Airhead

Hello I have been looking at old silver coins and have been amazed at the prices being asked on Fleabay, so I decided to determine what the intrinsic worth of these coins actually is, rather than what people would like them to be. To this end I constructed a small spreadsheet tool with the spot price being adjusted (manually I don't know how to scrape) to give actual intrinsic value based on silver content. I have attached it as it might be useful to other habitues of the forum The file has been scanned by AV and is clean British Pre Decimal Coins.xlsx

The easiest way of determining the metal content is to take it to a good jeweller or bullion/coin dealer. Other methods are a specific gravity test Or post pics here so we can have a gander

Not being an armourer I am unsure if it would work, but perhaps plating the inside of a lead proofed barrel with something such as Nikasil. I do realise that I risk being whipped for suggesting such sacrilegious practices.

Definitely wait for one to come up on the forum, I only ever buy from the forum as I know I can trust the people here, unlike flea bay. I purchased one a couple of months ago for £960 including postage. Only a PF68 but my old eyes would not know the difference between a 68 and a 70 if it bit me on the leg. I did see chards has one for sale at £1995 which is the top end of what you would have to pay. https://www.chards.co.uk/1989-2-pound-double-gold-sovereign-500th-anniversary/6494

This link link will take you to the latest listings https://www.thesilverforum.com/latest-listings/ This one is for the root https://www.thesilverforum.com/forum/115-uk-europe/ as you are UK

Very sound judgement HighlandTiger, I too keep away from specials and pretty coins (proofs) as the market is rather fickle and subject to the whims of fashion. With the recent increase in the spot price of Silver my head is above water and would like to keep it that way. Although I may break my rule for the last QB. When valuing my silver stack I always work on spot price and avoid factoring in what generic coins are being sold for, so a bog standard Britannia is worth £20.91 (as I type) no more and no less. The same with 2019 Dragon Bars and Queens Beasts.

Hurrah,

The only reason signal level contacts are gold plated is due to corrosion as you say, but it is a very thin coating so you do not have the massive increase in impedance if the connector was wholly made of gold. The use of gold as a finish to the covering to satellites is for the reason I stated that it tends to reflect more of the red end of the spectrum ie heat. If you wanted to reflect all wavelengths such as telescope mirrors you would use silver. It is the first time I have heard the industrial uses of gold as a support for the metal it is usually used as a perjorative against s

Not exactly true with regards the uses of silver. Gold is a c**p conductor of electricity compared to silver with silver having a much lower resistivity lower than copper. Silver will reflect light efficiently and at all wavelengths gold tends to favour the red end of the spectrum. It will also conduct of heat with an efficiency only beaten by diamond. It is also a very ductile metal. Gold does look pretty though.

If UK banks were to fail and people were to loose the money held therein, transferring your money to a brokerage account would be the least of your worries, roving gangs of disgruntled creditors and how to defend your spuds would be your main preoccupation.

While there may be some that complain bitterly about dealer margins, I think the Royal Mint has taken it to a new extreme. https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/mayflower/james-i-gold-spur-royal-mm-spur-rowel-ms63/ 55605% markup on 6.25g? 😲 Might be a nice coin for a modern reproduction (This is slightly tongue in cheek)

With reference to your question regarding stacking, which I take to mean the holding of physical, I agree that prices are a bit steep compared to the spot price. Which is why most informed people do not buy physical silver from UK dealers, preferring to use Estonian, German or Norwegian dealers where VAT is not applied. Things will change when we exit the transition phase of Brexit when it is likely that both VAT and import duty will be applied to all imports of silver, which will push up the UK price of silver even on the Forum, pushing it even further out of the reach of the average stacker,

I thought it was Richmond in Surrey🙃

I ordered a full tube of Britannias and a double Pixhu on Sunday and coins were delivered on the following Saturday. Whilst they may not have the greatest range, three things stood out. Their prices in addition to being some of the cheapest in Europe, rather than just swapping a Euro symbol for a Sterling symbol, have a fair exchange rate. So much so that I did not bother using my Revolut card. UK buyers can also pay a UK bank. Postage is very good value with the rate up to 500g being only £9 Excellent communication and very professional. Very well packaged. So

What exactly is the r-silver ratio? Googling the term only returns GSR which being 1.4 at the moment is unfortunately not the case