Where should I start?

[nummum]

6 hours ago, silenceissilver said:

I only started last summer and very early, pretty much with my first coin, I also bought a neodymium magnet and PM gloves plus anti tarnish paper and silicia gel as well as capsules. I have actually overdone it as I even bought a bottle of argon (for keeping opened wine bottles as if they had not been opened), and a vacuumiser that has already stopped working, as well. I would not buy this now.

Only recently I bought my second and this time proper safe (after a small very cheap one from a hardware store). If I started again now, I would buy that safe first and also a proper PM tester (Simga Metalytics, which is actually still outstanding). This would already take a large chunk of what you want to spend and could even exceed it.

 

Edit: Also at the beginning I bought a scale accurate to one 100th of a gram and a calliper which I would definitely do again.

Many thx for this silenceissilver. Will definitely google all of that. Didn't even know those things existed which shows how clueless I still am.

6 hours ago, goldstacker94 said:

If I was starting out, I would stay away from high premium coins and mostly focus on bullion gold. While silver might be seen as a better opportunity, selling/buying it in the UK is a nightmare (wide spreads) and there is definitely uncertainty over buying silver from EU as a long term strategy. Plus the storage of doing so. 

Personally, I am not a huge fan of high premium coins. By purchasing them, you are not only gambling on the price of gold going up but also on them maintaining their premium. That's a very risky strategy in my eyes. For example, some of Queen's Beasts series coins have high premiums (Lion, Griffin etc), there is nothing to say that their premium will hold up over time. Plus when you sell these high premium coins, some dealers might not want to pay for the premium and offer you spot price instead. 

I don't like them either. I'm not a risk taker so I won't even consider them.

Buying high premium coins would also defeat the purpose as all I'm trying to get is some peace of mind.

6 hours ago, DarkChameleon said:

I'd consider the safe early, you will get caught in the right time problem otherwise, some people holding onto pm's in boxes and such then getting robbed and lose everything from some opportunist thief...a safe can be used for lots of things so you don't have it just for your pms, legal papers, mortgage details  passports etc...better to get a safe installed before your having contractors coming in when you have 500 oz of silver waiting for them to finish hacking up your concrete floor to inset the plate...better the safe with nothing then everything but the safe.

True. I already have a safe but I might need to get a sturdier one.

Thanks darkchameleon

 

 

[Cornishfarmer]

First I’d buy a Yale of beaufort can get them for bout £20 more than a bullion 1oz coin.     They have a big upside, the silver is popular and the gold will be more so in time.        Yale is a big rich university in America so I think if the queens beasts make it popular in the states the upside will be as big as the lion

[nummum]

2 hours ago, MrGeorge said:

With gold it doesnt really matter just try and buy as close to spot price as possible, if you go sovereigns be careful alot of fakes about if your buying old pre owned ones.

 

Yeah, you bet I will. That worries me a lot.

Yesterday Abyss shared this link:

 https://harringtonandbyrne.co.uk/2019-united-kingdom-gold-uncirculated-sovereign-3212.html

£229 sounds like a great price the only issue is that everyone complains about this company. 

Atkinsons and Bullionbypost have a good reputation but it would cost me considerably more.

2 hours ago, Cornishfarmer said:

First I’d buy a Yale of beaufort can get them for bout £20 more than a bullion 1oz coin.     They have a big upside, the silver is popular and the gold will be more so in time.        Yale is a big rich university in America so I think if the queens beasts make it popular in the states the upside will be as big as the lion

Interesting. I'll make sure I google that too.

thank you cornishfarmer

[AuricGoldfinger]

Sovereigns!!! 😬

[nummum]

1 hour ago, AuricGoldfinger said:

Sovereigns!!! 😬

😛

[Nick1368]

I would make sure that I stay as close to spot price as possible, I'd buy at least 2 x 1oz coins ( the cheapest I can find through reputable dealers) and some sovereigns.

in terms of information you can gather a lot of knowledge just by reading the topics here on this forum.

