What's the deal with selling BU silver coins?

[NikolaAnne]

I have 8 BU Brits in their presentation boxes, from when I "didn't know any better" and bought one a year for 8 years as I thought that would be a good investment...

I'm guessing they have numismatic value, but how much? How do you quantify that?
I know I bought a couple of the later years ones from RM at around £80, where are previous years had been £50 or so - are they still worth that?
Or is is like a car - once you buy a BU coin, it depreciates noticeably immediately...

I also have 3 BU Silver £20 coins in their sleeves - again, what's the deal? They are obviously worth £20 - that's their face value, regardless of the spot price of Silver - but if I want to sell, apart from going and looking at Google, how do you assess something like that?

I'm also aware of the maxim "Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it"

Thank you in advance for your wisdom.

[Notafront4adragon]

The BU £20 is only worth £20 in certain circumstances like settling a court debt. I suppose you could use them to pay your council tax. You couldn't use them in a shop for example and I don't think a bank is obliged to take them either. I've seen them sold regularly and recently on Ebay for less than £20, so that's a clue to their value. 

From the RM themselves 

https://blog.royalmint.com/are-20-pound-coins-legal-tender/ 

The Britannias would be worth something to a collector, how much is up to them, but unlikely to be worth more than a oz of silver to others like stackers and dealers, for example you could buy Britannias on here for £16-17 if you're quick.

[Seasider]

To be fair the £16 - £17 Britannias are bullion and the BU ones may be a bit better - especially if they have the same design as the proofs.  You may also want to check what you have - if you were paying £80 to the Royal Mint you may have bought a proof and that is quite a different kettle of fish (worth  a lot more than £16).

[Notafront4adragon]

19 hours ago, Seasider said:

To be fair the £16 - £17 Britannias are bullion and the BU ones may be a bit better - especially if they have the same design as the proofs.  You may also want to check what you have - if you were paying £80 to the Royal Mint you may have bought a proof and that is quite a different kettle of fish (worth  a lot more than £16).

BU are bullion. Brilliant uncirculated bullion coins. All bullion coins are described as BU. There's no difference. 

If they are proof it would be obvious as the paperwork you'd have with a presentation set would say either way. They have been known to sell bullion coins in overpriced display boxes.

[Seasider]

8 hours ago, Notafront4adragon said:

BU are bullion. Brilliant uncirculated bullion coins. All bullion coins are described as BU. There's no difference. 

For 2019 and 2020 the design of the BU Britannias is the same as the proof coins not the bullion ones.  Even before then the BU Britannias had a plain fields finish instead of the pebbledash effect or rays background on the bullion coins.

[NikolaAnne]

OK, the boxes all say "Brilliant Uncirculated" and yes, I spend ~£50 on the 2015 and 2016, and ~£80 for 2017 and 2018 - direct from RM.
2015 (twice for some reason, one in card, one in box - two different designs I think) and then 2016-2018
2019 was when I discovered the RM bullion site and then this forum! 🙂

You also have the 2012 in a slip, and two boxes (2010 and 2011) that say "Silver Bullion" - can't remember how much I paid for them, sure I could find it in my account though.

No proofs.

[kimchi]

@Numistacker, you know these coins I think, can you help out here?

[terakris]

These will be the "plain fields" ones which are nice.

[5huggy]

13 minutes ago, terakris said:

These will be the "plain fields" ones which are nice.

and between "bullion" and "proof" 👍

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, kimchi said:

@Numistacker, you know these coins I think, can you help out here?

These are the limited mintage ones. I bought a few and when i sold them on ebay low start auctions i was disappointed. In 2015 and 2016 that i know if the mintages were 10,000 and they sold 2,870. In 2019 the mintage was 3000 and probably sales will be a lot less.

[NikolaAnne]

So, in terms of value? What ish am I looking at?
I presume not recouping anywhere near purchase price at all?

(Which does seem unfair if RM knowingly sell at a price a buyer can never hope to recover 😞)

[BrumChris]

12 hours ago, NikolaAnne said:

So, in terms of value? What ish am I looking at?
I presume not recouping anywhere near purchase price at all?

(Which does seem unfair if RM knowingly sell at a price a buyer can never hope to recover 😞)

That's most RM products I'm afraid.

