1oz American Silver Eagle Exclusive to the UK

[Marko]

The title is imaginary so apologies for that, but how come 1oz privy lettered edge, and now 1oz privy lunar dog silver Britannia coins, are exclusive to a company overseas ?

If a privy coin is minted, should it not be available for purchase from more than one source.

I do understand the exclusive deals that have likely been struck between the Royal Mint and the company in question for incentives to buy products, and maybe I am missing something here. Please put me out of my misery

frustrated Britannia collector

[blackadder]

Do they need 2 thousand different privy marks on the same coins you saturate the market with them.

29 minutes ago, Marko said:

frustrated Britannia collector

How many give up and just don't buy them.To much of a good thing is never good

[Marko]

I agree and it only takes a few more fools like myself to fuel their greed. A bad habit that I need to give up in the new year ?

I just posted to vent frustration at the principal behind it, but business is business.

[JohnA]

The Royal Mint is a private company, i think. So unfortunately, that's why.

[blackadder]

17 minutes ago, Marko said:

I agree and it only takes a few more fools like myself to fuel their greed. A bad habit that I need to give up in the new year ?

I just posted to vent frustration at the principal behind it, but business is business.

People will get bored of them anyway,as they become less special when you have so many on the same coin.It can have a bad effect on business ,as alot of people can't keep up money wise with them all.

[Marko]

23 minutes ago, JohnAnsink said:

The Royal Mint is a private company, i think. So unfortunately, that's why.

Unfortunately it is a government owned company but that doesn't say too much, profit is profit. Black adder has the right idea, We just need to stop encouraging the "privy" epidemic and stop buying them. Old habits, New Years resolutions ☹️

[999magnum]

So I just checked out the website and I can't buy anything from them "off the street" it seems. It, the company, seems like they're focusing their marketing on elders and retirees by advertising 401k rollovers to gold IRA. Soooo it seems that not even I can buy from Goldco unless I join them and give them tons of money or turn my pension over to them.

[SilverB]

What confuses me is the fact that they all say exclusive, but for starters i can buy a lunar dog from other dealers?  http://www.goldline.co.uk/bullionCoins.jsp?coinId=289&yp=700

Are they talking about exclusive price instead?

 

[Marko]

I am not 100% sure but believe that these runs of coins are minted exclusively for this company. One of the forum members contacted them regarding the lettered edge privy and was told that they were available for sale, but the minimum purchase was high, something around 50k.

 

[Lucylucy]

On 12/14/2017 at 22:02, Marko said:

I agree and it only takes a few more fools like myself to fuel their greed. A bad habit that I need to give up in the new year ?

I just posted to vent frustration at the principal behind it, but business is business.

Marko,

As a newish member I have just picked up your comments about the Britannia Edge Privies. I also have been drawn into collecting the Britannia  Edge Privy coins, much to my subsequent dismay. I agree that it is totally unethical to stop bona fide UK collectors from obtaining the couns without a massive premium. I contacted  Goldco.com who I  believe are the sole benificiaries of the Dog (2018) coin to be told curtly that they do not ship to the UK.

I felt strongly about this matter so I wrote a complaint to the CEO of the Royal Mint and received the following reply:

 

I am currently out of the office on annual leave returning Thursday 12th October and then shortly thereafter will be leaving the business for pastures new.  If anything urgent is required please leave me a message on my mobile and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can.   Alternatively I will forward your email onto the most relevant person to respond.
Regards, Adam.
Good annual leave until October! I feel that this is an old and standard reply. I have followed it up and await a further reply.

Frank Eyles

 

[Marko]

Hi Frank

I was told by someone in the know that the CEO is actually leaving, so this reply may be genuine.

If the practices of the Royal mint were made public there would be an uproar. As it stands, it is cheaper to buy from a UK dealer, who buys from an overseas seller who is supplied from the Royal mint than from the Royal mint themselves.

Bizarre and crooked in my opinion !!

As for the 2 types of Britannia privies, an American contact of mine told me to wait a while and see if they eventually hit the market. Utter disgrace and a reason for me to stop collecting privies and to try and avoid using the Royal mint at all.

 

[STONE]

Not sure if you are understanding what is going on with this. Some mints DO allow anybody to produce and purchase a run of coins to their specifications. There are however a minimum quantity purchase to do a run. I believe its somewhere between 50k-100k. How is this unfair or crooked? If you had the funds, you could do a run of whatever you wanted and do whatever you wanted with them. If you did this and I knocked on your door and demanded you sell some and didn't want to would I be fair in saying your decision was crooked and not genuine? They would be YOUR coins to do with as you please. If you look around you may find some on the secondary market. Look at my avatar! Then look at Goldco's website. I tried contacting Goldco but they never replied to me. Again, these coins are paid for, bought by a private company. So it IS their property to do with as they wish.

