What to collect?

[KevinFlynn]

I was able to finish Queen's Beasts in silver including the completer coin. I think it is an extraordinary series which resonated well enough internationally. I feel I will miss collecting a series, and I always have the spare change to collect in silver (I'm satisfied with BU).

When I started stacking in 2010 Lunars were the hype, I was too late for Lunar Is, but I started Lunar IIs until I abandoned precious metals (you'll find my biography on the forums...). It's not too late to start with Lunar IIIs, but are Lunar IIIs sufficiently 'hot'? I can see last year's Mouse at a 140% premium as opposed to this year's Ox at 40%. Though looking at the sell prices it seems like bullion dealers trying to cash in on a hype. Are Lunar IIIs just another mass market product?

10 to 12 coins with one or two a year feels ideal for both interest as well as achieveability, as opposed to endless series like Kangaroos, Koalas, Kookaburras. Pandas.

Is there a next British series with a potential like Queen's Beasts? Myth and Legends?

There's always trying to get date runs of standard bullion coins, I guess. We're trying to do this for a friend by getting ASEs of different years - not actively though.

[Gordy]

The Black Flag series are nice but premiums high and i have to admit i like the Australian Shipwreck series, unusual and not too many to finish the set off.. bit different from your run of the mill and the Tokelau series coins are also nice

[dicker]

My suggestion is actually a series that was started some time ago. In my case I am buying Kooks - there is a big 'back catalogue' which means that I can collect the older versions as well as new issues....

For me I like designs that change so the following would be high on my list of coins to collect - they are also not so rate that they cannot be bought on the secondary market.

- Britannia's

- Kooks

- Various other Perth Mint Series

Best

Dicker

[Pete]

Definitely Kookaburras as they are a quality strike from the Perth Mint and encapsulated, so not scuffed and marked like many other bullion coins these days.
Each year has a different reverse so do look nice in a coin tray.
1990 - present date

I also collected the full series of Royal Australian Mint Kangaroos including the carded version - often referred to as blister packed.
This series ended with the 2019 coin ( first coin 1993 )
Great looking quality coins with a different design each year and highly collectible in my opinion.

Pandas are another nice set to collect but the very early coins will be hard to find and quite expensive but maybe start building a set from 2000.
Maybe consider Perth Mint Koalas.

I also like the Britannia series ending 2012 before the Royal Mint switched from 958 alloy to 999 and had serious quality problems, later changing the polished background field to patterned to conceal the production scratches ( my theory anyhow ).

[Oldun]

Libertads ? One from each year starting in the early 80s could be fun…..same for Britannias….

Edited September 2, 2021 by Oldun

[zxtm99]

Like the OP, 2 oz silver QBs got me hooked. Nearly done there, so it will be Kooks going forward, just 'standard' (no privy or restrikes) first. I just find them very attractive (and so does wife, which means I don't have to hide quite so many......)

[LawrenceChard]

19 hours ago, Gordy said:

The Black Flag series are nice but premiums high and i have to admit i like the Australian Shipwreck series, unusual and not too many to finish the set off.. bit different from your run of the mill and the Tokelau series coins are also nice

Is the "Black Flag" series based on the Royal Mint's ISIS technology that it announced in 2014, then quietly dropped, or rather re-branded in 2016?:

and...

Does the Arabic(?) lettering say "milk spot"?

😎

[Gordy]

5 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Is the "Black Flag" series based on the Royal Mint's ISIS technology that it announced in 2014, then quietly dropped, or rather re-branded in 2016?:

and...

Does the Arabic(?) lettering say "milk spot"?

😎

It says David Was Ere!

[Gordy]

Just now, Gordy said:

It says David Was Ere!

I was thinking of another response but it may have caused offence to others, (not you obviously) you're a tinker 😂

[LawrenceChard]

9 minutes ago, Gordy said:

It says David Was Ere!

What, like on the Goliath coins? 😎

[TheShinyStuff]

I often ponder this myself - what series- if any - to collect. I missed the boat with the QBs, I may pick them up over time, I dont know. One thing that I disliked about them was the piedfort format. It was just lazy in my opinion. The designs were by and large really good and would have benefitted from a larger coin field. A perfect example of this is the 2oz kooks. Everybody loves a kook, but the 2oz are spectacular. I think they are about 55mm diameter. They only ran from 1992 until 2009, so 18 in total. A little more of a challenge then your standard 1ozers, but easily doable with not too crazy premiums. 

So in summary - 2oz kooks would be my suggestion.