[Toshunya86]

New to the forum , and not very knowledgeable as many here , but I can recognize myself in your topic. I will do my best , as it is difficult to understand your "level". I will not talk about bars because it's not my thing but only about coins.(also bear in mind English is not my native language)

I will talk for Gold only

There are 3 types of coins

1) Modern Bullion

These are bullion coins only. These coins have never been used to pay things. They are modern "creations".

a) coins with the same design every year  and very liquid and recognized all over the world. Which means you will go in any country and people will recognize it. A coin from 1995 or 2011 or 2017 will have the exact same value since design and weight in gold is the same . You can compare these coins to recognized currencies. For example , you will go to whatever place in the world and people will recognize the USD or the Euro or The Swiss Franc ( I guess). 

These coins are (don't take my words for granted) :

Austrian Philarmoniker , Canadian Maple Leaf , South African Krugerrand , American Gold Eagle , American Buffalo 

If you calculate the premium , you will see that it is quite low. I would recommend these coins for a start ( I myself own a Philarmoniker). In general , unless something specific , if you resell the value is more or less pegged to the rate of gold.

We can also mention the Chinese Panda , with the particularity of having a different design every year , which makes it both a member of category 1a and 1b ( see below). Careful , this panda is 30 gram (chinese way of thinking) and not 1 oz (which is 31 something g )

2) coins with design changing every year

These can be part of series. They are sold with a higher premium and in general have a combined interest : one for gold stacking and another for collection/numismatics.  I am not confident enough to say that this is something pretty new , "copying" the silver collecting market but this is my feeling.

Example : Australian coins (Kangaroos etc lunar years etc ) even though the premium is not so high , Somalian elephants etc..

I would recommend to stay away from those ones until you build experience.

3) old coins which used to be money

first , im not talking here about antic money which are mostly only numismatics. Let's say that we are talking about coins from 1800 or more. These coins were designed to be circulated and where means of payment. They usually have a strong alloy , although you can find them in bad states. These coins are not liquid in the same way in different countries. For example , pre 1933 gold in the USA will be more liquid than french Napoleon coins , but in France it would be vice-versa. There are a dozen of well-recognized coins .

Now the strange thing is that these coins have premiums which VARY a lot depending on many factors which i am not able to explain clearly. Some of these coins can even have a negative premium and some of these coins can have their premium going sky high during crisis. From what I understand , 20 francs napoleon are one of the best when there is a crisis , and mexican pesos are the ones who can have negative premiums. ( edit : I would be thankful if one person can try to explain this to me)

Example : 20 Francs Napoleon , 20 or 10 gold US dollars ( pre 1933) , 50 mexican pesos , 10 dutch gold florins , British Sovereigns , Belgian Union Latine Gold , Austrian/Hungarian Ducats , 5 rubles Nicolas II ... 

some are recognized in some countries and some are not depending on offer/demand.

 

For silver , follow the same logic. There are "reputable" low-premium coins with the same design which are recognized in the entire world , some coins which are part of series and are mostly for collectors , and some old "junk" money which contains silver.

 

Hope this helps

[nummum]

3 hours ago, Nick1368 said:

I would make sure that I stay as close to spot price as possible, I'd buy at least 2 x 1oz coins ( the cheapest I can find through reputable dealers) and some sovereigns.

in terms of information you can gather a lot of knowledge just by reading the topics here on this forum.

I agree. I've been learning quite a lot just by being on this forum.

 

1 hour ago, Toshunya86 said:

New to the forum , and not very knowledgeable as many here , but I can recognize myself in your topic. I will do my best , as it is difficult to understand your "level". I will not talk about bars because it's not my thing but only about coins.(also bear in mind English is not my native language)

I will talk for Gold only

Hope this helps

Wow! thanks ever so much Toshunya86. 

 

I too think that I should start with 1. The chances to make mistakes are far lower. All I have to do is to make sure I find them at a great price and I buy them from a reputable company. That in itself is challenging.

As for 3, I can see the advantages of buying old coins, but at this stage it would be incredibly stupid of me to start buying them when my knowledge of coins is almost non-existent. 

Once again, thank you for all the info.

