Storing sovereigns - are capsules worth it?

[DukeSilver]

Hello all!

A rather sweeping question I know, but please bear with me...

As some of the good folks on TSF may have noticed, I am a huge fan of sovereigns and I am always on the look out for a good trade. Since joining, I have been fortunate enough to accumulate a good number of 'minty' sovereigns (as Mr @LawrenceChard would call them), all of which are currently stored in plastic capsules. Unfortunately, I am beginning to find the volume taken up by the capsules themselves a little cumbersome compared to the space taken up by the bare coins.

So, my question is: is it really worth storing sovereigns in individual plastic capsules, purely for the sake of keeping them 'minty', compared to storing them in (for example) a Royal Mint sovereign tube and risking a little bit of scuffing? Would there be that much of a difference in potential resale price?

Given the choice, I would much prefer using a sovereign tube, even over individual plastic sleeves, simply for the sake of convenient storage.

Please note: I am referring to ordinary bullion coins here, not BU or proof coins. Plus, I am in no way a collector, just a plain old stacker.

As always, thank you for your time, and I wish you all a good day and good stacking!

Duke

Edited September 25, 2021 by DukeSilver

[Richym99]

I suppose it depends on how much value you assign to the them.

If you consider that, as bullon coins, they are only worth their intrinsic value, then it will matter not what condition they are in. You can put them in a carrier bag and they won't lose their value. After all, you will be selling them as scrap value for melting down.

If, however, you think that some might be worth a little more than the intrinsic value, it is worth separating them out and properly storing them. Just because you are a stacker, not a collector, presumably still means that you want to get the best possible sale price when it does come to liquidating your assets.

Personally, if I had a stash of possibly gVF-EF quality sovereigns, I would be doing everything to maintain that and avoid metal to metal contact.

[CollectorNo1]

Personally I keep my sovs in capsules old and modern also in a sovreign box...I'd never put them in tubes as scratches could occur. Infact I keep all my coins in capsules even silver bullion..might be abit ocd but I like to keep all my coins protected..

Regards

[Fadeingstar]

I agree I am a fan of a nice capsule. I keep all my coins in capsules at the moment but then again I only have a modest selection unlike many forum members. They floor boards are creaking under the weight of their collections

Edited September 25, 2021 by Fadeingstar

[DukeSilver]

1 hour ago, Richym99 said:

I suppose it depends on how much value you assign to the them.

If you consider that, as bullon coins, they are only worth their intrinsic value, then it will matter not what condition they are in. You can put them in a carrier bag and they won't lose their value. After all, you will be selling them as scrap value for melting down.

If, however, you think that some might be worth a little more than the intrinsic value, it is worth separating them out and properly storing them. Just because you are a stacker, not a collector, presumably still means that you want to get the best possible sale price when it does come to liquidating your assets.

Personally, if I had a stash of possibly gVF-EF quality sovereigns, I would be doing everything to maintain that and avoid metal to metal contact.

I suppose that is really what I am trying to gauge here: how much does the rest of the market (i.e. would-be buyers) value unblemished coins vs slightly circulated? And would they necessarily pay premium for them?

Speaking personally, for me it is all about metal content, so grade/quality doesn't really matter - as long as they are in reasonable condition and are recognisable for what they are.

But then, my opinion doesn't really count as I won't be the one buying them.

Based on the responses, it sounds as if the average TSF member probably would place some non-trivial value on the condition of a potential bullion purchase. Does anyone know if coin/bullion shops would likely do the same?

Many thanks

[Skyfiller]

I’ve only just started stacking sovereigns and looked fo ages for something to store them in. Tried quite a few but eventually ended up with these 100 coin cases with capsules from Amazon for under a tenner. They fit whole sovereigns perfectly.

[Fadeingstar]

Now that is a very interesting question. I think one way to look at it would be if you are a potential buyer and you had lets say 2021 sovs at the same price but one looks like it has gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson and the other had lived the good life and was minty which would you be more interested in buying? As such there may be more intest in a better looking item however price is also a factor and I don't think keenly priced sov's hang around much on the forum do they?!

When it comes to coin shops/dealer I would expect that they would be paying spot value and so I would assume condition isn't as much of an issue.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Fadeingstar

[DukeSilver]

5 minutes ago, Fadeingstar said:

Now that is a very interesting question. I think one way to look at it would be if you are a potential buyer and you had lets say 2021 sovs at the same price but one looks like it has gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson and the other had lived the good life and was minty which would you be more interested in buying? As such there may be more intest in a better looking item however price is also a factor and I don't think keenly priced sov's hang around much on the forum do they?!

When it comes to coin shops/dealer I would expect that they would be paying spot value and so I would assume condition isn't as much of an issue.

That's a great point. I can only imagine the story behind some of the coins I have in my stack, though I try to remain dispassionate when buying/selling.

I guess the real question is how much would I be willing to sell a minty sovereign for when compared to a circulated one?

