Booky586

Fantastic photos, keep on posting them!
I'm with James and NGMD, I wouldn't be surprised if the dies are finished by laser.
Have a look at the scan I've attached from an 1986 Royal Mint Coin Club Bulletin. It describes how the frosting used to be applied to the dies, historically by Nitric acid etching and then by glass bead shot blasting.
1986-21 Die Polishing.pdf

Not CNC. Could be finished with a laser finished with a small aperture. The same as the assay office use.

If you are in Birmingham or close, you can come by the shop and we can test it for you. 

Yes, it's the 1887 London mint I posted photos of yesterday 🖕

Some more 1st legend varieties for the photo collection. First one was a sleeper I found on eBay and is an 1887 London mint, DISH L1. The photo doesn't do the colour justice, it's a very yellow gold.


 
And this one is an 1887 Sydney mint, DISH S1. It's a bit oversize on the diameter at 22.43mm.

Some more 1st legend varieties for the photo collection. First one was a sleeper I found on eBay and is an 1887 London mint, DISH L1. The photo doesn't do the colour justice, it's a very yellow gold.


 
And this one is an 1887 Sydney mint, DISH S1. It's a bit oversize on the diameter at 22.43mm.

I've had these coins for a while now.  In some cases, I wish I'd looked at them as closely sooner.  They are not returnable any more, but that's really not the point of this thread.
I would be very interested to know the likely cause of any of these marks / 'defects'.
All the pictures were taken close to minimum distance, approx. 15-20mm.  That gives a magnification around 300-500x.
 
Definite signs of a shifting die between impressions.  A few typical frosting holes.

 
Not much wrong here.  Ripples in the fields I find very attractive, and can sometimes be caught when the angle is just right with the SLR.

 
Again, obvious die shift, plus a strange 'bleeding' effect.  Also maybe some milk spotting or minor discolouration on the left.

 
'Big' gaps in the frosting here.

 
Amazingly, very difficult to spot with the naked eye, this looks quite horrible with the microscope.  Almost like the surface is flaking off.


 
These look like very small impact marks not visible to the naked eye.  But might be fibres caught in the strike.  Also some very fine trails in the fields; I guess a cleaning issue with the die leaving imperfections in the surface.

 
Bit messy here.  Looks like foreign bodies in the fields, causing a mark to spread out.

 
Some different type of discolouration here.

 

Sorry I thought I put them one sec
 

I couldn't guess true or false based on the current photos, your need clearer detailed ones to judge. I can see some possible damage to the rim in the right one, on its edge adjacent too REX F D. Thought it might be the remains of a jewellers mount but who'd moun"t a coin sideways on?

Gees......Bring back the crazy people who don't want to pay  the BBC licence fee.    
 

I think the marks on the rim are where they poured the brass into the casting mould!

I think the marks on the rim are where they poured the brass into the casting mould!

I think the marks on the rim are where they poured the brass into the casting mould!

I honestly can't tell, just speculating.
 

Today was sent a photo asking if I wanted to buy these two Half sovereigns.  
Will not be able to get better photos until Tuesday. 
Will list one side 1st and the other in about an hour. 
What do members think? Give reasons for yes or no.
If someone can crop the photo, go ahead and I will delete this
Spyder
 

Don't stress too much, mate!
It is a specific jargon used by sovereigns lova'.
WW is William Wyon ( the great engraver), BP is Benedetto Pistrucci ( the great designer).
DISH is probably what they eat this dinner, I dunno exactly, can vary.
My DISH was Beef and mushrooms this evening.
Cheers!🤗

This may have already been shared on here (I'm not up to date), but this seems a good deal. 2023 Coronation sovs currently £382 each (delivery £6)
2023 Coronation Gold Sovereign Coin | Chards - From £382.04

£80 for a full 2002 shield???? Eek. I want 2dozen at that price.

The Street Name is Dr. Richard 🍆
So we're saying the technical race is between $1930 ($1927-1940) and $2080 ($2090), with $2000/oz an important psychological and technical support:

 
If you don't want to buy now or continue with your DCA purchases, then you're waiting for the price to cascade through all of those supports above and around $2000. If you're waiting for a dip then you need gold to drop below $2000 and stay there long enough for you to buy. (Incidentally you'd also want to see gold break those supports with momentum as opposed to drip-feeding $1/day)
Do I think gold will remain below $2000/oz for a significant period of time? No, but I've been wrong before and I will be again. There's been greater volatility in gold prices in recent years than the historical norm, with swings of +/- $100/day not unheard of. It's feasible you could wait for a temporary (perhaps intraday) dip and find a nice buy point but should you be banking on that? Probably not and especially not if it requires constant monitoring and premiums to dip to match gold spot price
I believe $2000/oz is the new floor but if we get dips when and why will we get them? 
To get a major dip we might need a major recession (aka a deflationary event). A major recession historically leads to a temporary dip in gold prices as traders sell off their prime assets to cover their losses in other markets. There's no guarantee a recessionary gold dip would occur this time as conditions are different with central banks engaging in sustained record buying sprees and money managers seeing gold as ever more important to their financial stability and hedges against what is perceived to be a bubble in asset prices (stock markets/cryptos). It may be the case in the next major financial crisis that everything is sold except for precious metals and miners (a theory some have already put forward)
Another possible cause of a major dip that is robust is a strengthening of DXY (the USD index) or BXY (GBP index). We saw DXY (most important for global commodities like gold, oil) strengthening recently and it had a directly proportional effect on the price of silver in real time. The USD strengthening occurred as traders (those still behind the curve) shifted their expectations for rate cuts in March to rate cuts no earlier than May. While the DXY relationship with PMs is robust the logic behind it is questionable. The DXY strength is a multi-decade long indicator that has been obliterated by gold (USD lost 99%+ of its value vs gold). So when DXY strengthens on the back of them not creating as much new money as expected, I take that with a pinch of salt. The USD and fiat in general are still weak and being diluted at an ever greater rate (debt creation accelerating). I struggle to see the logic of the perceived strength of USD vs physical assets when the USD is infinite (MMT) while physical assets like gold are finite. That's besides the point though, the market will still react to DXY strength and weakness
If it was a normal year we might expect dips in gold in the summer, especially August-October/early November. This year our expectations for that time period are that USD, GBP, Euro and RMB will see rate cuts (weakens fiat, boosts XAU/XAG and reduces opportunity cost of holding metals) due to economic slowdown and the major US and UK elections (politicians want to boost the economy on a temporary basis, even if it's a negative efficiency, to make them look better in the eyes of the masses, "It's the economy, stupid!")
So the seasonal weakness we might expect in gold/silver may be replaced by a seasonal strengthening
That's a lot of words to say I don't see how we get a major dip in gold prices in 2024, dips large enough to make a significant difference to your buying patterns. I'm more worried about missing the rocket to $2300+ than I am about potentially overspending by a few £s at current price levels. The most you could lose by buying today is probably 10% with a retracement all the way back to $1800 but that's unlikely in my view
If I had the same stacking goals as you then I would just DCA. If I felt the price was too high then maybe I might slow the DCA a little bit to create a fund to buy the dip. An important point to consider is your physical premium and buy price. You could easily see an item listed for £400 at Tavex and find someone on the forum selling at £390. That hypothetical saving of 2.5% is cover against a dropping spot price. So if you're asking for my advice, I would DCA and buy every time I saw the items I wanted at low premium and see that as perhaps being more important than the spot price or trying to "time the markets" (which is theoretically impossible). 

Very generous of you, it'd be rude not to accept!

I can shave one down to 25g if your up for it

Nice one, got any more? 

Nice one, got any more? 

Nice one, got any more?