KDave

Real silver (sort of) and gold in the form of a Gold 2016 1/10 RAM Kangaroo, 2012 Kook with Dragon Privy & 2016 Maple with Tank Privy.
Then a selection of 18 rounds and a 5oz Shotgun Shell.
 

Today I received... 
1 x Elizabeth ll sovereign 
And 
2 x king Edward VII sovereigns 

All the info I've seen from modern day XRF analysis of old sovereigns indicate they were pretty good in those days. All have been almost exactly 917/1000 gold so their refining techniques must have excellent.
Ah yes, the rare and famous Ansell 1859. I've yet to see one in good condition, considering they were supposed to be tougher than normal, and it's scarcer than you'd think for a mintage of 167k

Not 100% on this one but it appears that metallurgy was still experimental during queen Victoria's reign and even into the 20th century refining techniques were still being developed. An extract from the gold sovereign by Michael Marsh;
"In 1859 a quantity of gold valued at £167,539 was ordered to be melted and returned to the Bank as unfit for coin due its brittle nature; this gold in fact contained small quantities of antimony, arsenic and lead. Ansell asked to experiment with this gold, and although confronted by several obstacles, including the aversion to change, he was eventually given permission. His experiments brought a successful conclusion and as a result all of the gold was re-wrought at very little additional cost, and without annealing. The new sovereigns were in fact so tough that an ordinary man could not break them even with the aid of a pair of pliers. For his efforts Ansell received a letter of thanks from the Master of the Mint plus £100."
This hints to me that most of the time the gold used in coins at the mint was probably not pure in any measurable sense that we would expect today, but was likely judged by its physical properties and colour. They perhaps made do with what they were given and alloyed it with metals they had available at the mint, which depending on the mint would have included silver, copper, zinc and tin. Pure speculation on what they used in the alloy on my part there, but the gold was evidently not 'pure' and may be attributable to the colour of the older coins. 
Today you can expect the gold to be pure, and the alloy also to be pure copper with no silver, tin or zinc, hence the horrible rose gold colour of the new coins. Perhaps the impurities in the older coins can attribute to the colour somewhat, or possibly the age/oxidisation of the copper in the alloy has something to do with it? If so then the newer sovereigns may also turn a more pleasant colour with time?

Today I bought..........................well it got a bit confusing, as I got 4.4% from Topcashback, 10x nectar points, and then I found out I had a 5% voucher from ebay, (buggered if I know where that came from).
Anyway I bought a load of sterling silver spoons and forks, (including a rare Glasgow silver spoon, well chuffed no one spotted that, as its worth almost 3 times what i paid for it), They totaled 17.6 ozt and cost about £10.45 an ounce delivered, and that is without my cashback or my hundreds of nectar points or my 0.5% credit card cash back. So if I chuck in those then I probably ended up paying about £9.90 an ounce.
Sadly I've gone into next months budget, but then what can you do   

My 1/25oz gold 2016 Philharmonic coin arrived today.
Placed it onto a 2oz beast for comparison as they are close to the same price each.
Sorry the image is blurred, best I could manage hand held.

Just picked up two Queens' beasts & two Isle of Man angels on the way home from work from @Abbotssilvercoins
Also whilst I was there I put money towards some of his upcoming silver rounds that he is getting made. A run of 750 only based on mythical creatures. Saw the artwork & liked it immediately. The first in a four coin series.

Today I received one and a half sovereigns from HGM. I swooped during the 1% premium special the other day.
 
 

My Queens beasts have arrived from STG. Along with a free tube. (Thanks STG).

I think I have found my new favourite coin.

Been a while since I pulled my stack out of the safe and posted a full stack picture, been quietly stacking away in the background and have now hit :
53.32 oz gold
85.1 oz Silver
3.1g Platinum
The only thing missing from my pic is the 1oz Lunar horse as I havent picked it up from my brother yet.

Another tranch ordered today.
Mainly 2016 Maples @ 18% over spot from my usual dealer.  Have to arrange delivery next week. It's gonna be epic!

Gold and the gold miners have been holding up pretty well recently. Every time they correct back, the correction is small and short-lived. If you wait for a large pull-back you may miss the boat. For myself, I'm an investor not a trader, so I doubt I could squeeze additional gains out of trying to time my transactions. I'd rather just buy and hold, and review periodically to see whether I need to rebalance things. That said, I would normally review only a few times a year, but the sharp moves we've seen in 2016 has me checking the prices every day.

my thought is that we'll not reach as low as $1200 again
for the rest of the year. we could still have a light pullback
from this point to dip towards or even lower than $1240
(~6% pullback from $1300, watch the dollar index). the
year to date average should still be ~$1180 so should be
slowly increasing as we continue throughout the year. this
would cause miners to trend higher overall as they bag
more profit with each sale. I'm still waiting for a move
towards a more favourable entry point for some mining
stocks. it is suggested that the current price movements
are designed to keep people on the sidelines with unclear
and shorter trading moves.
 
HH

Britannia's from Nordfirm, oh they are sooo shiny Thanks HT for the heads-up!

Just won a local  online auction for the 2013 silver proof 5 pound Georgey Porgey birth St George and the Dragon  (boxed coa etc) for 179 quid (28,254 yen in my money). Secondary market 260 quid plus. OK with that and will add it to the one I already have.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=2013%20Royal%20Mint%20The%20Royal%20Birth%20of%20Prince%20George%20Silver%20Proof%20Five%20Pounds%20Piece&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

My only batch of Britannias, Thanks for the info HT
 

1st batch of Britannias cheers HT
 
 

10 oz Lunar Horse, courtesy of @BaldyBob.

My first Gold coin! 1/4oz Queens Beast arrived today.

20 Peso and 2011 1/2 Oz Lunar Arrived today.
Mexican bullion collection is complete - 1 of each! 
Thanks to @DrDime for the 5 Peso received last week. Very nice condition that one.

Picked up another shield. I was meaning to get some silver but saw this. It's the nicest condition of the ones I have.
3 years in a row counts as a date run, no..?


Picked up another shield. I was meaning to get some silver but saw this. It's the nicest condition of the ones I have.
3 years in a row counts as a date run, no..?

I overdid it today on sovereigns. I may need to sell something shortly.

I have bought a tube of 2oz Queens Beasts.
I am now stacking again as it looks like it is a good time to buy some insurance.

Blew the rest of the PM fund today on a tube of the beasts from STG. Most of the fund had already been spent on the same as everyone else it seems - now empty because of HT's epic Britannia find. Was saving up for another ounce of gold for the Britannia tube, almost had enough, but looks like that will have to wait a bit longer! Just waiting for either the Britannia delivery from Nordfrim or some nice pictures of HT in Barbados in the pictures only thread   

Blew the rest of the PM fund today on a tube of the beasts from STG. Most of the fund had already been spent on the same as everyone else it seems - now empty because of HT's epic Britannia find. Was saving up for another ounce of gold for the Britannia tube, almost had enough, but looks like that will have to wait a bit longer! Just waiting for either the Britannia delivery from Nordfrim or some nice pictures of HT in Barbados in the pictures only thread