Storing sovereigns - are capsules worth it?

[LawrenceChard]

4 hours ago, Skyfiller said:

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.

Sounds like a good deal.

[CollectorNo1]

Wow!! That's a surprise to be...there must be alot of damaged dented,scratched 9999 gold coins out there then....being the gold is more softer than 22kt...I thought they would be packed and shipped with more care..🙄🙄🙄

[Thelonerangershorse]

2 hours ago, Bigmarc said:

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

Not mine, just have access to one at work.

[LawrenceChard]

3 hours 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.

Condition does make a difference.

Although I /we tend to buy most bullion sovereigns as a commodity, at the same price per coin, we do reject damaged, soldered, over-polished coins, which we only buy at a discount, depending on how bad they are.

Apart from sub-standard coins, it must be about two years since we last paid less than spot for sovereigns.

I don't understand why people sell at 97%, or how other dealers manage to buy at that sort of price, although it is much better than most jewellers would pay, often 60% to 70%, probably after they had filed and acid tested them!

If there were only a small proportion of slightly sub-standard bullion sovereigns, we might give them the benefit of the doubt if the rest of the coins were in good condition.

So, overall, yes it is generally worth trying to take sensible steps to maintain coins in the best condition possible.

 

[Roy]

36 minutes ago, CollectorNo1 said:

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

A member on here has 100 x 1oz Queen's Beasts stored in tubes.

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, Thelonerangershorse said:

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

That's a good idea.

We used to be able to source acid-free white paper / card discs, which we used to use for pricing coins in old-fashioned, but excellent mahogany coin cabinets, mostly Swann cabinets. We have probably not bought any for the last 20 years, and I sometime find myself scratting round for some, and I can't recall who we used to buy them from, otherwise they would be good, and probably worth buying in bulk rather than making your own.

[CollectorNo1]

6 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Condition does make a difference.

Although I /we tend to buy most bullion sovereigns as a commodity, at the same price per coin, we do reject damaged, soldered, over-polished coins, which we only buy at a discount, depending on how bad they are.

Apart from sub-standard coins, it must be about two years since we last paid less than spot for sovereigns.

I don't understand why people sell at 97%, or how other dealers manage to buy at that sort of price, although it is much better than most jewellers would pay, often 60% to 70%, probably after they had filed and acid tested them!

If there were only a small proportion of slightly sub-standard bullion sovereigns, we might give them the benefit of the doubt if the rest of the coins were in good condition.

So, overall, yes it is generally worth trying to take sensible steps to maintain coins in the best condition possible.

 

Totally and  100% agree @LawrenceChard ✔✔ It's the same with raw coins and those that are presented in fancy'ish cardboard/ plastic boxes with c.o.a's,they mean nothing to me and imo don't add any value to the coin you are buying! Its just packaging..its like paying  more for a  tin of beans of a well known brand compared to a supermarkets own brand. Same contents.just paying for fancy packaging and marketing...

If you want to pay more for the fancy packaging only to get the same item..fine..but I'm not interested in the tin..but wats inside it..and that analysis is my purchasing Practice. 

[CollectorNo1]

19 minutes ago, Roy said:

A member on here has 100 x 1oz Queen's Beasts stored in tubes.

Each to their own..I wouldn't say his idea of storing coins in tubes is better that storing them in capsules...its just down to personal preference..

[DukeSilver]

This has been an amazing discussion! I have learnt so much - thank you everyone for your thoughts and opinions.

I love this forum 🙂

[CollectorNo1]

8 minutes ago, DukeSilver said:

This has been an amazing discussion! I have learnt so much - thank you everyone for your thoughts and opinions.

I love this forum 🙂

Ditto....🙂🙂🙂

[sovereignsteve]

I don't like sovs in capsules, I find them difficult to store. I much prefer plastic flips, they can be stacked horizontally in plastic trays.

[DukeSilver]

5 hours ago, Richym99 said:

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. 

I actually have a 1930 sovereign from the Perth mint, and a 1931 from the SA mint. I never realised they might be collectable. Perhaps I should put those two aside from the rest of my stack.

Thanks for the advice!

Edited September 25, 2021 by DukeSilver

[Scaffstacker]

1 hour ago, CollectorNo1 said:

Wow!! That's a surprise to be...there must be alot of damaged dented,scratched 9999 gold coins out there then....being the gold is more softer than 22kt...I thought they would be packed and shipped with more care..🙄🙄🙄

I agree completely, but even though delivery is insured if I was buying a monster box of Britannia’s for £150,000+ I would trust only myself with collection from the mint itself or a very trusted dealer after inspecting them of course.

[Richym99]

15 minutes ago, DukeSilver said:

I actually have a 1930 sovereign from the Perth mint, and a 1931 from the SA mint. I never realised they might be collectable. Perhaps I should put those two aside from the rest of my stack.

Thanks for the advice!

I have just paid £422 for a 1930P, albeit MS grade. The grade makes all the difference to the value. 

