Ushao

Picked up a few more sovs at the auctions today as detailed in this post : 
Obligatory pic (night time and artificial light horrible for taking pics or could just be that I'm hopeless)  :

 
 

A short visit to Geiger's this morning:
1 oz silver Ark 2020, 5 oz silver Ark 2020, and one of the very last 1/4 oz gold Ark 2017. 

After killing my budget on buying a bigger shoe box I’ve been reduced to wandering in and out of charity shops today for my shopping buzz.... picked up this little neat box for £3! Unfortunately it came empty but looks ok with a bit of bling inside it!

I am currently out of town and found a store local to where I am staying that had some cool stuff!

Attractively designed (and packaged!) 8g 999 Silver 2020 LNY Commemorative Coin . . . it’s of course not LNY 2020, but these are still widely available locally - of course at a substantial premium, but I have a use for them 

Ordered this 1oz silver bar today which has a mintage of 1000.

They don't take credit cards and haven't for some years.
Undestandable and most others don't either, the fees for a CC vs a DC are massively different and it hasn't been legal to charge a surcharge for CC since 2017/8 ish.
You need pretty big margins and/or turn over enough money to even try and negotiate lower fees, as a seller, plus the banks have to recoup all the charge-backs losses, fraud compensation etc somehow .... 
I do get the OP point though as I get a nice yearly cashback on my CC, I suspect it started with crypto and they just threw in coins etc later, the banks want to keep your fiat money and give you little to nothing, but what they like most now, once again, is lending you money - which is exactly how and why world economies almost collapsed before, credit, and debt - history always repeats, keep on stacking and anything physical, especially land  .......

Hi @BackyardBullion
I recently went through a similar experience to this.
In summary, I purchased gold coins from Germany (delivered via UPS) and gold coins from Belgium (delivered via Fedex) and both couriers initially invoiced me for VAT.
Dealing with UPS was quite straightforward, in that they provided an Investment Gold Declaration form upon request, which once submitted together with an EORI Number, resulted in the fees being immediately waived.
I assumed (perhaps naively) that I could do the same for Fedex and prepared the same documentation in advance.
They, however, would simply not entertain this and refused to release the package until the invoice was paid in full prior to delivery, in spite of several attempts to reason with them over the fact that as investment-grade gold coins, there was no VAT to be paid.
In the end, I paid up in order to have the coins delivered, rather than shipped back to the seller.
I then submitted a claim for reimbursement via the following website:
www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-repayment-or-remission-of-import-duties-c285-chief
The form I completed was the C285 (CDS version), which I believe will also apply to you.
Apparently, it can take up to 4 weeks to receive reimbursement, so I’m actually still waiting for mine, having only submitted my application 2 weeks ago.
What became apparent from this experience is that there are actually no standardised procedures in place.
As @Jamesdmentioned, the courier companies are effectively doing whatever they want, and seem to have become far more brazen since Brexit, in this regard.
What's worse is that Fedex won't even inform you that you can reclaim VAT from HMRC on investment-grade gold coins after initially paying it, and have no formal process in place to facilitate this. It seems they simply don't care.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
Regards,
@NeutronJack
 
 
 

hey buddy. I've had this a few times. I pay fed ex and claim back through HMRC. I have the claim form on file if that's any good. courier companies are a law unto themselves so gave up trying with them. HMRC as long as you have correct invoice are super easy to deal with 

Hallo liebe Silber und Goldfreunde,
da das Wetter draußen nicht gerade einladend ist habe ich ein paar Fotos
gemacht die ich mit euch teilen möchte. Viel Spaß beim Schauen und Grüße vom Maxe. 
Hoffentlich langweilen euch meine Bilder nicht, habe gerade richtig Lust.
 
Den Anfang machen Schiffe, die nie auf den Meeren fuhren.










Ich liebe diese schönen Serien aus Ruanda, original verschweißt sind die sehr edel.





Die Aliens in BU und Antik Finish finde ich auch sehr gut gelungen, auch der Tiger der Komsco in PP ist super.






Sehr gut gelungen sind auch die Restrikes aus China in BU und Antik Finish.






Und zum Abschluss noch etwas für die Goldfreunde, Gold aus Deutschland, 12g Goldmark, 3,89g Deutscher Wald und heimische Vögel und 1/2oz Einigkeit.



 










 
 
 

Just my 'Aussie' gold.......
 

Very good 100 lire Vatican coin, many thanks to @paolo for the deal. 

Nothing fancy but this is what I've managed to accumulate in 4months. My Goddess Europa silver showed up today so I'm well happy. I'm not sure if I've done for the year yet, that depends on spot prices and what I come across. 

A slightly different 2oz "three graces" to the ones everyone's all hyped up about...

I've been meaning to snag a Panda for quite a while now, and managed to get one on Amazon using the free money provided to me by the ONS via their Covid survey!

 
Even comes in it's own little display box.

 
 

Some lovely bullion sovereigns from atkinsons, a beautiful beast and a bit of history 😊

Good morning dear collector friends,

Today a small selection of Bullions and Semi Bullions. A lot has accumulated over the years.
Sorry for the partly bad photos but my camera is no longer the latest model.
Greetings from Maxe 
 
































 

Hello dear silver friends,
Actually I didn't want to collect the Lunar III series any more. But I still treated myself to a few specialities from the first two issues.
I would also like to show other new acquisitions here. A mix between coins of the newer generation and coins and medals from historical times, have fun.
Have a nice Sunday!
Greetings from Maxe  

State of the nation.  Im going to need a bigger box !!
Added a 10oz to the collection and a further 1/10 Britannia. 
Id like to buy more gold but wow ! so expensive ! 😞 


 

Love this note.
100 trillion dollars 😂😂
Not a bad Grade either for my first graded note 65 EPQ Gem Uncirculated 🙌

Since deciding last year to fill some tubes of coins and getting 2 empty Philharmonic tubes I have been plugging away. Picked up a few great deals here on the forum, the rest here and there. Got the last 2 at the weekend when Atkinsons very sportingly put some pre owned Phil's up despite spot falling!
A full tube of coins feels nice and weighty in the hand. Makes me want more..... Another tube of these and then on to something different.

Have been stacking exclusively bullion coins so thought I should get something a bit more interesting. 
6 taels of silver - 1 x four tael bar and 2 x one tael round.
1 tael = 37.8g or 1.2 oz

So here is my Stack, new to this but love the coins I have and can't wait to expand my collection
 

End of the year so some time to take a photo of my personal stack. Been a great year for stacking and had the opportunity to get some truly awsome pieces. 
HAPPY XMAS GUYS AND GALS 

Early in my stacking and Im at this very modest stage. 
I like the RM 100g bars which I think prefer over the hand poured. I think I will try some Baird stuff next .