adamantio999

This 2021 summer is ending (although it feels like here in UK never started). I've been able to make only two purchases during this period, which I am photographing and showing here. I believe that, with the new 2021 design, Britannias are a very cool choice. Quarter Ounce on a budget, or Full Ounce?

How rude and invasive your post is !!!! 😡🤬 Jokes aside... 🤭 I'll try to give some background. I'm a man in my late 30s, employee, average salary, renting with a couple of colleagues (being single and with my salary I can't afford to start a mortgage for now). I don't live in the country where I was born and raised. Italian living in the UK (almost 7 years), which gives me the chance to keep my Gold/Silver in two different countries (I travel to my birthplace on holiday 2-3 times per year) and protect me against geopolitical risk. Planning to increase that protection soon, applaying for the British citizenship and passport (love being both Italian and British). As I said recently in another topic, I came across PM randomly four years ago, thanks to Mike Malooney on youtube. It sparked my curiosity, I've never known anything about money before (despite being passionate for history). I'm always thirsty for knowledge. Since then I've never stopped putting a bigger slice of my savings into Gold and Silver. I've always been reasonably good at saving money, and all I had to do is convert it into Precious Metals. In bigger units at first, then a quarter ounce every couple of months. The only very expensive passion I have is travelling, I try to see a new place on the other side of the planet every year (bloody pandemic, I should have gone to south america in march 2020), so it's not very difficult for me to be disciplined. Fast forward four years I saved ten ounces of gold and some 150 ounces of silver, divided between UK and Italy in two different locations each. Some of my Britannias and American Buffalos sleep always with me at home 🤣. Yes because I see my gold/silver as my savings for the retirement, but I'm also a greedy bastard who loves to watch them and touch them 🤑. I'm also happy to have my 6 months expenses saved in cash (and in the bank account) and a limited amount of cryptocurrencies. I never cared that much about the price. Gold has value, which is in my opinion more important than the price. I bought in 2017 at 900£ and I bought in 2021 at 1400£. I try to be patient and play the long game. Luckily for me I have a good self control. Except when it comes to women 🤪 but we all have weaknesses.

Started 4 years ago with gold as a way of saving in an alternative currency (Thanks Mike Maloney for introducing me to this world). Then the passion grew up and I've started looking at silver a year after. In 2019 I bought almost only the grey metal, which I don't purchase anymore due to the premiums, switching back to gold again. I'll be honest with you and with myself. As time progressed, I've become a collector as much as a stacker. I try to balance reasonable deals and beauty of the coins (I'm in love with the britannias new design and with the American buffalos). I think I will be buried with some of my coins. New they are MY PRECIOUS. I always keep a quarter ounce gold in my pocked wherever I go. I like watching it when I am alone. It reminds me of what it is real.

After being able to buy just a couple of quarter ounces since the start of the year, I've finally put my hands on the 1oz 2021 Gold Britannia. I must say... on the bigger full ounce, the new design looks even more stunning. https://www.royalmint.com/globalassets/bullion/images/products/britannia/2021/2021-britannia-gold-1oz-reverse---ukb21got-1500x1500-f3a2c67.jpg

Been there three times in the last couple of years. Nice place, very good service, and they offered reasonably good selling prices.

I've read or heard from time to time about the slow destruction of the Turkish Lira in recent year. Process accelerated during the pandemic with a 10-15% monthly inflation. Then I came around these articles: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkeys-erdogan-repeats-call-citizens-convert-forex-gold-holdings-2021-03-29/ https://balkaninsight.com/2021/03/24/erdogan-urges-turks-to-sell-gold-to-support-collapsing-currency/ Erdogan wants a good old redistribution of wealth... I mean, re distribution from the people to the government. After all, why would you ever hoard foreign currencies, or a barbaric relic of the past like gold? 😅 Give them to the financial institutions acting on behalf of the government, you will be a patriot and receive a collapsing currency in exchange. 🤔 I could never ever imagine the government having in mind their own interests before yours.

Amazing. Great work. I wonder what kind of magnifying glass I would need to do the same with my quarter ounce 😆

I agree with all of you. I live in the UK. Just checked the history of my online orders with three dealers. Last silver purchase (five 1 oz britannia 2021) was on december 2020. Second last (five 1oz britannia 2020) was on june 2020, almost a year ago. Given up on silver right now. Just buying a quarter ounce gold britannia every couple of months when I have free cash.

