Pawn shop sovereigns

[Fishface220]

12 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

could you not have bought them all by credit card the first time you went in?

Wish I did now. First time dealing with a pawn shop, new to stacking gold and a bit too cautious with money I guess! 

[Prophecy]

You sure they're not priced as 18k or 14k  jewellers copies? Let's get a super crispy close up shot of one.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Prophecy

[Fishface220]

11 hours ago, Prophecy said:

You sure they're not priced as 18k or 14k  jewellers copies? Let's get a super crispy close up shot of one.

 

11 hours ago, Prophecy said:

You sure they're not priced as 18k or 14k  jewellers copies? Let's get a super crispy close up shot of one.

What??!!??! Please don't make me cry......  seriously thou, have I ****ed up? Never dealt with gold before so any help truly appreciated.

[Happypanda88]

The 1902 sov seen fine to me.

But I have reservation about the 1911 coin.

It doesn't look right. Judging from the photo, it seems to be a casted copy.

Perhaps others can comment. 

[Fishface220]

13 minutes ago, Happypanda88 said:

The 1902 sov seen fine to me.

But I have reservation about the 1911 coin.

It doesn't look right. Judging from the photo, it seems to be a casted copy.

Perhaps others can comment. 

Yeah I get what you mean.. the more I look the worse I feel about it. Got the receipt so will be heading back down next week to enquire. 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Fishface220
Added info

[BrumChris]

4 hours ago, Happypanda88 said:

The 1902 sov seen fine to me.

But I have reservation about the 1911 coin.

It doesn't look right. Judging from the photo, it seems to be a casted copy.

Perhaps others can comment. 

I agree. 1902 looks normal but the 1911 looks fake in those photos. 

4 hours ago, Fishface220 said:

Yeah I get what you mean.. the more I look the worse I feel about it. Got the receipt so will be heading back down next week to enquire. 

Have you compared the dimensions and weight of the two coins?

[HighlandTiger]

The 1911 does look cast, and as such not a genuine sovereign. Plus 1911 seems to be quite a common date for fake sovs.

 

However.........It is still legal to make fake sovereigns in places like Dubai, as long as the gold content is the same. And 1911 does pop up quite regularly with these "Dubai Sovereigns"

I had one of these "fake" sovereigns once, and although it was obviously cast, it was the right size and weight and was made of 22ct gold. So I kept it. I eventually sold it, (on this forum if I remember correctly), letting the buyer know exactly what it was.

If it is exactly the same size and weight as the other sovereign, I personally wouldn't be rushing to get my money back, as you still have the same amount of gold at a really good price. 

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by HighlandTiger

[Fishface220]

Size and weight is bang on. 

Might chuck in my pocket next time I’m passing there just to query it. 

[Fishface220]

thanks for all the info....

still learning 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Fishface220

[darkninja1985]

just came across this thread, what ever happened to the 1911 sov? Was it real/fake etc?

[Fishface220]

2 hours ago, darkninja1985 said:

just came across this thread, what ever happened to the 1911 sov? Was it real/fake etc?

I took it in to a few jewelleries and they were happy with it. Another pawn shop was happy to purchase it (if I wanted to sell) after checking it over so all good. 

[darkninja1985]

8 minutes ago, Fishface220 said:

I took it in to a few jewelleries and they were happy with it. Another pawn shop was happy to purchase it (if I wanted to sell) after checking it over so all good. 

Did you manage to find more cheap sovs or was it just a one off? How is your stacking journey going since then?

[Fishface220]

2 minutes ago, darkninja1985 said:

Did you manage to find more cheap sovs or was it just a one off? How is your stacking journey going since then?

The others sold quite quick but do keep a look in the window when passing. 

About 8 oz now of the very shiny stuff... all fractionals and sovereigns. The big 1 oz is gonna big a tougher nut to crack. (Might try a trade option to get one) 

 

[darkninja1985]

9 minutes ago, Fishface220 said:

The others sold quite quick but do keep a look in the window when passing. 

About 8 oz now of the very shiny stuff... all fractionals and sovereigns. The big 1 oz is gonna big a tougher nut to crack. (Might try a trade option to get one) 

 

I'm pretty new to this all only having started this year, fingers crossed I come across some cheap sovs at a pawnbrokers 😂

[Midasfrog]

Quite a few sovereigns are "buffed up" before sale after being removed from jewelry it dosnt effect their bullion value

[darkninja1985]

10 minutes ago, Midasfrog said:

Quite a few sovereigns are "buffed up" before sale after being removed from jewelry it dosnt effect their bullion value

Do people mind the coins being buffed up? I’m still pretty new to all of this like

[Midasfrog]

I prefer uncleaned coins but sold onto dealers it doesnt make any difference really.

