Stuntman

Tweedledum and Tweedledumber.

This might be the relevant reverse design for the UK Britannia & Liberty coins: https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/joint-liberty-britannia-coin-design-gets-first-review If so - I'm cautiously optimistic, assuming the inscription is nicely integrated and the coin design looks cohesive overall.

If the gentleman was indeed in the situation highlighted above, it would perhaps make sense to take the advice highlighted above. Otherwise, one might question why the gentleman chose to sell £22,000 worth of gold if he was thinking of buying some gold with the proceeds. Why did he not just sell the amount of gold that he wanted to turn into cash? In answer to what to with the £22k, given that he has sold physical gold to that value - I would perhaps advise him to leave £10k in an easy access account earning about 5% interest, put £6k into an equity income stock and shares fund yielding about 5%, and put £6k into a Physical Gold ETF to keep some exposure to the metal unless he already had sufficient exposure.

Perhaps buy a few nice pretty pieces of silver and enjoy looking at them. I'd recommend 10 oz coins and/or bars for that. They are impressive objects in their own right and you may not want to sell them even if silver does go to the moon! Personally I would look to use a physical silver exchange-traded commodity fund such as iShares Physical Silver if I wanted to profit from a potential increase in the silver price, rather than buy and sell the physical. I agree with the advice above to consider physical gold, and bullion sovereigns in particular. (I have done all the above) Enjoy, and good luck...

That's exactly what they seem to be doing, according to my understanding of the relevant proclamations.

Generally speaking, if the description of the coin contains the name of the metal, its weight and its fineness - it will be a bullion coin. The proofs don't generally contain this information on the face of the coin.

^^^ The proclamation says it will also be made as a 1 kilo silver bullion coin, although seemingly not a 10 oz. The design would look pretty epic on a big silver coin like that.

That Wyon design would be ace on this new coin. I think the Valiant coin has a lance, rather than a spear - although definitely not a sword!

Thanks @westminstrel, these sound very exciting. There's obviously some kind of UK/US coin series thing going on at the Royal Mint. First we see the Lion & Eagle coin in proof, then a Britannia & Liberty coin in bullion. I hope the the George & Dragon coin is a new design, but wouldn't mind if it was the similar to the Valiant design, that's pretty decent IMO.

I think these coins are quite interesting, but not as appealing as the Queen's Beasts series by some margin. The designs are nowhere near as good, in my opinion. I collected the entire QB series in 1oz bullion and 1/4 oz bullion, but I'm probably only going to do the Lions and Dragons for the TB series, and only in 1oz bullion (so four of the bullion coins from the series, maybe the platinums as well). So far, I just have the 1oz Lion - in Au and Pt. Fingers crossed for the designs of the Dragons. Lions and Dragons have more appeal to more people, I think. I would consider buying several bullion versions of a Completer if they did one. The QB Completer coins were pretty awesome.

I hope so! But I like them anyway (also have the 2017 and 2018, both of which are deeply prooflike, as well you know...)

The 2022 Platinum Jubilee BU 5 sovereign piece was priced at £2635 by the RM on release. I bought one of those too, and still have it. I think the coins make a nice pair, regardless of their investment potential.

That's an absurd price, IMO. One for the absolute sovereign completist with ridiculously deep pockets. It's just a variety, really.

If they did a Merlen-style shield minus the Hanoverian arms in the centre, with ANNO 2025 underneath it (as per the William IV style) I'd be all over that in double and quintuple sizes. Make it happen, RM...

I doubt it. That's almost certainly going to be all of them for 2023.

@RDHC - there's an MS70 Platinum Jubilee BU 5 sov potentially available for sale by @Frenchie in the other thread in this section at the moment if you wanted to take a look...

I bought one of these coins directly from the RM on issue. Personally I don't think it will be a particularly good investment, compared to say the Platinum Jubilee BU 5 sovereign coin for example. But it's an impressive coin with a special reverse and is always likely to hold some appeal to collectors. I'm pleased to own the coin, but wouldn't buy it purely for investment. The same money buys about seven bullion sovereigns, which are likely to be better investments, but not as visually impressive. The BU quintuple would also be harder to sell than the bullion sovereigns, and of course you are selling the entire investment/coin in one go, rather then potentially selling the bullion sovereigns in stages. Gratuitous photos:

I'm interested in the bullion ones and I'd choose those in preference to proof sovereigns. I'm not a huge Bond fan, but I can see the appeal of these and I quite like the design of this 1960s films coin.