[PansPurse]

This is a straw man argument. Private individuals are very different from private businesses. I'm not saying that what these rpivvy mints do is illegal, but just that businesses are held to different standards. One just needs to look at the legislation in various countries intended to prevent discrimination by businesses refusing to serve customers because of gender, race, sexuality etc.

[Marko]

25 minutes ago, STONE said:

Not sure if you are understanding what is going on with this. Some mints DO allow anybody to produce and purchase a run of coins to their specifications. There are however a minimum quantity purchase to do a run. I believe its somewhere between 50k-100k. How is this unfair or crooked? If you had the funds, you could do a run of whatever you wanted and do whatever you wanted with them. If you did this and I knocked on your door and demanded you sell some and didn't want to would I be fair in saying your decision was crooked and not genuine? They would be YOUR coins to do with as you please. If you look around you may find some on the secondary market. Look at my avatar! Then look at Goldco's website. I tried contacting Goldco but they never replied to me. Again, these coins are paid for, bought by a private company. So it IS their property to do with as they wish.

Hi Stone

your point is very valid, but with the example of the “year of the dog” privy, how come the Royal mint can start off a “set” of lunar privy coins available to the public, and then allocate all coins of the next “in the series” to a private seller. Maybe they will issue a different version to the public at a later date.

A request to mint coins to a set of unique requirements is understandable.

I will of course keep an eye out on the secondary market and maybe they will turn up.

[kimchi]

17 hours ago, PansPurse said:

This is a straw man argument. Private individuals are very different from private businesses. I'm not saying that what these rpivvy mints do is illegal, but just that businesses are held to different standards. One just needs to look at the legislation in various countries intended to prevent discrimination by businesses refusing to serve customers because of gender, race, sexuality etc.

Private individual (corporation)s are no different from private 'businesses'. It may seem strange but it's true. Under the law of the land you are already a corps(e) (corporation).

Source: Black's Law Dictionary 9th Ed.

[kimchi]

1 minute ago, Marko said:

...how come the Royal mint can start off a “set” of lunar privy coins available to the public, and then allocate all coins of the next “in the series” to a private seller. Maybe they will issue a different version to the public at a later date.

...

They are a private company (corporation). They can do what they want, alas.

[morezone]

1 hour ago, Marko said:

how come the Royal mint can start off a “set” of lunar privy coins available to the public, and then allocate all coins of the next “in the series” to a private seller.

Which one?  AFAIK, all the Lunar privys have been been USA exclusives.  I think the horse was the first and that company has since gone into administration. (I'm sure I read that somewhere and hence why the market was flooded with the horses)

[Marko]

I believe that the Royal mint provided a US company (A-mark precious metals) with silver bullion “lunar privy” Britannia’s from 2013 (snake edge) to 2017 (rooster edge) including all years in between 2014 (horse), 2015 (ram), 2016 (monkey).

These coins were and still are available to purchase openly, even though they were supplied on request from the US bullion dealer (as per 2018 to Goldco)

It is my fault for not doing sufficient research before buying the initial Privy coins, and as it is unlikely that Goldco will be selling the dog privy in the same way as A-mark, I will not be continuing with this series.

 

[morezone]

I was about to post up about it. http://agaunews.com/the-royal-mint-debuts-its-annual-silver-lunar-privy-britannia-bullion-coin/

The market was flooded with the horse but it was sometime after release.  Snake wasn't widely available until after the horse flooded the market.  Ram was fairly widely available.  Monkey and rooster are very hard to find. I haven't seen them stocked by any of my regular dealers and have only seen them on eBay and only a handful of sellers.

There is a good chance the dog will become available in the future when people sell off parts of their holdings.

[Marko]

Yes you are correct, I bought the more difficult ones on eBay, and as you said, the dog privies may come available sooner or later. 

[STONE]

So which Brit's with a privy mark are you needing for your collection. Also, Goldco may not even be in possession of the dog privy's yet. Its quite possible they put a down payment in and are awaiting stock. They can advertise these since there is no pressure on them to produce a time frame. Correct me if I am wrong aren't there just these so far that have the privy?  

Horse

Snake

Ram

Monkey

Trident

Rooster

Lettered edge

[Marko]

I bought all of the privy coins up to the “dog privy” and gave up after the resistance from Goldco. As you say they may not have them yet and also as Morezone says, they may come available in the future. I was just a bit frustrated at the time of the post due to the unavailability of the coin 

[Marko]

The privy missing from your list is the 2017 rooster and a separate “Goldco only” privy being the lettered edge Britannia also from 2017

[STONE]

Don't give up so easily!  Sometimes the harder coins are to find and acquire makes acquiring them all that much more fun!  Its the thrill of the hunt!!

So you are only missing the Dog right? Updated my list...

[Marko]

I understand, I have only been collecting and stacking since last June so need to adapt to the frustration factor ?

i am only short of the two Goldco coins, the dog privy and the lettered edge. 

I have many loose ends and am enjoying the searching around, you meet many interesting people along the way