Are commemorative Crowns a better buy than bullion coins?

[Earthmetal]

I've recently bought a few commemorative crowns quite cheaply. I've also struggled to sell some on Ebay for a decent price. Even proofs, with capsules & Royal Mint boxes, can be bought for not a great deal over £20 or so. With 1oz bullion now around the £30 mark, don't the crowns look an attractive proposition? Even taking the 92.5% purity into account they're much closer to spot price.

[GoldDiggerDave]

I pick a lot of these types of coins up from auction rooms for less than spot.   A generic 1oz silver proof coin is worth 70% of spot IMO.

[BullionBob]

In my experience, they are not very desirable to collectors / stackers, with the occasional exception.

This may explain why they can be purchased relatively close to spot price but also difficult to sell.

Personally, I wouldn't want to hold many in my stack, unless my end goal was to send them to a refiner in the long term.

[StackemHigh]

Unless you want to collect crowns it can be best steering well clear of these and most rm products all together. 

[GoldDiggerDave]

Honestly you are better of buying silver teapots 

[Earthmetal]

But they are Sterling Silver after all.

[Earthmetal]

41 minutes ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

Honestly you are better of buying silver teapots 

Well, I haven't yet, but I do have a plate, dish, spoons, sugar tongues, vesta case, napkin ring, cruet set, medals, fobs...

[Petra]

During the late Queen Elizabeth’s reign, unfortunately most of the crowns issued seem to be another way of making money. Not always the best quality, plus containing less silver! Compared to the crowns that were actually in everyday circulation I think that most are just a pale shadow regards quality (and worth).

[Earthmetal]

1 hour ago, Petra said:

During the late Queen Elizabeth’s reign, unfortunately most of the crowns issued seem to be another way of making money. Not always the best quality, plus containing less silver! Compared to the crowns that were actually in everyday circulation I think that most are just a pale shadow regards quality (and worth).

I was of course referring to the silver crowns, usually (always?) proof, and in Sterling silver.
They don't contain less silver, but the same 92.5% as pre-1920 Crowns, and of course more than 1920-46 currency.
Conventional post-1946 Crowns contain zero silver.

[Petra]

7 minutes ago, Earthmetal said:

I was of course referring to the silver crowns, usually (always?) proof, and in Sterling silver.
They don't contain less silver, but the same 92.5% as pre-1920 Crowns, and of course more than 1920-46 currency.
Conventional post-1946 Crowns contain zero silver.

Fine, but most are pretty cr.p🤔😮Prefer to have my collection of pre war back to Queen Anne crowns🫢

Edited December 2, 2022 by Petra
Addition

[Stuntman]

In my opinion, the commemorative silver crowns would only be a moneymaking proposition if you can buy them for much less than spot and then sell them as scrap silver for close to spot.

As a collector, I wouldn't touch them unless I liked the particular design.

I do have one silver proof commemorative crown but it was bought for me as a birthday present in the year of release, probably for similar cash to its value now.

[Arganto]

Think of them as you would any other scrap .925; buy it cheaply when you perceive spot to be low them sell for spot or below when the base price has a an upswing. Or just buy them cheap, shove them in the safe and think of them as weight for the stack. It's unfortunate this is the case as you're often talking about coins in good condition with cases and COAs, but it does kind of reflect the fact that loads were made and weren't usually the nicest things to look at. Those little silver proof £1 and £2 coins are a better bet for holding on to at least a bit of premium, plus they look cool.

[KevjustKev]

I don't 'do' proofs or indeed have any, but as others have pointed out if you can buy at spot or less you're on a winner. Silver is sliver at the end of the day

[Divmad]

On 02/12/2022 at 20:30, Stuntman said:

In my opinion, the commemorative silver crowns would only be a moneymaking proposition if you can buy them for much less than spot and then sell them as scrap silver for close to spot.

As a collector, I wouldn't touch them unless I liked the particular design.

I do have one silver proof commemorative crown but it was bought for me as a birthday present in the year of release, probably for similar cash to its value now.

But why stop at commemorative crowns? Why not apply the same reasoning to ALL these marketing-oriented commemorative silver coins coming out of every mint in the world every month, every year, nowadays? Then compare their sales price with the underlying intrinsic worth of silver. Makes little sense to me, unless you believe in the greater fool theory over time.

Stick with coins (or used silverware) that you can pick up around spot + a small premium, and wait for the silver price to rise over time. Good hunting, though, as this makes the accumulation requiring greater perseverance.

[Stuntman]

^^^ I think we all agree.  It makes little financial sense to be the first purchaser of most of these kinds of silver coins.  But if you can pick them up on the secondary market for prices close to spot, then it makes quite good financial sense if you think the price of silver will increase over time.

If you like the design, financial sense may be of secondary importance.