[Booky586]

52 minutes ago, darkninja1985 said:

Do people mind the coins being buffed up? I’m still pretty new to all of this like

Personally I would avoid buying polished coins, they'd be harder to sell on the open market (eg The Silver Forum) than an unpolished coin.

[dicker]

Harder to sell in the forum but looking at eBay some punters like shiny ones best 🙂

[modofantasma]

On 06/09/2020 at 23:05, sovereignsteve said:

£320 for a full sovereign is more than 6% below spot. I would be surprised to see them so low in a high street pawn shop. Possible if spot had risen sharply recently and they had been slow upping their price. However, that is not the case as spot has fallen recently.
Pawn shops are usually exhorbitantly priced but even so, £320 would be ridiculous for a half so I can't see that either.

I say buy all they have at that price, easy to shift some on here if you don't want them all😁

Looking at the high street cash and pawn shops that price is likely for a half sov they've had bullion full sovs asking 450 quid when your main online bullion dealers are selling between 315 and 330 delivered. 

[darkninja1985]

Sounds like pawn shops have a bit of a hit and miss approach when it comes to pricing 😂

[Foster88]

4 hours ago, darkninja1985 said:

Sounds like pawn shops have a bit of a hit and miss approach when it comes to pricing 😂

That’s to be expected I suppose.

I think it depends on the shop, how many they have in stock and how quickly they want to sell them. I imagine they’d want to sell them on as quickly as possible, a sudden change in the gold price (down) might mean a loss for them.

Although having said that pawn shops will pay much less than 5% below spot when buying. I haven’t actually sold gold to a pawn shop and I don’t think I would but this is how I imagine they operate.

[LawrenceChard]

On 06/09/2020 at 17:17, Fishface220 said:

Had a quick look in a pawn shop window on Friday and they had a few full sovereigns for £320. (Didn’t venture in, was just passing)

Seems a good price at first glance... but want to ask the experts if this would be a good place to pick up the odd sovereign or two to add to a stack? Not looking at a quick turn around but long term “put away” for the kids when they are older. 

Any pit falls / advice most welcome.... (had a bit of a search in the forum archives but couldn’t find much)

 

thanks in advance

 

I realise this in an old post, but:

On Friday 4th September 2020, gold was about £1453 per ounce, which would make a sovereign about £342 intrinsic value.

Gold had risen from about £900 about two years before, and was only about £1300 per ounce a month before your post. It sounds likely they had priced the coins a few weeks earlier, and not re-priced them to reflect the increase., so you were lucky, but should probably have bought all of them straight away.

In general though, you need to be careful buying gold coins from pawn shops or jewellers. They have often bought these in as scrap, in coin jewellery, and can be very polished, gilded, worn, ar fake. They often acid test them, and even file the edges in order to get a good test result. Jewellers and pawn shops are not renowned for working on fine margins, jewellers often expect 100+% markup, and pawn shops ask 5%, 6%, per month interest, so don't readily work on the relatively small spread that bullion dealers are happy with.

They possibly did not require your ID, and they may have been legally obliged to do so.

 

[dicker]

19 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

They often acid test them, and even file the edges in order to get a good test result.

I saw a very nice condition shield - very early one 1840' something, in a pawn shop years ago with a big old acid test mark.  Obviously a genuine coin in superb condition other than the awful acid test mark 😞

[LawrenceChard]

23 hours ago, dicker said:

I saw a very nice condition shield - very early one 1840' something, in a pawn shop years ago with a big old acid test mark.  Obviously a genuine coin in superb condition other than the awful acid test mark 😞

You should have asked the price, then said I would have given you £xxx if it had not got that awful acid stain on it.

A typical response would have been "I can polish it off for you", so you would need to be ready to say, then it would be worth even less than it is now.

🙂

On 06/09/2020 at 17:17, Fishface220 said:

Had a quick look in a pawn shop window on Friday and they had a few full sovereigns for £320. (Didn’t venture in, was just passing)

Seems a good price at first glance... but want to ask the experts if this would be a good place to pick up the odd sovereign or two to add to a stack? Not looking at a quick turn around but long term “put away” for the kids when they are older. 

Any pit falls / advice most welcome.... (had a bit of a search in the forum archives but couldn’t find much)

 

thanks in advance

 

What's all this about spending sovereigns in porn shops? 🙂