On the €10,000 cash-equivalents customs declaration at the airport...

[GoldenPeanutButter]

I think this mostly applies to the EU and Northern Ireland, but since the rule hasn't been adjusted for inflation the threshold in number of gold coins we can carry with us, without triggering the rule, has been silently dropping.

This might seem obvious since monopoly money has lost value over time, but I found it more surprising once I got the data (please double check it):

Year	Gold Price ($/oz)	EUR/USD	Gold Price (€/oz)	Gold Price (€/g)	Sovereigns (€10,000)	Britannias (€10,000)
2007	656.50	1.36	481.48	15.48	88.22	20.77
2008	942.50	1.59	593.59	19.08	71.56	16.85
2009	941.00	1.41	665.45	21.39	63.83	15.03
2010	1206.30	1.25	964.46	31.01	44.04	10.37
2011	1482.30	1.45	1022.49	32.87	41.54	9.78
2012	1597.20	1.27	1262.09	40.58	33.66	7.92
2013	1255.90	1.30	965.03	31.03	44.02	10.36
2014	1326.40	1.37	968.63	31.14	43.85	10.32
2015	1169.00	1.11	1049.84	33.75	40.46	9.53
2016	1336.70	1.11	1203.58	38.70	35.29	8.31
2017	1217.90	1.14	1066.17	34.28	39.84	9.38
2018	1239.80	1.17	1061.60	34.13	40.01	9.42
2019	1385.60	1.14	1219.19	39.20	34.84	8.20
2020	1773.20	1.12	1578.15	50.74	26.92	6.34
2021	1775.90	1.19	1497.79	48.16	28.36	6.68
2022	1798.90	1.05	1716.89	55.20	24.74	5.82
2023	1921.70	1.09	1761.81	56.64	24.11	5.68

 

Right, so in 2007 (ChatGPT tells me this is when the rule was created) you could bring with you 20 1oz gold Britannias without having to declare anything. Today that number is around 5.

If you plot the thresholds, that is the number of coins you can travel with without doing the customs declaration:

 

I'm afraid the conclusion from this is that, unless the rule is adjusted, there will be a time when we'll have to declare even a single Britannia. Perhaps something worth thinking about.

Edited November 8, 2023 by GoldenPeanutButter

[1stsovereign]

Very interesting article, thank you for sharing!

 

[JamesH]

Great article. Enjoyable read (or not as the case may be)

[jultorsk]

Yes, been often contemplating on this when crossing the Australian border over the years... the limit is AU$10,000 - at today's spot the equivalent of about 3 full and a 1/4 Brit.    

[noddycoder]

--

Edited November 9, 2023 by noddycoder
sp.

[tpcob303]

Like wise for many other countries, I was watching a customs/border control TV show for NZ Auckland Airport, the limit was 10,000 NZ$ which if NZ$10 was worth about £4 the total would be somewhere just over £4700 allowed in which today is about 3 months salary (without living expenses and tax for average salary (not wage) worker), which I'm sure hasn't been adjusted either throughout time since it was implemented. I bet they will still grill you and make you feel guilty for bringing in such a small amount of cash, I mean what I would ask is why they want to bother when you are bringing bank cards with you through customs, its not like they don't have cash in these accounts why don't they try and charge tax on that as well. I find it stupid to bother like exit fees for leaving a country I refuse to pay such a fee on principle, even if it means I'm no longer allowed to visit there again as I didn't pay the fee why should I on principle pay a fee to leave a country. Countries are going tax mad, tax everything including the air we breathe soon. 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, tpcob303 said:

Countries are going tax mad, tax everything including the air we breathe soon. 

Because voters are benefit mad always wanting free handout from goverments. Free healthcare free education free public transport free this and that and all for nothing. And politicians get their votes by handing out more. Nothing new as they did this well over two thousand years ago. Roman consuls and emperors were rated by how many public forums, baths, arenas etc they built, and the army fought for whomever paid the most.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Guest

[JohnA1]

13 hours ago, SeverinDigsSovereigns said:

Because voters are benefit mad always wanting free handout from goverments. Free healthcare free education free public transport free this and that and all for nothing.

Same with freakin pensioners (private too) who have been saving for a lifetime and will now demand the fruit of their labour..😟

Not everyone is a free-loader and a useless eater, I see that most are victims of a cruel system that usurps their time/effort since birth under false pretenses.

 

The number of britannias/sovs "allowed" to be transported via customs keeps going down because they keep printing without asking permission (via referendum?) from those whose wealth they are diluting

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JohnA1 said:

Same with freakin pensioners (private too) who have been saving for a lifetime and will now demand the fruit of their labour..😟

Not everyone is a free-loader and a useless eater, I see that most are victims of a cruel system that usurps their time/effort since birth under false pretenses.

 

The number of britannias/sovs "allowed" to be transported via customs keeps going down because they keep printing without asking permission (via referendum?) from those whose wealth they are diluting

That's the biggest scam called "Anti Money Laundery". And guess what? Lots of the ordinary people ask for this false sense of security. 

Many here on TSF seem to view the world through the prism of an ordinary-rich competition, in reality though there are many different types of "ordinary" people and some of them hate you and I just as much as they hate the "system".

I don't mean the honest working people who just want to keep their money. I mean those who always think they deserve more and will gladly scream "eat the rich" and have their bills paid by the very working people that we both greatly sympathise. 

I'm fairly new to TSF and don't know many members personally. As such I cannot know precisely the demographics of this forum. But from what I've seen most active members on this forum are on the sane side and are older than 40. They've most probably spent their lives with nice like-minded moderate people. I am unfortunately young enough to have many colour-headed face-pierced peers, and say one thing they disagree they'll scream at my face in the most rabid manner. Most can't compose a cohesive sentence more than 4 words long.

I am also privileged enought to be able to hang out with the better of our age group, and sadly discovering myself in the minority.

So hard-working honest pensioners who deserve every penny they ask for? No doubt. Free-loaders and useless eaters? They're also everywhere and they absolutely hate anybody with a nice collection of gold Brits and sovereigns, and will always vote accordingly, with much of their jealousy and malice. One thing I disagree with many here is that TSF member think the govt/bankers etc are the only bad guys. In reality the bad guys are everywhere doing all jobs (and also constantly criticising govt/banks/companies because they're not in those position yet)

Edited November 14, 2023 by Guest