Pete

Having read all the comments I am inclined to believe that your scales are correct so your bar is 2% below weight. As mentioned earlier I cannot imagine that breaking up a larger bar would guarantee a better tolerance so your bar is 2% under weight and its neighbour maybe 2% over weight. Just the luck of the draw buying a section from a larger piece. I also cannot believe that a dealer bothers to weigh each item before dispatch but I am sure it is weighed on receipt, when they are paying out, but would not necessarily be recorded. At spot 0.2 of a gram is worth £8-9 so roughy the return cost of insured postage. If your seller is advertising a 1 gram bar and not mentioning a tolerance then under trading standards you should receive a 1 g bar so either ask for a partial refund or insist your bar is replaced if you are prepared to engage with the hassle for the sake of this difference. However if you don't have it replaced then you could be facing a reverse argument should you sell at a later date if you forget to mention its weight. How would that look on a feedback score when a buyer says he / she was short changed ?

Would you risk listing a £3,000 value coin starting at £0.01 ?? A cool seller with nerves of steel.

Platinum arrived this morning with the 10 oz silver completer just released.

Latest 2 beauties fresh from the Royal Mint. The 1 oz Platinum Completer and its 10 oz silver cousin.

Mine arrived today and they definitely make an effort. Real bargain indeed !!

Driving us all to be like Royalty - Asset Rich and Cash Poor - only I don't believe the bit about Royals being cash poor it's just they don't know about money as everything is free.

A guy called Bob Lazar was on TV, claiming to be an engineer working on UFO craft in Area 51, Nevada. Of course the officials have never heard of him but believe what you will. He talks about alien spacecraft being propelled using an element with periodic table number 115 which at the time didn't exist. Chemists have manufactured this very unstable element in minuscule quantities so it theoretically exists. That must be worth a lot of dosh if more can be made if it means warp speed and intergalactic space travel. Certainly much higher price that Pt for catalytic converters.

Has anyone managed to obtain a 2022 sovereign to hold ? Noticed that Atkinsons state no stock so did they all sell or are they waiting on delivery from the RM I pre-ordered my single sovereign from Harrington a while back - has anyone received or have an estimated delivery date yet ?

Thanks for announcing this coin. The RM website is cr.a.p. so you need to use the shared link above to find the coin. Managed to order mine and the total cost £281.28 delivered so not horrendous and the VAT is going to good causes I assume !!

Requires a metallurgist to work out the benefits & trade-offs using various alloys. Sovereigns open up the opportunity to incorporate 8.5% approx other metals and the choice may be cost related but I would assume more to being able to have a uniform mix and what aids the process during manufacture. Another reason of adding a bit more copper at the expense of silver might ( I don't know for sure ) be cosmetic. Some people like the darker colour but I prefer the yellow gold, more natural colour, than the browner used in some recent sovereign issues.

You cannot avoid the VAT and I believe eBay will charge you. However for numismatic and collectibles the correct VAT rate should be 5% and not 20% The official harmonised code for importation is 97.05.00.020 Provided the sender declares your coin as collectible or numismatic and CLEARY SHOWS the above code on the customs declaration then once you have received your item you can fill out a form on-line using a photo of the customs declaration, a copy of your VAT invoice, add a photograph preferably from a website of the coin and its description to prove it is not standard bullion and Border Force will refund the excess VAT you paid. Process takes a few weeks but they are very reasonable.

Everything purchased from overseas nowadays is subject to VAT. Although the European Mint can still sell platinum and silver VAT free to all EU countries until summer we are outside of the EU so 20% to the taxman !! Lovely isn't it ?? On a more positive note it means all buyers across the EU will in 6 months or so have to pay the Estonian VAT unless they adopt the differential VAT scheme other EU dealers use but that doesn't help us in the UK at all. I really don't follow why a few of our UK primary dealers don't make any attempt to compete but their incentive is reduced because we cannot get round the full VAT here. Be sure to include the shipping costs from Estonia, 20% VAT plus a broker fee to process the importation and account for your VAT bill. I have given up even looking at EM prices and if I need new silver or platinum I just pay full price buying in the UK.

Having just received a quote for gas and electricity I might be forced in to trading PMs for heating later this year. I really don't understand the government's price cap which only applies to standard variable rate tariffs. Most of us I assume will have fixed price annual contracts. My gas increase will be 400% and electricity 250% if I continue so I am defaulting to standard variable which I assume will be significantly cheaper and of course the energy providers don't want you on this tariff because many are losing money but 400% !!! ---- W.T.F. !!!

Many thanks @paulmerton for notifying us fellow stackers of the new Completer in Platinum. Just ordered mine. The RM website is not very rigorous as this coin didn't appear at all searching for platinum nor on the section for platinum coins. It does now, but earlier today it didn't exist yet your link showed it instantly. Bit of a panic set in though when the RM blocked my account pending an annual review apparently. Always worth checking that if you have an account that you need to use urgently that it is still active. Whilst the checks were being made ( no idea of timeframe ) they wouldn't even permit me to place an order over the phone.

I didn't pay any sales tax buying in Florida. I also didn't spot any platinum but lots of silver Eagles and nice price proofs in original plush boxes. I was very disappointed and subsequently didn't bother looking further in Pawn shops because their prices were way over the top. There was a dealer called Gainsville that I nearly called on but time and distance were against me. Prices were very good a few years back but haven't checked competitiveness for a while.