[zxtm99]

39 minutes ago, TheShinyStuff said:

So in summary - 2oz kooks would be my suggestion.

2 oz Kooks 55 mm in diameter! I never even knew such a thing existed, and now I need them all 🙄

 

😆

[TheShinyStuff]

1 minute ago, zxtm99 said:

2 oz Kooks 55 mm in diameter! I never even knew such a thing existed, and now I need them all 🙄

 

😆

Sorry.

[zxtm99]

58 minutes ago, TheShinyStuff said:

Sorry.

You should be! 

[KevinFlynn]

7 hours ago, TheShinyStuff said:

... I missed the boat with the QBs, I may pick them up over time, I dont know. ...

I had to buy the Lion and the Griffin late, it really hurt, and that was far from the prices of the first couple of coins nowadays. In my eyes buying a popular series late is beyond any investment idea, it has to be a pure fun decision. Say, I'm pondering to buy an extra tube of Horses of Hannover because I am from Hannover and would use them as presents.

Having said that, I think it cannot hurt to pick up any reasonably popular series at the moment of issue. Seeing that with Lunar IIIs the Mouse is already entering pain regions, that decision is best made with the first issue.

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by KevinFlynn

[TheShinyStuff]

4 hours ago, KevinFlynn said:

I had to buy the Lion and the Griffin late, it really hurt

Agree - all the profit is gone from the early ones and I dont love them enough to pay over the odds for mass produced recent bullion

4 hours ago, KevinFlynn said:

Say, I'm pondering to buy an extra tube of Horses of Hannover because I am from Hannover and would use them as presents.

I bought the Unicorn on release because I'm Scotish. As I said earlier l was disappointed by the size and gignt get any more. I have also bought the completer because I liked it,  so my QB collection is probably the worst one around!

4 hours ago, KevinFlynn said:

Lunar IIIs the Mouse is already entering pain regions, that decision is best made with the first issue.

Having missed 1 & 2, I have started series 3. I have 1/2, 1 & 2 oz. I really like the design (although not everyone does) and the quality is great from Perth. It's a very long term project which I intend to see through.

[KevinFlynn]

Collecting and waiting for Queen's Beasts, then finally finishing them is leaving an empty spot and a definite itch.

Lunars have the advantage that it is very few buys.

The Libertad idea is tempting, but I could blow an enormous amount of money on that, especially because they are only a mouse click away:

A date run of quarter ounce gold trade coins would be closer to spot...

[KevinFlynn]

I collected some numbers on Lunar I to III, listing a current sell value compared to that of the latest Lunar III as a baseline:

Lunar I
556%
324%
367%
431%
280%
290%
290%
290%
242%
293%
213%
341%

Lunar II
112%
128%
173%
- -    
107%
102%
103%
106%
106%
106%
105%
133%

Lunar III
166%
100%
...

Seems like Lunar I are rocking, while Lunar II are largely a dud... It may be too early to extrapolate to Lunar IIIs, but the additional fact that I do not find those particularly beautiful (personal opinion) makes me skip the idea of Lunars.

I'm padding some holes in my Queen's Beasts this weekend, getting some spares to sell one day. Maybe.

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by KevinFlynn

[Rat]

On 02/09/2021 at 18:37, TheShinyStuff said:

I often ponder this myself - what series- if any - to collect. I missed the boat with the QBs, I may pick them up over time, I dont know. One thing that I disliked about them was the piedfort format. It was just lazy in my opinion. The designs were by and large really good and would have benefitted from a larger coin field. A perfect example of this is the 2oz kooks. Everybody loves a kook, but the 2oz are spectacular. I think they are about 55mm diameter. They only ran from 1992 until 2009, so 18 in total. A little more of a challenge then your standard 1ozers, but easily doable with not too crazy premiums. 

So in summary - 2oz kooks would be my suggestion.

I completely agree with you. I managed to complete my collection of 2oz kooks earlier this year and it took me about 3 years to complete as I only purchased them via the silver forum. Lovely chunky coins to hold and with each year having a different design gives you a bit of variety too look at. I have also managed to collect a full date run of the 1oz bullion kooks (from 1990 to present) which are also pretty nice and again good fun to track down.

I also completed the 2oz bullion queens beast as they just came out when I started collecting and that was fun for a while but I was losing interest as most of the coins started to show signs of milk spotting. That's one of the great things about the kooks. I have never seen any milk spots just the expected toning and tarnishing.

Edited September 5, 2021 by Rat
clarification