silverin

A couple of days ago Atkinsons had in a mixed date Panda for a little over 3% over spot.  I thought it would be one of the newer years but thought I'd ask the year anyway in case it is an older one and they didn't have time to make a separate listing.  Normally they list individual years for the older stuff.  Asked in web chat and they got back to me a couple of hours later and it was a 2008.  2008 for 3.3%, why not!
Came in a scruffy cap so that's been replaced.

A few other Coins recently received thanks to @HelpingHands for the gold elephant and pesos. @DavePanda for the 2008.








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I saw Atkinsons were selling a few Johnson Matthey 1oz bars so i decided to get a few.
 

2012 & 2013 China Lunar 1/10 Gold & 1 oz Silver Commemorative Coin Sets.
Looks like they changed from the wooden style to the plastic style box after the dragon.
 

1872 shield back MS62
 
My first ever silver panda lol
MS70
 

The slide shown here is what you can make up at home.  This guy sells them in the USA.  Easy to make yourself and you can order flat rare earth magnets on amazon easy enough.  It's quite fun to play with and if you take different metals that are diamagnetic like copper silver or gold you see that they respond in the same way to the slide but slightly different relative to each other because of their different strengths of diamagnetism.   A standard plated brass fake roars down the slide at near free fall.  Silver, copper and gold slide gently due to the induced opposing magnetic field in them as they move through the strong field lines from the neodymium magnets.  It's immediately clear if a coin is a plated non diamagnetic material.  More care has to be exercised for a potentially plated diamagnetic metal like copper but it is still possible to compare to a known genuine gold or silver coin and see the speed difference between say a plated copper or other material coin.  The three metals all slide at very slightly different speeds so if you make up a nice long slide then you could time all your brits and compare.  An obvious difference in speed would be grounds for investigation.   Also, if it were as simple as a plated copper coin the coin would have to be huge to bring up the weight.
Just on the note about the SG test.  It's acceptable on silver coins because they are small enough to be hard to make a multilayer platter that balances out to be the right density for its volume and weight.  In gold it's less use because of the fact that tungsten is almost exactly the same density as gold and is therefore the element of choice for the robdogs to fill the centre of a bar with.  Much harder to do in a small coin so still worth conducting the SG test on a small coin as part of a series of other tests.  If they were able to make a Tungsten plated coin that passes the SG test, Tunsten is not Diamagnetic.  Its paramagnetic so would fail the slide test.  Combined these tests root out the fakes pretty well for coins.  As I said, bars are much harder to test at home and really require ultrasound testing to confirm no tungsten inside.   I used distilled water (de ionised water) when I did my SG tests just to keep things clean from any lime scale in the tap water. 
If you look up Tungsten "W" on the next link you can see that it's density is almost identical to gold "Au" at 19.25 and 19.3 respectively.  That is close enough that it's nearly impossible to test for that slight difference at home doing the SG test with basic scales.  That theoretically means that a tungsten coin plated in gold would weigh the right amount and measure the right amount.  However, Tungsten is not Diamagnetic but rather Paramagnetic so responds differently to a test of its magnetism.  http://www.periodictable.com/Elements/074/data.html
With Silver the SG test is much better for coins.  That is because there is no single element that is the same density as silver that could potentially be made into a coin and plated.  The SG of silver is in a zone all of it's own and so a clever series of plated materials would be required to match the overall density and for a single ounce of silver the effort and expense is way too much to justify.  That is obviously not true with gold because of the huge price difference so a decent loupe to examine is important.  I have come across a couple of silver fakes on ebay and with the loupe they are pretty obvious when compared to a genuine.  As a previous poster said, I'd pop into Atkinsons if you are near to them and ask for their help in testing electronically.  Even if they charge you for a bit of labour it will put your mind at rest which probably wont be otherwise.  I would avoid an acid test.  It only tells you what you know which is that the surface is gold which is not much use
Hope any of this helps and good luck. 

I think you're worrying too much, but then I don't hold 30k of Brits!
The weights seem correct for a 999 coin. It'a an ounce!
I don't know if this is improper, but to ease your mind perhaps pop into Atkinsons (Brum). Explain everything and ask them to test your coins.
Offer them a drink, or some 'dunking donuts'. They'll probably be as curious as you. Can't hurt to try?

A   1814   Louis XVIII  20 franc coin , might get this one graded its in better condition than the 2002 Shield full sovereign i bought from Atkinsons

Star Wars Classics 2016 Princess Leia Obi Wan Kenobi 1oz Silver.  I have the first 4 so might as well continue.  It is quite costly now since Brexit  . Interested thing is the coin holder have difference pitches.  You'd think they'd be manufactured to the same spec and all be uniform.

Chinese New Year Celebration 8g Commemorative Coin.  Huge mintage for 2017 at 2.7 million and huge premium but nice packaging though.  2016 had mintage of 1.9 million and 2015 was just 300,000.  My first time getting one. 

2015 Lunar Goat 1/10 Gold and 1oz Silver Commemorative Coin Set.

RAM 2017 Kangaroo in capsule.  Carded version is the one to get really but I'm going to remove from the card anyway and means more storage.  If I were going to flip, then carded is the way to go.
2017 Cook Island Bounty.  I already bought a 2017 a month or so ago but that was the old design so grabbed this as it had a different design.  They must have minted some and then decided to change the design.  

 

1987 3 Coin set Gold panda



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arrived today. 2017 proof commemorative panda. 150 gram.

Some recent pick ups, a pair of 1.oz gold 2007 pandas and a 2008. Also some other pandas and a pair of Rwandan roosters.
 
 

 
 

1996 1oz Silver panda Large date and small date


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My mum knows I like sovereigns, went to see her one time, she got out a jewellery box and showed  me a sovereign that used to be my great aunts
I thought she was going to give it to me.. she didn't  llol

Got my 2000 mirrored panda back from grading
Thanks to @Numistacker for the help
 

All beautiful coins!

I picked up this yesterday 1/10oz Panda 2016


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a 1995 panda microdate in OMP

1oz Ebay Bar - 

2005 proof full sovereign 
have 3 now lol 
2 proofs 1 bu
 
Video comming up on youtube 
sovereign_uk

What a nuisance. It's going to have to go back though. No 'it's only bullion' BS here.
'I honestly don't know why I bother my arse with the RM',  me too but then I see these
...and they are instantly forgiven. 
(pic gratefully stolen from our steve)

Very Nice. Had my eye on that too, but decided to bid for the 1902 Crown instead.
 

1884(s) victoria shield full sovereign
Youtube video coming up .. 
 

How dare you, these are from the hong quai national mint of the republic of China and made with the newest innovations in technology, only 10 available in silver, 15 brass and 9 with a copper/brass alloy mix and antique finish 
Forgot to mention they're part of the exclusive pandas on the wall series 
 

Nah, the coin isn't in good enough condition or grade overall to worry about that. Wouldn't call it "nasty" by any stretch of the imagination.

Yeah quite a difference. For 150€ didn´t stress too much about the condition.