but I didn't want to fork for a 69 or 70.  Came via the eBay GSP but eBay didn't charge VAT even though it was over the threshold.  At some point is was cut open by a monkey and the blade has gone all the way through both sides of the envelope.  They've taped one side shut but forgot about the other side and also failed to apply the "opened and resealed" label.  Luckily the coin was still inside.
Just had a parcel sent to NZ via the GSP.  The parcel was opened for inspection and they used a knife to open the box seal which also went through several layers of bubble wrap and then into the product.

5 oz S2 proof dragon.
 
 

These arrived today from arshimo -:) Really happy to get a 2000 sov finally and the half sov shieldback is always a lovely design to have. Didn't get hit with import duty on them either so a nice result there.

Something a bit different.
A massive mintage of 10 coins, each one consisting of 1/2 oz 999 silver.
The bonus is out of the 10, 9 are loaded with 0.05 bitcoin worth about £15 at current prices but 1 coin is loaded with 2 bitcoin worth nearly £600.
To check you need to peel the tamper proof hologram and redeem a private key underneath.  If you dont win it ups the value of the remaining coins as the odds of winning improve
I also have the first one minted so numbered #1 S Delux (stock pic below showing no #5)

2x 2015 Russian St George the Victorious 1oz Silver Coins.
http://www.cbr.ru/eng/bank-notes_coins/Base_of_memorable_coins/ShowCoins.aspx?cat_num=5111-0178-15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_the_Victorious_(coin)
I really like these and like that they are sealed, yet I'm so tempted to take one out... just to check it out.
Might open one later...
Ordered Tues and received today from an UK e-bay seller : )

I like the clean reverse. It's always carried a premium and you don't often see them. 

@silverin Nice. The mintage seems quite low for those years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_the_Victorious_(coin)
And the CBR page says they only minted 100.000 for the 2015 coins and it looks like they've been on hold for a few years.
so I think these might a good series to look out for (?)
Image source: http://agaunews.com/portfolio-items/st-george-the-victorious/

Russian Saint George the Victorious 1oz Silver
Bought 2x of these, premium was pretty steep tho for these but curiosity got to me.
The CBR coin database looks pretty organized.
http://www.cbr.ru/eng/bank-notes_coins/Base_of_memorable_coins/ShowCoins.aspx?cat_num=5111-0178-15
Let's see how they are... and will post some pic's when I get them : )

2011/12 1/10oz Pandas
 

These came today, it's all over I have the Panda bug.

Although by most measures the stock markets are expensive, there is still one measure by which they are reasonable: yield. There are still big blue chips with a dividend of 3.5 to 5% which is much higher than anything you can get in a safe bond. The crucial question is whether these companies can maintain their dividends during the coming year. The oil companies clearly cannot. If others, such as pharma and retail, follow suit then there is a long way to fall.

There's never a bad time to buy a shield.

My first shield back. At current gold spot the premium was lower than normal. That's what I told myself....

2005 double and 2 half proof. Lunar horse 2 oz
From my friend@arshimo2012

Lunar series monkey 3 set
From@morezone

 

I don't think this is gold's time to shine yet, it'll drop back a fair bit. It does, however, show you how twitchy investors are getting with world stocks, bonds, oil etc.
Expect more volatilty.

Don't worry there is bound to be another smack down.