dicker

I have a graded Douro AU58 Shield - think I bought it for about 400 about four years ago.  Seemed expensive at the time!

I’ve seen graded Douro sovereigns sell for £700-£800 retail. 

A good few years ago there were loads of these sovs sold as Duoro salvage. Many had provenance back to the Spink and sons auction and commanded a premium. These seem to have disappeared now as the provenance trail has been broken. I have bought a few but paid no more that a non-Duoro coin was worth.

Hi - Are you 100% convinced that it is genuine?

This year the 10th of February is the Lunar New Year (it changes each year based ons the lunar calendar). The lunar new year is celebrated in China, as well as some other countries. In Vietnam they celebrate Tết on this date also. This year is the year of the Dragon🐉 🐲 🐉 

Happy Lunar New Year and Tết holiday celebrations! We wish you a prosperous and healthy year 🥳 🎉 🎇

Have any nice lunar coins? Share your Lunar coin photos below  

 

Don't like saying this, but don't buy Perth mint. Whilst it will be geniune from a dealer, they are the most faked bar on the planet. On resale most will just assume fake and ignore your sale.

It's legalised criminality - eBay knowingly allow counterfeit GBP, USD and Euro to be sold on their platform. Why the authorities do nothing is hard to understand. On eBay there are more fake Eagles than real ones, I've reported at least 100 sellers, nada, the same seller will show up in my recommendations the next day with counterfeit currency

This are a few of my recent submission to give yo a reasonable cross-section of how coins are grading.  I've yet to see a 1995 £2 and £1 to get PF70UC........And I'd love to see a PF70UC 1979 proof sovereign !

I collect shipwreck coins so they are worth more to me than others.  
I would in the 410-420 range but prefer graded for many shipwreck coins - provenance is everything.
 
 

I collect shipwreck coins so they are worth more to me than others.  
I would in the 410-420 range but prefer graded for many shipwreck coins - provenance is everything.
 
 

Hi All 👋
I am selling my 1850 Shield Sovereign 
Price - Was £500, now £475. including postage and VAT (if there is any) paid by me. So you don’t pay anything else upon delivery. 
UK or EU bank transfer. 
If you have more than 50 positive feedback and have a gold/platinum member who can vouch for you, then I am happy to send first. Although no returns please.
If you require more photos or Sigma verification and scale tests, please let me know. All has been checked out. 
Thanks in advance 🙏

@modofantasma

PF 69 or PF70 of modern coins is just a huge commercial trick to foul poor collectors. As already written there is no guarantee the same coin would get the same grading if submitted multiple times.
That should be just more than enough to stop this insane run to submit to get the magic number. Moreover, if (assuming that) it was scientifically possible to separate 69s from 70s (of course not with naked eye or home technology) what would prevent a slabbing company to receive your crispy potential 70, keep it and resend you another coin, a “decent” 69? You would never notice. Modern coins look identical, especially proofs.
It is also very very difficult to submit coins as a private and get the maximum grade. Why? Maybe because there are also hidden or maybe not even hidden agreement amongst professionals (like Mints or dealers and who slabs) to keep the first monopoly of 70s slabbed coins? (like the famous “first releases” that a normal person cant simply obtain directly from the producer?)
With pre (talking about sovereigns) 1902 things are different as each coin can be quite easily recognized.
I myself bought the complete gothic sovereign series throughout years, 13 coins from 1985 to 1997 and i always looked for 69s. They look amazing and i m quite sure they could be 70s, if maybe submitted for slab through the right channel….
Isnt this sad if you consider the amount of money involved in this market? A 69 goes for 600 gbp, a 70 for 1 grand..or even more..

Recently sourced the last one I needed for this run, run includes a couple of variants hence there being more than one of some years
The easiest of the Young Head date runs to complete there being no Rare's to source, though a couple did prove tricky to get in an acceptable condition
Needed to share with someone who would not just roll their eyes at me


 

I believe that there was a post from another car dealer perhaps a couple of years ago who was also equally horrified about having to prove his identity when paying cash…
I replied on that thread that you have nothing to fear if you are paying all of the tax that should be paid…  Why not simply bank the cash and pay by wire.  You can get a 1kg of gold delivered within 24 hours for around 2.5pct over spot.
It’s that simple.  
 

I have been asked.  
I say coins.  That seems to do it.  

They are very nice coins. Agree with the 20k mintage.
Someone on the forum owns one of the recovered ingots - massive at over 1000oz

I've found that if you time it right and have a nice coin you can sell 1oz coins quickly. Not sold much lower than that yet but do have a few 1/4 coins in my stack. If I need to sell some then at least I won't have to sell a 1oz coin if I don't need all the money.

Mate I get the sentiment, what do you do when yo pull up as Asda to fill the car up and it’s 100% cashless and to don’t have enough fuel to drive else where, argue your case with the chip and pin machine? 
 
I genuinely pushed back against  banking online at the expense on my convenience, but come the cold of 2019, and they closed all my branches I had ZERO option, as I would have gone without banking for weeks and or now have to drive and wait 2-3 hours a time every time I wanted to make a transaction or speak to someone in person…..I pushed back and they still won.  
 
@LemmyMcGregor as an experiment try and live 100% only cash and I mean every bill, every transaction could you do it?  Pay your council tax, pay for anything online , Amazon, eBay, nextflix just eat, travel on public transport……I’m honestly not being a wise A, but have a look and tell me you can live 100% cash only would be good to see if you can. 
I don't comply because  its easier, its impossible for be to operate 100% cash only,   Am I willing now to drive 12 miles in traffic pay for parking and queue for 40 ,minutes just so I can pay a bill in cash or make a transaction in person....No.  I can't not operate like this and most of use who live in the real world can't either.......Please, please live  cash only for the next 3 months and film it, it would make for a great documentary.

I agree that relying on slabs is dangerous for inexperienced slab buyers.
Personally, I trust my ability to determine the authenticity of a slab, given my experience with grading and the tools available on the NGC/PCGS websites, more than I do to determine the authenticity of a well faked, raw sovereign. I’m not enough of an expert in that area.

Experience handling lots of slabbed coins is the best way but there have been tips online and comarisons between the two. problem is those fiendishly clever people in China are continually improving their craft.
First step would be to check the number on the PCGS or NGC website and have a look at the photo if there is one. It is usually possible to spot any obvious differences between a fake and the real photo.
Next would be to weigh it and compare with a known genuine article, this larger the coin the better.
It would actually be useful to build up a database here on TSF of weights of various slabbed coins.

I believe that there was a post from another car dealer perhaps a couple of years ago who was also equally horrified about having to prove his identity when paying cash…
I replied on that thread that you have nothing to fear if you are paying all of the tax that should be paid…  Why not simply bank the cash and pay by wire.  You can get a 1kg of gold delivered within 24 hours for around 2.5pct over spot.
It’s that simple.  
 

I have been asked.  
I say coins.  That seems to do it.  

I’m the daddy now.