TeaTime

Postie delivered a nice 1994 Bank of England £2 to complete another perfect 3-coin set. 1994 case has a classic aged smell to it after 30 years. Like fine wine 😄

Life before Sovereigns and Britannias….
My 14 pounder - sounds like a piece of artillery!
Consisting of 7 Silver £1 Piedfort Proofs 1983 - 1989 &  7 Nickel-brass £1 proofs (Various dates)
I really enjoyed collecting round £1 s……I was prompted by @SilverToday by the way!
 

Yep, works too!
Who else clicked thinking it was an advert for a half sovereign at spot price? 🤔  😂

To clarify my thoughts on the other coins:
This is a fake error coin. Someone has removed the centre, ground and polished the design off one side, and then replaced it. It is not possible for such a thing to occur during the minting process as the outer and inner blanks are struck at the same time with a single pair of dies, so it is inexplicable for a perfectly circular area in the middle of the coin to end up completely smooth.
The middle has been pushed out. It's not a mint error. The inner blank has a groove channeled into it when it goes through the rimming process; the outer blank then flows into the void left by the groove to help lock the two parts together, so they were demonstrably minted properly before someone took the coin apart. If there is no evidence of removal, bear in mind that the middle and outer may not even belong to the same coin.
This is not a mint error. These are marks from it being put in a clamp or suchlike.
You're right, it's been manipulated post mint and isn't a mint error. Although the outer blanks are initially circular, they would be pushed against the collar when struck, which is what imparts the 12 sides with alternate milled and smooth sections. There is too much detail on the faces of the coin for it to not have made it all the way to the collar (i.e. it's not a weak strike). I would expect it to be underweight accordingly, because someone has removed material from the coin post-mint to produce this.
Is the real deal 👌
Another fake mint error. The middle has simply been removed and reinserted the wrong way round. It's not possible for a mint error like this to occur, as the middles aren't inserted after being struck. There are prominent marks on the coin, likely from when the centre was forcibly removed.

Interesting....
Unfortunately all of the issues shown could be introduced after they have been made.
The last coin, for instance, with the transposed inner and outer ring can't happen at the mint. The coins are struck (in one piece) from dies and it would be impossible to strike a coin with this error. The middle has been punched out and reversed. 

I very much doubt anyone else would want the coin blanks the RM are using for their silver bullion....
In regards gold blanks - who else produces a sovereign (RMs flagship gold coin) sized coin ?
I smell obfuscation. 

There is nothing to indicate that it's fake, Although;
It's odd that the seller states that it is in excellent condition yet has not shown a photo of the actual coin.
If it's because the packaging is sealed then how would he know the condition..
Also a bit odd that the seller states 'It is made from various fineness materials' when it clearly states on the packaging that it's .958 silver.
Looking at other listings from this seller he has a shilling listed as in 'excellent condition' which is buckled and worn. So his definition of a coins condition is rather liberal !

 

Ironically the BU 2012 Britannia isn't half as nice looking as the frosted fields regular bullion issue. 🙃 Too shiny for tired eyes !

There is nothing to indicate that it's fake, Although;
It's odd that the seller states that it is in excellent condition yet has not shown a photo of the actual coin.
If it's because the packaging is sealed then how would he know the condition..
Also a bit odd that the seller states 'It is made from various fineness materials' when it clearly states on the packaging that it's .958 silver.
Looking at other listings from this seller he has a shilling listed as in 'excellent condition' which is buckled and worn. So his definition of a coins condition is rather liberal !

 

Not a bad looking coin but whats alfred hitchcock doing on the back of it?

I purchased the Queens Beasts cufflinks from the RM - lovely miniatures of the actual coins and i believe priced at around £100 (reduced to about £50 in the sales they used to have)....
And now they showcase plain silver discs (although, admittedly very shiny) at 3 x the cost of the QB cufflinks. Madness.

The jewellery on the RM site is the most insipid and over-priced tat i have ever seen - £295 for plain silver cufflinks That you could buy anywhere else for around £50...
 

