Foster88

I bloody don’t. I wish my friends could afford £1400 to buy me a gold bar as a gift. 😂

I did think that might be the reason why. Thanks for clarifying @BackyardBullion 👍🏻

Hi all, I’ve been having a look at cast bars, more out of curiosity then anything and I much prefer the look of them over minted bars sealed in plastic. Is anyone aware of them being available in smaller weights, 20g, 40g etc. I imagine a 10g cast gold bars would be too small. I see Bairds sell them but the smallest weight they do is 50g cast bars.

Will your opening line in court go something like this? ”Your honour, I’ve come here today to stand before you....” 😬

That’s not a typo, Elisabeth is Latin for Elizabeth. Although female monarchs tend not to have the Latin version of their name on currency. @LawrenceChard did a post about this not long ago. I’m not sure about this as it’s referring to The Queen Mother although she was still Queen when married to George VI.

They’re all the same makers mark with SH for Samuel Hope.

The two 22ct rings mentioned above with the C and P date marks are stamped ‘22’. They don’t have a .916 mark on them. So I’m thinking the C marked ring is 1902 and the P market ring possibly 1864, 1914 or 1939. The P date letters for these years are very similar.

Have a look at past auction results from The Coin Cabinet and London Coins. That should give you a good starting point and prices will vary depending on the grade. That is if you are looking to buy one already graded.

@muneeb If you’re looking for a 1918 sovereign in MS grade, you could always look to buy one already graded by PCGS or NGC. There are plenty around already graded or put a ‘want’ post in the Buy & Sell section of the forum.

I think you’re right having looked again. The date letter for P is very similar in style for all of those years. It would be much more helpful if they stamped the actual year instead of letters that look similar. But then again, why change centuries old practice.

I think I’m slightly more swayed to this being 1902. Something I have learned from the Birmingham Assay Office website is that gold hallmarks from 1824 are all square with cut corners. The style of the ring is also more late Victorian/ Edwardian. I could be wrong. This is a photo of the whole ring from my original post.

I did just see this on the auction. Just shy of £100k and there are still 29 graded higher by NGC. What must they be valued at?

Another ring I’ve been looking at is this 22ct band I have. Again, SH for Samuel Hope so an older ring. I think they closed sometime in 1960’s. I can see the date is letter ‘P’ but that could be 1864-65, 1914-15 or 1939-40. The fonts are very similar. Can anyone narrow it down?

I’m resurrecting an old post of mine with another hallmark query if anyone can help. I have a 9ct gold, plain band ring, with makers mark SH for Samuel Hope. But looking under the loupe it has a letter ‘T’ and a ‘O’. Does anyone have any idea what year this could be? I’m wondering if the ‘T’ is the date letter and the ‘O’ could be the ring size.

I reported it too, the listing still stayed up sadly. eBay don’t seem to care as long as they’re making commission.

It’s a secret.... 🤫 I’m just kidding. I’ve mostly bought at auction, not eBay, auction houses. You can buy close to spot and very rarely under spot. Although one 22ct ring I bought a few months ago was about 4% under spot at the time. Usually it’s around 2-3% over spot. Some go for way over and you’ve got to factor in the auction house fees. It can sometimes mean live bidding but for me that’s part of the fun. I imagine that most of the jewellery is from deceased estates, the family want the funds, the auction house wants the commission so they start low and see where they go. Sad I know, but there are some bargains.

On a serious note, this is a good question to ask post Brexit and I hope you find the answer you’re looking for. This is a great forum and I’m sure someone more experience than myself can advise you.

I can’t help nor can I say what forms you might need to fill out. The best gold you can move between countries, in my opinion is gold you can wear. I’m sure another forum memeber can advise you further but this is the reason why I buy 22ct jewellery. No, I’m not Mr T. 😬

My 100g Silver Forum bar arrived today. 😍 Great craftmanship as always @BackyardBullion!!

That’s to be expected I suppose. I think it depends on the shop, how many they have in stock and how quickly they want to sell them. I imagine they’d want to sell them on as quickly as possible, a sudden change in the gold price (down) might mean a loss for them. Although having said that pawn shops will pay much less than 5% below spot when buying. I haven’t actually sold gold to a pawn shop and I don’t think I would but this is how I imagine they operate.

If you are looking for as close to spot price. Don’t buy new, you’ll pay a large premium from a high street jeweller. Your best option would be second hand, apart from looking at auctions you could look to put a ‘wanted’ topic in the sale part of the forum. @ilovesilverireallydo occasionally sells chains on the forum, I bought a silver chain a few weeks ago. Maybe ask if they have any gold chains. I hope this helps.

Some of us are hoping to be around by 2042, I’ll be in my 50’s granted. 😬 I hope the sovereign stays as 22ct gold and I doubt the Royal Mint would ever change that. But never say never, it may change like everything else in this crazy world.

I applaud you for doing this. 👏🏻 Scammers deserve to be treated like this and I hope he enjoys his safari tomorrow. Well done and please update us. I’d be greatful for any tips you could give to those like myself who have been scammed by a buyer on eBay. Something that isn’t often known.

Look at what the bids are up to now.

How about this for the obverse? 😆 Banksys portrait of HM The Queen.