Looks like these are only being released as proof coins? Pity, I'd be interested if bullion...

Regarding the 1902 florin - according to my copy of Collector's Coins 2020, the mintage of the currency coin was 2,489,575 and there were 15,123 matt proof coins minted as well. The 1905 florin had a mintage of 1,187,596. Generally speaking, the first year's coins for a new monarch/new design are the cheapest to buy subsequently, as more of them will have been removed from circulation and put aside. See 1887, 1902 and 1937 in particular.

1902 currency florins are pretty common, and many of them were saved because they were the first year of the new monarch. So plenty of good examples survived and it's the cheapest year to buy.

There are occasional key dates across multiple denominations for silver coins. 1905 is certainly the key date for Edward VII silver shillings, florins and halfcrowns. 1903 and 1904 halfcrowns are hard to find as well. For George V, 1925 florins and halfcrowns are also hard to find, as are 1930 halfcrowns and 1932 florins. Going back to George IV, 1829 shillings and halfcrowns are scarce, but 1827 is scarcer for shillings and 1828 is scarcer for halfcrowns. For William IV, 1837 is generally scarcer for shillings and particularly halfcrowns. 1835 halfcrowns are hard to find too. For Victoria, 1854 is a key date for both shillings and florins, but 1850 shillings are rare, and the 1863 florins are very rare. Also 1891/92 for the Jubilee Head florins. Maybe it was related to demand but perhaps it was to do with supply of silver for minting the coins. I don't know!

^^^ Same to my eyes. I absolutely couldn't distinguish my fake 1818 half crown from a real one based on the pictures of the coin before I bought it. After receiving the coin I suspected it was a fake and then researched it further. I found various information on the internet about these fake coins, and my coin had the same marks on it as the fake coin. The fake 1818 half crown also has the incorrect die axis (the genuine coin is medal alignment, the fake is coin alignment) but you cannot tell that from individual pictures of each side! Anyway, I still have it and certainly wouldn't ever try to pass it off as genuine. I've removed it from the pool of available fakes, and subsequently purchased a genuine 1818 halfcrown from a reputable coin dealer.

Bullion double sovereigns are a nice addition to a stack or collection, especially if you can pick them up reasonably cheaply. They're a great size for admiring the designs, without the increased cost of a proof or quintuple. I have also done this for the recent special designs of 2022-3 and I bought the 2020 coin when they revived the double sovereign in bullion. But I agree that it makes more financial sense to choose two singles over a double, and I'm unlikely to buy any more until the next special design.

I think that these 'fakes' are often not actually intended to deceive, because they differ fairly obviously from the genuine item when the two (or pictures of the two) are compared side by side. Some people want them as a gap filler if they are collecting a date run and cannot justify the cost of the genuine item. See also 1828 half crowns, 1903 and 1905 half crowns - etc. This particular 1905 Florin appears to have a little crown mark just to the right of the 1905 date on the reverse. That's definitely not there on the genuine coin. And the portrait of Edward VII differs in many ways from the genuine coin, most noticeably just the shape of his head (edit: look at his ear as well, completely different). The more you look, the more differences you'll see on both sides of the 'fake' coin. If it's sterling silver it will be worth a little more as scrap than the price paid at the car boot sale. But I have no idea about the metal content. In contrast to this sort of 'fake', there are other fake coins out there which do intend to deceive people into thinking they are the genuine items. These are often made by obtaining a genuine coin, taking impressions of it and then casting the fakes from these impressions. So all the fakes look the same as each other, but will closely resemble the genuine coin. 1934 Wreath Crowns are often faked in this way but other coins such as 1905 shillings and half crowns are also faked like this, and for some reason the 1818 half crown is faked too. I have one of these faked 1818 half crowns, which I keep as a curiosity and a warning.