[Notafront4adragon]

14 hours ago, 5huggy said:

and between "bullion" and "proof" 👍

So neither one thing or the other 👎 what is the point in them? Proofs for collecting, bullion for stacking, BU's for overpaying? 

[NikolaAnne]

So, if I did want to sell them at some point I'm still essentially looking at Spot?

Meh, bad investment! 😞 Ah well.

[terakris]

If they were purchased as an Investment, then no they wont be making you mega bucks. If you like collecting them then thats a different matter as its less about the cost and more what you enjoy. I have plenty of coins that I would probably never see getting anywhere near my money back on afaik, but I enjoy them in my collection.

Sure, you buy something that is worth loads more in future, brilliant, but that wont help if you dont want to sell it. Working out which items from the mint (and there will only be a few) that will demand more of a premium in future is tricky, and im sure most on here have hit it big with a lucky purchase and also suffered some kind of loss on other items.

[Seasider]

On 05/03/2020 at 10:18, NikolaAnne said:

So, if I did want to sell them at some point I'm still essentially looking at Spot?

Meh, bad investment! 😞 Ah well.

Just so you know there was an auction today where the £50 Britannia went for a bid of £48 (the seller has to pay commission on that so would get say £25% less).  At the same auction 5 bullion 2017 Britannias went for a bid of £50 (so £10 each - a bit low IMHO).

The £50 shares its design with the most popular proof design which probably explains the difference in price.

[Seasider]

I have just noticed another auction has 6 of the Brilliant Uncirculated Britannias in the blue boxes you have (including the 2019 one) estimate £80-£120.

[NikolaAnne]

On 05/03/2020 at 13:29, terakris said:

If they were purchased as an Investment, then no they wont be making you mega bucks. If you like collecting them then thats a different matter as its less about the cost and more what you enjoy. I have plenty of coins that I would probably never see getting anywhere near my money back on afaik, but I enjoy them in my collection.

Sure, you buy something that is worth loads more in future, brilliant, but that wont help if you dont want to sell it. Working out which items from the mint (and there will only be a few) that will demand more of a premium in future is tricky, and im sure most on here have hit it big with a lucky purchase and also suffered some kind of loss on other items.

🙂 I didn't want "mega bucks" when I purchased, I was thinking about the "saving for rainy day/retirement" type stuff when I started on buying these, not knowing any better about how to stack.

 - but ROI that isn't a loss is all the a person needs as a minimum. and from the above, these don't sound like a great investment eh?

[NikolaAnne]

On 06/03/2020 at 19:06, Seasider said:

Just so you know there was an auction today where the £50 Britannia went for a bid of £48 (the seller has to pay commission on that so would get say £25% less).  At the same auction 5 bullion 2017 Britannias went for a bid of £50 (so £10 each - a bit low IMHO).

The £50 shares its design with the most popular proof design which probably explains the difference in price.

Hmm - that's a touch more hopeful. I take it a live auction, not eBay.

And yes, the £50 is a very pretty coin for sure.

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Added 0 minutes later...

On 06/03/2020 at 21:52, Seasider said:

I have just noticed another auction has 6 of the Brilliant Uncirculated Britannias in the blue boxes you have (including the 2019 one) estimate £80-£120.

Where's that? eBay, or a live auction site?

[Seasider]

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/special-auction-services/catalogue-id-srspe10366/lot-9f990437-87aa-4396-a991-ab6800a698dc

Yes both "proper" auctions.  The link above should get you to the blue box one which hasn't happened yet.

Of course you can always try selling them on here.

[NikolaAnne]

On 09/03/2020 at 14:42, Seasider said:

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/special-auction-services/catalogue-id-srspe10366/lot-9f990437-87aa-4396-a991-ab6800a698dc

Yes both "proper" auctions.  The link above should get you to the blue box one which hasn't happened yet.

Of course you can always try selling them on here.

Oh yes, I would sell here if I ever did - it's simply I had no idea as to value, which makes anything difficult to sell eh?

[ilovesilverireallydo]

On 09/03/2020 at 11:23, NikolaAnne said:

And yes, the £50 is a very pretty coin for sure.

I have sold a few for £35 each in the past. 

[NikolaAnne]

4 hours ago, ilovesilverireallydo said:

I have sold a few for £35 each in the past. 

That's rather depressing 😞

Maybe I should pay my next batch of council tax with my £50 and £20 coins! *chuckle*