 

 

 

[Serendipity]

I have no regrets about how I started out when I bought my first gold sovereign from a newspaper advertisement. It all snowballed from there. I also recommend you get “The Gold Sovereign” by Michael A. Marsh which is regarded as the most authoritative book on sovereigns. In other words, start out with the flagship coin of your country of residence and branch out to other gold and silver coins such as Eagles, Maples, Pandas, etc.

[nummum]

On 28/04/2019 at 23:07, Serendipity said:

I have no regrets about how I started out when I bought my first gold sovereign from a newspaper advertisement. It all snowballed from there. I also recommend you get “The Gold Sovereign” by Michael A. Marsh which is regarded as the most authoritative book on sovereigns. In other words, start out with the flagship coin of your country of residence and branch out to other gold and silver coins such as Eagles, Maples, Pandas, etc.

Thx Serendipity. I'll definitely check it out. As the saying goes, Knowledge is power.

[Stuntman]

With £3000 to £4000 to spend on gold coins and being a UK resident, I would buy 3 x 2019 bullion sovereigns from Harrington & Byrne as already suggested, plus a 2019 Royal Arms 1oz bullion coin, a normal 2019 1oz Britannia (not the Oriental Border) and whichever of the current Queen's Beast (Falcon or Yale) 1oz coins you prefer.

Lots of shiny goodness there!

[brave]

I'm very disappointed because today I went to this store Baird & Co  to buy 1 gold coin 2019 Royal Arms 1 oz and 1 oz Platinum Britannia.

But they told me they did not have it. They lose.

[HighlandTiger]

Been stacking on and off for 5 or 6 years, and if I could do it all again, I wouldn't have bought a single piece of silver. I don't think it will ever hit the heights that the silver pumpers think it will, mainly due to its industrial properties being supplanted by technical innovations of other materials. This will leave silver as just a metal for jewelry and that it's popularity will never be even a fraction of what gold is.

I would have stuck solely with gold sovereigns. Easy to buy, very easy to sell, the spread is much smaller than silver.

Gold will always be highly valued, especially as people from the far East and Indian subcontinent, have it ingrained into their culture. These nations are growing in both population and wealth, and will keep gold bouyant.

Currently I am running at a loss on my silver stack, but running a tidy profit on my gold stack. 

And I know this is the silver forum, and there are plenty of people pushing out their favourite silver, or their graded silver, or their homemade silver bars, if anyone asked me for my advice, (for what it's worth), I'd say stay away from it. It's usually over priced and relies on finding another collector to sell it to.

If you have to hold physical silver, I'd advise buying hallmarked silver flat ware (spoons, forks etc. Never knives as they are often weighted with non silver cores in the handles). With patience you can buy these at 5% over spot or less on eBay or bootfairs. If you have to sell in a hurry, a trip to Birmingham will find you several big dealers willing to pay about 88-90% of spot price. And there is always a chance you'll come across a rare hallmark and make a nice profit selling to a collector.

I don't believe in stacking silver in case the world comes to an end and you need to have a stack of silver coins or bars to barter for toilet rolls and cans of spam. I think a big gun would be a much better thing to have in that situation, rather than advertising to your fellow survivors that you have a hoard of precious metals hidden somewhere.

That's me,  but I'm not your average stacker on this forum.

 

 

[AuricGoldfinger]

@HighlandTiger well said 👏 

[nummum]

On 04/05/2019 at 23:26, HighlandTiger said:

 

I would have stuck solely with gold sovereigns. Easy to buy, very easy to sell, the spread is much smaller than silver.

 My plan is to stick with gold sovereigns for now. Might not be the most exciting thing to do but it seems the safest way to start.

Thx for sharing your experience with silver. I'll make sure I follow your advice and stay well away from silver. 😱

[Pipers]

To start buy near to spot, do not buy fancy coins in slabs!  Buy gold to start with. 

[CosmikDebris]

1 hour ago, nummum said:

My plan is to stick with gold sovereigns for now.

Wise choice. I started out with sovereigns and then branched out into Brits. After a few years I started to pick up world coins that looked interesting and were close to spot. I still buy sovereigns and 1/4 oz QB's but if I see a good deal on a world coin I grab it! I have often thought about silver and have come close to buying some but have been put off for some of the reasons outlined by @HighlandTiger  I think it best to stick to gold, but you never know!