Sending silver from UK

[4thelongrun]

Hey, I have not ever sent a parcel to anybody ever in my 25 year life. Today I went to send an item of silver to someone so I went to the post office and they asked what it was and not thinking anything of it I said it was a silver coin. The guy behind the counter said that silver and coins are a prohibited item. So I asked how I will be able to send it and he said that I might have to use a private courier, but looking round the Internet I have seen that the common couriers such as dpd, ups, will not send silver. Surely people do just use Royal mail and these other couriers, but how??? Do you just wrap it up in the envelope with a couple stamps, stick it in the postbox and hope for the best? no questions asked 😏

Also why is this a prohibited item? I looked through the list of them all and some of them were obvious but others I couldn't understand the reason for them being prohibited 

Cheers 

[sovereignsteve]

4 minutes ago, 4thelongrun said:

Hey, I have not ever sent a parcel to anybody ever in my 25 year life. Today I went to send an item of silver to someone so I went to the post office and they asked what it was and not thinking anything of it I said it was a silver coin. The guy behind the counter said that silver and coins are a prohibited item. So I asked how I will be able to send it and he said that I might have to use a private courier, but looking round the Internet I have seen that the common couriers such as dpd, ups, will not send silver. Surely people do just use Royal mail and these other couriers, but how??? Do you just wrap it up in the envelope with a couple stamps, stick it in the postbox and hope for the best? no questions asked 😏

Also why is this a prohibited item? I looked through the list of them all and some of them were obvious but others I couldn't understand the reason for them being prohibited 

Cheers 

As far as I understand their terms; silver isn't prohibited just that they won't insure it ie pay compensation in the event of loss

[4thelongrun]

5 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

As far as I understand their terms; silver isn't prohibited just that they won't insure it ie pay compensation in the event of loss

This is what I thought, as seen on a thread a few weeks ago that I couldn't find. But I asked the guy if this was the case with special delivery (where apparently it IS insured) but he said even with special delivery it is prohibited 

[Goldhooked]

He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  I would go back and ask him to show me exactly where it states it is prohibited.

A lot of post office staff haven’t got a clue about half the services they offer on behalf of Royal Mail. Find a different post office and/or don’t tell them exactly what’s in it. 

 

[kerrste]

The only recommendation I can see from RM is that "Coins should not be posted in envelopes" https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91/~/sending-valuables%2C-money-%26-jewellery-in-the-uk , but you probably wouldn't want to do that anyway. When posting coins, teller always asks me what it is for the insurance and I always tell them - They take it without issue. Either print out the guidance on the above link and show it them or as @Goldhooked suggests, try a different post office.

[flim]

its a good idea to invest in metal detecting in the Royal Mail bags, they can get sorted out and worth a lot

put a returned to sender a couple of times as warning, they will not be returned if you ever do it again

metals detected !!!

[4thelongrun]

All sorted, said it was a collectable plaque 😉