There are many patterns in history repeating or rhyming themselves. One I saw very often is a goverment (democracy, dictatorship, empire or monarchy) of a powerful civilisation deciding to spend more than it could afford or collect in taxes, and deciding to "export" its financial problems by expanding its territory and subjugating other civilisations. The example of the Nazy Germany was lampent. Its economic miracle pre WW2 was no miracle. It was currency creation and desire for "lebensraum" (living space), which pushed Hitler to invade Europe, in order to export paper reichsmarchs and steal resources and wealth (gold from their central banks) of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, France, Greece, Soviet Union and so on. We have seen may others alike. A few weeks ago I've had a long chat with a dear friend of mine, about a topic which is, as italians, very familiar to us: the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. From the punic wars onwards (two centuries before christ), almost every conquest of the Roman Republic was launched with the purpose of looting new territories, in order to seize their land and guarantee a flush of slaves and wealth (in the form of gold, silver, jewelry) from the defeated populations. Think about Julius Caesar. He started the Gallic wars in 58 BC as a Proconsul on the verge of bankrupcy, and 8 years later, after having hannilated the Gauls on the battlefield and looting their land (modern day France), he was one of the wealthiest man in Rome. Then, a few years before Christ, two civil wars turned the republic into an empire. It was wide, rich, militarily powerful. And greedy. The emperors always wanted to spend more than what he could collect in taxes. They had bureacracy to maintain, projects to build like acqueducts, arenas and roads all over the empire (never seen anithing alike later in the middle ages). And vaste armies to pay. But there were plenty of territories to conquer. Britannia, Lusitania (portugal), Middle east, North africa, Balcans. And therefore there were plenty of slaves to bring to the empire and to put to work for free. And plenty of Gold and Silver to take from the conquered population. The endless conquests of the Empire worked very well for two centuries, as long as there were territories to occupy, in order to satisty its unquenchable thirst for "over-spending". Then around the 200 AD, the Empire reached its geographical limits. Atlantic ocean in the west. Rhine and Danube in the north. Sahara desert in the south. Parthian empire as main enemy in the east. It couldn't expand any further and it was overstretching. No more lands, slaves, gold, silver. No more fuel for its engine. It will become known as the "crisis of third century". Because the only solution to keep overspending, was to create inflation. They relentlessly started to debase their currency, lowering its purity, melting gold and silver with worthless metals. The picture down below gives a pretty good idea. At some point inflation was out of control. In one year, while the state doubled the salary of the soldiers, the price of grain tripled. They tried to control and lock prices. Did not work. The free market was out of control. They divided the empire in two with two emperors, Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire (later known as Byzantine), in order to make the management of that giant easier. It helped the eastern much more than it did for the western. After that for a century or so (from 285 to 376 AD), the empires seemed to flourish again, thanks a long series of population migrations (whom the romans called barbarians) from asia and north-eastern europe. Immigration was successfully controlled, and helped both the empires to bring in new blood, new workforce, new soldiers. They settled in, learned latin or greek, became Romans. They compensated for the foreign territories Rome had no longer the strenght to conquer. But at some point the barbarians crossing the Danube into the empire were too many. A series of accidents sparked a war and the Goths wiped out the Eastern Roman Army ad Adrianople in 378. The East managed to remein safe after the disaster, but the Goths, just a generation after, invaded the italian peninsula, sieged and sacked Rome in 410. It was the first time in 800 years that the ethernal city was violated by a foreign power, and its days were numbered. The Western Roman Empire collapsed under the never ending barbarian invasions, and ceased to exist in 476. The Eastern Roman Empire though, had a better geography, richer lands. And started coining once again an hard currency made of gold and silver from the 4th century. To distinguish it from the always inflated Western denarius, they called is "SOLIDUS" (which in latin means "hard", standing for hard money). The eastern roman empire survived another 1000 years, until 1453. Later in the middle ages, the latin language started giving birth to the italian (my mother language). That "SOLIDUS" started being called just "SOLDO". And still today, SOLDO is the italian word for "money".

Thanks for the article. Thah gold must have been another of the lootings carried on by the Wehrmacht and SS during WW2. "Exporting" worthless paper Reichsmarchs on occupied countries, and stealing all the natural resources, agricultural output, and of course Gold.

Welcome to the club @Goldtion. The first purchase is the sweetest. Until you'll buy the next. And then the next 😎

I live in the UK, where I bought all of my gold and silver in the last 3-4 years. Not much, ten ounces of gold and a couple of hundred ounces of silver. For geographical diversification, in the last couple of years I moved to Italy (my homecountry) half of my precious metals. One bit at the time, cause I return there twice a year. Simply putting in my hand luggage a gold ounce (either the full ounce or four quarter ounces) and the 20-25 silver coin tube. Well below the 10k £ (or euros) threshold. And luggage through the scanners in nonchalance 😇. (Almost) never been stopped or asked a question. Except once. The airport customs guard in the UK asked me to see the silver tubed, which was filled with one ounce American Eagles. Did not want to see the 1oz Gold Buffalo though 🤣. I've explained they were gifts for my family, and that the price of that silver was well below a grand. She seemd hypnotized, said that the coins were beautiful, and let me go.

Haven't been buying for some time

I personally prefer coins (for gold), and whichever of them for silver