Of the "small head" George V sovs issued between 1929 and 1931 inc (and 32 in South Africa), the Perth mint coins are either regarded as scarce or rare, whilst the Melbourne coins are even rarer. All the SA dates are common. Sydhey and London did not issue sovereigns in those years.  

Even if you don't want to swing to the expense of a copy of Marsh, I would suggest at least going onto playbooks and buying a downloadable copy of Spink's Coins of  England (Which covers everything from Roman times to 1971 for all denominations)  together with the Decimal version, covering 1971 to the modern day. You will soon get your money back.  

Edited September 25, 2021 by Richym99

[CollectorNo1]

15 minutes ago, Scaffstacker said:

I agree completely, but even though delivery is insured if I was buying a monster box of Britannia’s for £150,000+ I would trust only myself with collection from the mint itself or a very trusted dealer after inspecting them of course.

Totally agree ...

[Skyfiller]

The way I look at it is 10 quid for 100 sovereigns (30k) not only looks after them, makes it easy to store and I number each capsule so I know what I paid for each one. Good value in my mind. 

[Foster88]

46 minutes ago, Richym99 said:

I have just paid £422 for a 1930P, albeit MS grade. The grade makes all the difference to the value. 

Of the "small head" George V sovs issued between 1929 and 1931 inc (and 32 in South Africa), the Perth mint coins are either regarded as scarce or rare, whilst the Melbourne coins are even rarer. All the SA dates are common. Sydhey and London did not issue sovereigns in those years.  

Even if you don't want to swing to the expense of a copy of Marsh, I would suggest at least going onto playbooks and buying a downloadable copy of Spink's Coins of  England (Which covers everything from Roman times to 1971 for all denominations)  together with the Decimal version, covering 1971 to the modern day. You will soon get your money back.  

It’s good to see another ‘fan’, is that the right word, of the George V small head variety.

I have 8 of the 10 and I’m still looking to buy the 1929 M and 1931 M. They’re not cheap.

@DukeSilver I’d check all of your sovereigns.

On your original question, I too keep my sovereigns in plastic capsules. Plastic flips are also good but I prefer capsules. It’s much better to keep them in the best condition as possible.

[Richym99]

48 minutes ago, Foster88 said:

It’s good to see another ‘fan’, is that the right word, of the George V small head variety.

I have 8 of the 10 and I’m still looking to buy the 1929 M and 1931 M. They’re not cheap.

@DukeSilver I’d check all of your sovereigns.

On your original question, I too keep my sovereigns in plastic capsules. Plastic flips are also good but I prefer capsules. It’s much better to keep them in the best condition as possible.

Just following you lead really Foster. They are a nicely compact set of ten, which makes collecting them attainable, albeit a little expensive for the Melbournes, but comparable to collecting shields. 

[DukeSilver]

11 hours ago, Skyfiller said:

The way I look at it is 10 quid for 100 sovereigns (30k) not only looks after them, makes it easy to store and I number each capsule so I know what I paid for each one. Good value in my mind. 

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have a direct link to that particular product on Amazon? I'm guessing you're using the case with the 25mm capsules?

[kimchi]

On 25/09/2021 at 21:03, richatthecroft said:

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 🙄 

I think the margin on caps/flips is mainly their time.

Edited September 29, 2021 by kimchi

[Wampum]

I used to keep mine well wrapped up and hidden in a piano, however I will be damned if I can remember where I put it.

You could buy self seal flips which you can have three on top off each other in the trays for storage.

The capsules are the best. I think you need 22.5 mm so they cannot move around to much. The box above looks really good.   

Edited September 26, 2021 by Wampum

[dicker]

As pointed out by @LawrenceChard a few times Jewellers are one of the worst place to sell coins, from what I have seen most really don’t bother to do even cursory research into what they are buying and selling and just work a margin on both the buy and sell price - way more than coin dealers.  Few of us would be buy from a jeweller at their inflated prices for often very average coins   

The other watch area that I would be concerned about is jewellers is ex-mount Sovs.

Best

Dicker

[DBCooper]

Each to their own way of storing their own coins but, whist some of my nicer, rarer coins are stored safely in flips or capsules

Personally I have only ever brought best value Sov's at bullion prices and as such I regard them as just that, Plain old bullion.

I store all mine in tubes, not even purpose made tubes just,  old industrial plastic tubes that originally held drill bits. I find it fairly easy to find  tubes that are the perfect fit for a full Sov,s  once at tube is filled and stashed away they don't move around and even if they did it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

regards 

DB

[Skyfiller]

1 hour ago, DukeSilver said:

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have a direct link to that particular product on Amazon? I'm guessing you're using the case with the 25mm capsules?

22mm internal diameter capsules. The case comes with 100 capsules.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08TQBLR8J?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[Paul]

Quadrum cases for me. Every mm size from 1/4 sov to £5 gold piece and everything looks great in laser cut black mount. I'm a bit OCD though.