National Household Notification - An Official New 24 Carat Gold Coin

[LawrenceChard]

National Household Notification - An Official New 24 Carat Gold Coin...

... issued to mark the annual national Remembrance Day commemorations.

The other bit of junk which arrived with our newspapers yesterday was:

Although it was folded, and I was too lazy to refold it and scan both sides separately. I probably should have done, because it was done to look rather like a scratchard or pin number notification.

I wondered which of the usual coin marketing suspects this was from.

Could it be the so-called London Mint Office? They used some very similar flyers, mailshots, format, and wording years ago. Sure it's corny, but they may have gone back to it if they ran out of newer ideas.

No, I could discern a rather pretentious looking "coat of arms", which I recognised from a million boxes, certificates, and more. Harrington & Byrne - first mystery solved, now for the real challenge, which country? Definitely not the UK or the Royal Mint.

Opening the flyer:

As expected the name of the country or issuing authority was cunningly concealed by overlaying the left side of the reverse image over the right hand side of the obverse, so it was probably T.D.C. for Tristan da Cunha. But was it...?

I grabbed an eyeglass, perused the image and found "C.I.", presumably for Channel Islands, but which one?, Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey? Time to read the small print. I usually start this search at the bottom. If this fails, I next look at the next least likely place to find it. Of course, I could start at the top, but then I would have to work my way through all the guff and hype.

Ah, they fooled me this time, some of it is in bold:

Specifications: Diameter  11mm Weight: 0.5g Metal: 24 Carat Gold Finish: Proof Country of Issue: Alderney

Is it just me being cynical, or are the important bits of that in normal type rather than bold to make them less noticeably? And why use "g" instead of "grams"? So the punters don't realise how small it will be? I already knew from the price, "just £39", as will most TSF members. If this was ebay "g" could also stand for "grains"!

Just half a gram! I think the Royal Mint's quarter sovereigns are pathetically small and light, at just under 2 grams. Of course, they were intended to fill a price point. As gold prices have risen, some mints have introduced one gram coins, which are even more pathetic, in my opinion.

At the current spot gold price, the intrinsic value of a half gram is £22.35 making the premium about 75%. This is not exorbitant for a coin of its size, although I do think it should come with a free magnifying glass. 

I deduce that H&B are still on a profit at that, because of their "max 3 per household", unlike their loss-leader new sovereign offers.

I have had a few bags of 1 gram (+/-) coins on my desk, half sorted, for about 6 months. Although we bought these cheaply, spot gold or less, they are hardly worth the time and effort to sort out. We should probably market them in random goody bags, and sell them by weight.

At least they were not marketing these coins as "the first ever 1/16th gold sovereign", but it can't be long. 😎

 

 

 

 

 

[RDHC]

It's very sad to think of the gullible and probably not very well-off falling for this and parting with/losing some of their savings as a result.

[LawrenceChard]

4 hours ago, RDHC said:

It's very sad to think of the gullible and probably not very well-off falling for this and parting with/losing some of their savings as a result.

Yes it is, but worse is what they then get marketed with. I someone buys one of these with their eyes open and their brain engaged, then fair enough, but they often keep buying almost everything offered to them.

We get offered "collections" where people have bought whole loads of stuff like this as an heirloom or investment. 

 

[paulmerton]

Someone on here bought one of those 0.5g coins from that place (maybe a month or so ago?) I thought it looked quite reasonable for the price, as long as you manage not to accidentally fold it in half by looking at it too hard 😀 

I'd love to buy a bundle of random ~1g coins by weight if you (Chards) want to do that!

[UncommonSeal]

On 15/11/2021 at 06:14, paulmerton said:

Someone on here bought one of those 0.5g coins from that place (maybe a month or so ago?) I thought it looked quite reasonable for the price, as long as you manage not to accidentally fold it in half by looking at it too hard 😀 

I'd love to buy a bundle of random ~1g coins by weight if you (Chards) want to do that!

Yeah I’d also love that!

[paulmerton]

On 14/11/2021 at 15:17, LawrenceChard said:

I have had a few bags of 1 gram (+/-) coins on my desk, half sorted, for about 6 months. Although we bought these cheaply, spot gold or less, they are hardly worth the time and effort to sort out. We should probably market them in random goody bags, and sell them by weight.

There you go @LawrenceChard, that's two goody bags taken care of if you want to add both of us to the priority queue