My thanks to everyone for the insight. A pleasure as always!

[Richym99]

7 minutes ago, Fadeingstar said:

When it comes to coin shops/dealer I would expect that they would be paying spot value and so I would assume condition isn't as much of an issue.

I will stand corrected, but most outlets for buying coins in bulk, such as bullion dealers, porn brokers etc will expect to buy at two or three percent below spot. They will then go through them and resell the better examples at a premium.

That is where places like this come in. People will snap up reasonable quality sovereigns for £320 day in day out providing they don't have obvious defects like knocks and scratches.

Better look after them and sell 30 on here for £9,600 than not look after them and take £8,760 for them and watch someone else cash in.   

[dicker]

Personally I keep all of my gold coins in capsules. 

Why?  Simply because I am the custodian I want to preserve them for the next soul to own them.

Best

Dicker

[Smiler999]

All gold in individual capsules, silver in tubes lol

[Richym99]

15 minutes ago, DukeSilver said:

That's a great point. I can only imagine the story behind some of the coins I have in my stack, though I try to remain dispassionate when buying/selling.

 

That would work if you are stacking Brits, Krugs or any number of other modern coins that rarely change in mintage or design from year to year. Much of their value is solely in the precious metals. 

Sovereigns are very different. Unless you know the difference in value between, for example, a 1931 Melbourne mint and a 1931 South Africa mint, you could be throwing away thousands when you sell.  As far as intrinsic value is concerned, they are both worth £301, but a good quality Melbourne can fetch upwards of £750 while the SA, identical in every way except for the letters SA may get yoh £400. 

[modofantasma]

Throw em in tubes 

[CollectorNo1]

Look at it this way.....for the price of a Big Mac n Chips...you can buy 20-30 capsules..not much to layout to protect your coins...I don't like tubes for one reason.. its coin on coin.

Normal Britannia's yeah guess it doesn't matter..but would you throw Kooks,Angels Brumbys,QB's,series like God's of Olympus or DC Comics coins etc... in a tube??? I certainly wouldn't.. 😳

[Pete]

I use a coin album which has small pockets on each sheet for many of my sovereigns.
The others are in coin tubes and none in caps.

I used to believe that shiny new unmarked coins would fetch a higher price than scuffed dirty ones but that isn't the case.
My experience of selling FDC ( perfect and would likely grade to 70 ) proof sovereigns, near spot, and below spot to the likes of HGM in London, educated me into not worrying about storage or condition any more for bullion.

[CollectorNo1]

4 minutes ago, Pete said:

I use a coin album which has small pockets on each sheet for many of my sovereigns.
The others are in coin tubes and none in caps.

I used to believe that shiny new unmarked coins would fetch a higher price than scuffed dirty ones but that isn't the case.
My experience of selling FDC ( perfect and would likely grade to 70 ) proof sovereigns, near spot, and below spot to the likes of HGM in London, educated me into not worrying about storage or condition any more for bullion.

Guess it just comes down to..

Horses for courses 🙂🙂

[Thelonerangershorse]

I laser cut some paper spacers from acid free paper, then stick them in tubes, no more metal-on-metal contact.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Thelonerangershorse
typo again

[Bigmarc]

25 minutes ago, Thelonerangershorse said:

I laser cut some paper spacers from acid free paper, then stick them in tubes, no more metal-on-metal contact.

First person on the forum I have seen mentioning laser cutting. Hobby or professional?

[Jvw]

4 hours ago, DukeSilver said:

Hello all!

A rather sweeping question I know, but please bear with me...

As some of the good folks on TSF may have noticed, I am a huge fan of sovereigns and I am always on the look out for a good trade. Since joining, I have been fortunate enough to accumulate a good number of 'minty' sovereigns (as Mr @LawrenceChard would call them), all of which are currently stored in plastic capsules. Unfortunately, I am beginning to find the volume taken up by the capsules themselves a little cumbersome compared to the space taken up by the bare coins.

So, my question is: is it really worth storing sovereigns in individual plastic capsules, purely for the sake of keeping them 'minty', compared to storing them in (for example) a Royal Mint sovereign tube and risking a little bit of scuffing? Would there be that much of a difference in potential resale price?

Given the choice, I would much prefer using a sovereign tube, even over individual plastic sleeves, simply for the sake of convenient storage.

Please note: I am referring to ordinary bullion coins here, not BU or proof coins. Plus, I am in no way a collector, just a plain old stacker.

As always, thank you for your time, and I wish you all a good day and good stacking!

Duke

In one word: Yes

In a couple words: We just take care of the coins for a little while, they move on and on and on. We should preserve the state they are in right now and treat them with an individual capsule imo.

Edit: @dicker said it first and better, but I mean the same!  