The jewellery on the RM site is the most insipid and over-priced tat i have ever seen - £295 for plain silver cufflinks That you could buy anywhere else for around £50...
 

Haven't been to one in years but when i used to there was ALWAYS a couple of stalls selling fake silver. Mostly Chinese 'coins'...
I once took a whole boot load of stuffed toys (long story) and set up a selling table. I had my nephew with me at the time... I decided to have a wander around and left him in charge, returning about 20 minutes later. The table was empty and he told me he'd sold the lot for £12. I wasn't happy because it had cost something like £10 for the table but lesson learnt - don't leave a 12 year old in charge.
On the way out of the car boot i saw another stall selling the toys for £4 each (there was a couple of hundred of them).
I think that's the last car boot i did.

They roll, punch, rim and pickle their own base metal blanks for circulating coins, and they also sell these to other mints as ready-to-strike blanks (RSBs). But who knows how long that will keep going on for when they're going to stop making coins for other countries at the end of this year. Maybe they'll end up buying in blanks for UK coins eventually, particularly with the nearby steelworks closing down its melty things.
I always got the impression that a lot of their 1oz silver blanks came from Australia. I've seen a lot of milk Australian Kangaroos too.... coincidence?!
It does feel like it takes some of the magic away from the whole operation. They are just becoming a company that makes dies and pushes them into things other people have made. Not too different to Pobjoy Mint and others if you think about it like that.
I saw something a couple of years ago that suggested their kilo bullion coins are actually struck in the US. No idea if true or not.

I very much doubt anyone else would want the coin blanks the RM are using for their silver bullion....
In regards gold blanks - who else produces a sovereign (RMs flagship gold coin) sized coin ?
I smell obfuscation. 

NEW COIN COMING SOON!!!
The Monarch series  incompleter coin!  
 
 
 
 

Can't understand why they didn't start with one house (eg Tudors) and issue them all chronologically. If it had been a success they could have done Stuart's, etc. If it wasn't any good they could cancel and everyone who bought would have a full set. Also someone new could join at the start of the next house and not feel it was all or nothing. Whoever decided to go between the royal houses with no logic to what was coming next shouldn't be let lose on any new series.
 

I very much doubt anyone else would want the coin blanks the RM are using for their silver bullion....
In regards gold blanks - who else produces a sovereign (RMs flagship gold coin) sized coin ?
I smell obfuscation. 

I very much doubt anyone else would want the coin blanks the RM are using for their silver bullion....
In regards gold blanks - who else produces a sovereign (RMs flagship gold coin) sized coin ?
I smell obfuscation. 

2006 Gold Proof £1 Egyptian Arch   Featuring the Dublin-Belfast railway Egyptian Arch Bridge designed by Sir John MacNeill, a one time associate of Thomas Telford, this 2006 £1 coin was designed by wood engraver Edwina Ellis. Although the rarest of the four coin gold collection (mintage just 1,195) it is, sadly and undoubtedly, the least attractive - more Edwina Currie than Ellis.   The coin is the penultimate individually minted au round £1 to enter my ongoing collection (now 23 designs), just the 2015 4th Portrait Shield remaining elusive.   My thanks to @Earthmetal for a magnificent example of this proof pug...and also to @MancunianStacker for starting me on this auric snark-hunt.

May be worth looking in 'collectables' or somesuch ?
I converted some Nectar points and couldn't use them for any of the items listed under 'coins' but managed to find a few things under different categories. Although it was a faff and, quite frankly, i can't be bothered to do it again....

A very beautiful coin. Canada 25 cents 2019. First Canadian in space.

I have a real soft spot for Canadian coins for some reason. When this one came up, couldn't see it go past me. One which will be in my collection for a very long time I think. 
Thanks @arphethean
The coat of arms and the maple leaf details are great. I think it is also my favourite portrait of any monarch on a coin too. 😎
 

May be worth looking in 'collectables' or somesuch ?
I converted some Nectar points and couldn't use them for any of the items listed under 'coins' but managed to find a few things under different categories. Although it was a faff and, quite frankly, i can't be bothered to do it again....