Fractional Britannia silver bullion, what's the chances of it happening?

[MickB]

Will the Royal Mint ever start to sell annual fractional silver Britannias at bullion grade to complement the 1oz coin?

I should ask the Royal Mint directly but was wondering what forum members thoughts would be on this subject.

They did have the 1/4 oz Gairsoppa silver coins made a couple of years ago and I wouldn't have minded a few tubes of these but not at the prices asked. Not direct from the mint though as they were sold in the USA.

At reasonable bullion prices I reckon they'd sell well, considering other countries have their own 1/4 & 1/2 oz silver coins.

[sovereignsteve]

Why would you want it? Is it not enough being lumbered with the current 1 oz crap?

If you want fractional bullion, there are ones for you to buy.

If you want to collect a series, the current grade of bullion brit isn't it, in 1 oz or fractional.

[MickB]

Saying they are crap is down to their quality control which they need to improve on, as the design is o.k.

Can't see why they haven't jumped on the bandwagon in making smaller silver ones, I'm sure they'd sell easily.

CGT free would be their strong selling point as well for us in the UK.

[HighlandTiger]

Do you really want to pay the extortionate RM premiums that would be placed on fractionals ?

Even with it being CGT free, it still wouldn't make economical sense to a stacker.  

[MickB]

If the prices were comparable to other mints then I'd buy them.  I don't think the Royal Mint would shoot themselves in the foot by asking too much just for bullion grade coins, although they need to improve quality.

[sovereignsteve]

52 minutes ago, MickB said:

Saying they are crap is down to their quality control which they need to improve on, as the design is o.k.

Can't see why they haven't jumped on the bandwagon in making smaller silver ones, I'm sure they'd sell easily.

CGT free would be their strong selling point as well for us in the UK.

The are crap compared to pre-2013 both in design and quality. They are aimed at the stacker and why would a stacker want fractional coins?

The CGT would be the only possible factor.

[MickB]

I've got three tubes of 1/4 oz Noah's ark silver coins tucked away. These sell well. I'm sure if they produced Britannias that size, they'd be another coin I'd buy just like anyone else would once they're on the market.

If they would have done it at the start of their lunar series and made lunar fractionals , they missed an opportunity there, we'd have all bought them.

Is the main problem in the idea of this down to quality control or cost? We can only guess what the cost may be. I don't mind the latest design. I've a tube of 2013 silver Britannias but actually prefer the latest style. I know it's designed to hide any imperfections but still like it better.

[sovereignsteve]

I think we all much preferred it when they changed the design every year.

[MickB]

More cost involved in changing the design every year even though they do it for proofs.

I came into stacking/collecting just over three years ago so never really got into the earlier Britannias. Some of the designs I thought were bad, others o.k. 

The Royal Mint probably settled for a safe design when mass producing year after year.

[HawkHybrid]

they already produce a fractional 1/2 oz silver bullion coin

each year with the associated premium. the £20 for £20?

what's the chance of the same weight coin being called

£10 for £10?

 

HH

[sovereignsteve]

Souldn't really cost any more if they use the same design as the proofs.

[MickB]

2 hours ago, HawkHybrid said:

they already produce a fractional 1/2 oz silver bullion coin

each year with the associated premium. the £20 for £20?

what's the chance of the same weight coin being called

£10 for £10?

 

HH

Looking at the latest proof set, 1/2 ounce has £1 face value & 1/4 oz has 50p face value.

The £20 for £20 are collectibles only & aren't classed as bullion as such.

[MickB]

If the Royal Mint produced fractionals on par with the Mexican Libertads, surely it would get a following.

I know the Royal Mint are bad at sticking to their word in the amount they make with a run of collectibles and proofs but if they knew there'd be support for bullion fractionals, surely it would be worth looking into. Maybe they could get stackers/collectors on side by way of a questionnaire and see where they are going wrong.

[StinkyLebinowitz]

If I were to take an educated guess I would say the RM already knows what fractionals would do to their overall sales and revenues. Currently, silver has not outpriced a stackers ability to pay for 1oz coins. I am sure if they have done any market analysis, they learned how many 1oz sales would be lost to the buyer picking fractional instead. When silver does get to the point a new stacker is inhibited or prohibited from getting into the game because of the cost of entry, 1oz sales will drop and fractionals then will make a lot of sense. As far as bullion sales, I am sure the RM's goal is profits to offset its other costs of operation. To that end, they should be making the most possible, without affecting sales totals.

[SilverSniper]

I take it we mean sold singly as standard bullion coins, as the RM do produce these fractionals in sets, and special editions (i.e. 2013 Odyssey Marine Exploration Royal Mint S.S. Gairsoppa Shipwreck Britannia 50p Silver Coin)?

[MickB]

@SilverSniper Yes, if they did decide to sell them singly as standard bullion in 1/4 & 1/2 oz sizes, it would get people interested.

There seems to be more opposition to these than support for them, maybe only here on the forum but that maybe down to the way the Royal Mint has conducted itself on other matters.

I've had issues with them regarding the face value coins so I sold them back to the mint but it wouldn't put me off buying silver fractional bullion coins if they decided to sell them.

[SilverSniper]

5 minutes ago, MickB said:

@SilverSniper Yes, if they did decide to sell them singly as standard bullion in 1/4 & 1/2 oz sizes, it would get people interested.

There seems to be more opposition to these than support for them, maybe only here on the forum but that maybe down to the way the Royal Mint has conducted itself on other matters.

I've had issues with them regarding the face value coins so I sold them back to the mint but it wouldn't put me off buying silver fractional bullion coins if they decided to sell them.

I agree, the face value notion seems rather pointless if they cannot be used for such; they might as well be done with it and put £1000, as it's apparently just a design.

I don't think the RM are that interested in small values of silver, as last time I looked their bullion bar range only had the one 100g bar too ... they are missing a trick as the 1oz are a popular size.  Therefore it would be fair to say the fractional coins would be popular too.