Edited September 25, 2021 by Jvw

[richatthecroft]

4 hours ago, DukeSilver said:

As some of the good folks on TSF may have noticed, I am a huge fan of sovereigns and I am always on the look out for a good trade. Since joining, I have been fortunate enough to accumulate a good number of 'minty' sovereigns (as Mr @LawrenceChard would call them), all of which are currently stored in plastic capsules. Unfortunately, I am beginning to find the volume taken up by the capsules themselves a little cumbersome compared to the space taken up by the bare coins.

So, my question is: is it really worth storing sovereigns in individual plastic capsules, purely for the sake of keeping them 'minty', compared to storing them in (for example) a Royal Mint sovereign tube and risking a little bit of scuffing? Would there be that much of a difference in potential resale price?

Like you say, a fortunate position- I have heard many complaints about stacking and storing Silver- but none about storing Sovereigns.

I guess if you are storing them in a chargeable by volume safety deposit box, and you wish to keep costs down, then Tubes will be fine- if they are being stacked and stored in tubes, then once they are in them and in the storage/ hiding place then they are not going to move about and therefore, potential damage will be negligible 👍 
 

I guess not so if you occasionally take the tubes out and shake them about gleefully and with joy, a couple of tubes in each hand like a pair of maracas- to your favourite musical beat- then tubes would be a problem 😉 

Given that you have cited Lawrence, then you will know already that dinged and battered ‘grade C’ or ‘Best Value’ Sovereigns are worth far less than the ‘minty’ variety.

I would say you could get a fair few tubes of Sovereigns- x25 in a tube in a shoe box size space.

But,  if you didn’t want them clanging together in tubes then the best of both worlds perhaps, could be to insert each Sovereign into a 2”x2” Saflip, which I believe offer ‘museum grade’ protection and then put them in the Red rigid cardboard Saflip rectangular boxes- which will hold around 100 Sovereigns- and then pop the Saflip boxes in a man-sized shoebox- a Dr Martens Shoebox will hold 10x Saflip boxes- 1,000 Sovereigns per shoebox. 

By using tubes or Saflips you could take the opportunity whilst decanting them from the capsules to then reappraise your stack,  and sell any Sovereigns that might have larger premium over Spot- and replace with lesser Sovs and alongside, selling any Royal Mint Capsules you have for say a fiver a pop- you might gather enough cash for another Sovereign or two.  Win- Win- Win 😃 
 

Edited September 25, 2021 by richatthecroft

[pricha]

I always store them in capsules . After a while it's interesting to see how scratched the capsules become. That surely tells you something  . 

[LawrenceChard]

4 hours ago, DukeSilver said:

Hello all!

A rather sweeping question I know, but please bear with me...

As some of the good folks on TSF may have noticed, I am a huge fan of sovereigns and I am always on the look out for a good trade. Since joining, I have been fortunate enough to accumulate a good number of 'minty' sovereigns (as Mr @LawrenceChard would call them), all of which are currently stored in plastic capsules. Unfortunately, I am beginning to find the volume taken up by the capsules themselves a little cumbersome compared to the space taken up by the bare coins.

So, my question is: is it really worth storing sovereigns in individual plastic capsules, purely for the sake of keeping them 'minty', compared to storing them in (for example) a Royal Mint sovereign tube and risking a little bit of scuffing? Would there be that much of a difference in potential resale price?

Given the choice, I would much prefer using a sovereign tube, even over individual plastic sleeves, simply for the sake of convenient storage.

Please note: I am referring to ordinary bullion coins here, not BU or proof coins. Plus, I am in no way a collector, just a plain old stacker.

As always, thank you for your time, and I wish you all a good day and good stacking!

Duke

Thanks for the mention. I'm glad you like the word "minty".

Good question, and lots of good answers already.

If in doubt, put them in capsules, providing you have enough storage space. If you haven't got enough storage space, try to acquire some more.

Tubes are OK if you handle the coins carefully, and certainly OK if they are older circulated ones, again unless there are some particularly good condition ones.

I have seen many sovereigns and other coins spolied by careless handling or storage.

When we buy sovereigns, we tend to look more favourably at coins in capsules, or other suitable protection.

At the worst, even if you did not get more for better coins, they would almost certainly be easier to sell, whether to dealers, or fellow stackers, investors, or collectors.

It can't do any harm to store in capsules, and could help, so once again, yes.

[CollectorNo1]

I'm wondering if anyone stores their four 9999's Gold coins in tubes.....🥺🥺🥺😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

[modofantasma]

2 hours ago, CollectorNo1 said:

I'm wondering if anyone stores their four 9999's Gold coins in tubes.....🥺🥺🥺😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

[richatthecroft]

3 minutes ago, CollectorNo1 said:

I'm wondering if anyone stores their four 9999's Gold coins in tubes.....🥺🥺🥺😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

Not sure- but they are sold and shipped in tubes/ monster boxes of coins.

I’m guessing dealers initially buy them from the respective Mint’s this way, as well as fortunate private individuals.  

I’ve bought new 1oz Oriental Britannias from Atkinsons previously and they came supplied in flips- From memory, the capsules to fit them were 50p each- the margins must be extremely tight 🙄