silenceissilver

Maybe it's just me being paranoid but doesn't the obverse look cleaned? Parallel streaks going upwards to the right all over the plate, specially close to the inscription?

First of all and this should almost be a topic on it's own - why are precious metals precious? Often you will hear, because of certain physical properties, because of their history, because they are shiny but the main reason is, most goods become cheaper if you produce them in higher quantities unlike gold and silver - getting more out of the ground becomes more and more expensive because of how they are distributed under the surface and of how much there is to get out of the ground, at all. Secondly, why are they undervalued? Because the fiat money system creates wrong incentives, corrupts the society, sets wrong price signals and weakens the economy which however can be fixed with more money printing for a while, which in turn creates bubbles that promise huge and quick gains, which make the opportunity costs of holding gold or silver bigger, an environment where it's not too difficult for the people around the central banks to manipulate precious metal prices, natural enemies of the fiat money system, on top of first effect. Thirdly, to answer your question - because the looming financial crash is not being anticipated yet and the markets are highly irrational in the short and medium term. We haven't seen the fiat bubbles, e.g. the housing prices and whatnot crashing yet which means the illusions of the current fiat cycle are still in place and working. And finally I have to say, I completely appreciate everyone's impatience and even doubts about investments (or savings). It's only natural. But only those who not start running around like headless chicken will be able to save their wealth to the other side of the crash or even increase it during the process. There will be a very few assets to get you over the crisis and gold and silver are amongst them.

The whole idea is that the ledger that usually the bank holds, about all their customers' accounts and their transactions, is shared on umpteen copies, thus on the blockchain of which everyone can have a copy on their laptop from which ensues you have to have a mechanism against cheating and getting an agreement of new transfers on all copies which has been resolved (but certainly can be and constantly is improved), without going into any details. The problem is that then everyone sees all of everyone else's transactions (as soon as you can build a link between a wallet (=what would be your account, if it was a bank) and a specific human which you can all the more easily, the more links you already have) unless the ledger on the blockchain itself is also encrypted and hides all information about who sends what to whom and how much (which is the case for privacy coins (e.g. Monero), so only for a tiny fraction of all crypto currencies, not including Bitcoin which therefore is a surveillance sh.tcoin). (The "crypto" as in cryptography in Bitcoin and all the other non-privacy coins comes from the mechanism of how to restrict what's in your wallet to your and only your access etc.). Of course when you cash in, you need a third party because you are dealing with centralised fiat, at this point. But you don't need a third party if you directly use it, e.g. sending it to an online provider of whatever. As a matter of fact, I would love if all the big precious metal dealers in the UK would offer Monero (or another privacy coin) as means of payment. I have only found one in Switzerland, at a quick glance and I don't even know if they are a serious dealer or scammers. Any feedback would be highly welcome: https://www.suissegold.eu/en/category/buy-gold-coins/2022-gold-coins The fact that they have 2 weeks for delivery, suggests they are short selling it and only ordering from a retailer, once they get an order, in my view.

There are tubes for coins in capsules. I'm surprised no one has suggested them yet. "Air tite" they are called. Here you have got a table - which size you need depends on whether you have Royal Mint capsules or Air tite capsules with rings. https://www.thecoinsupplystore.com/pages/air-tite-coin-holder-measurements-information https://www.thecoinsupplystore.com/pages/coin-size-guide https://www.thecoinsupplystore.com/collections/ring-type-air-tite-coin-holders

I don't see the point of gold and silver "on the blockchain" and I do have crypto currencies. Both precious metals and crypto currencies (and cash) have the advantage that you don't need a third party to store it for you and you don't need a middle man to pass it on to someone else. That's the whole idea of crypto currencies, to be able to do this also with electronic payments. The advantage of precious metals is, they don't have an electronic trail, at least if you buy them not online but with cash (and if you are not asked to provide your details because of some government rules). Because for most crypto currencies, all payments are visible to the whole world (e.g. for Bitcoin) - privacy coins are the exception, unless someone cracks their encryption, a risk that doesn't exist for precious metals obviously, but on the other hand, cryptos are easier to transfer over distance. So both have their advantages and disadvantages and the idea of trying to combine the advantages of both is very intriguing indeed - and indeed there are crypto currencies copying the price of gold or silver - but that doesn't mean they are backed by them but rather they have some other form of electronic backing - which can work of course - but it can also fail miserably, as Terra Luna has shown. If you wanted to back a crypto currency with gold, you'd need to introduce a trusted central authority - which would take away the advantage of both precious metals and crypto currencies (and cash), you hold yourself. I don't see a decentralised version possible - like "OK, here in my home, I put an ounce of gold into this bucket which we call the market and get a gold backed crypto currency instead or the other way round - I mean maybe, if instead of putting it into a bucket, you'd send it directly per post to someone who'd send you the crypto in return and if you had a kind of atomic swap, holding the crypto currency till the gold is received - but even then - if someone received the gold and just didn't confirm it, the counterpart could do nothing to get his crypto currency, unless their was an automatic way of confirming the receipt of the gold - and the automatic authentication of it being real gold. In short - there is no realistic way to combine the strengths of both and in case I'm wrong and things change in the future, it's certainly still a very long way to go - but more likely it's principally impossible in a feasible way. For sure, there is not meaningful combination of these two asset classes, in the present. As said, I do have crypto currencies and gold and silver of course but I'd never touch a "gold backed" crypto currency - because it's pointless and introduces risks that you don't have with precious metals or crypto currencies alone.

Whatever you go for, avoid this new and very ugly piece of gold - 1/100 ounce for 29 Euros(!)

For me it's a double Sovereign over a Half Britannia anytime and there might be one or 2 members here sharing this view. I wouldn't speculate on appreciation. Personally however, my favourite roughly half ounce coin is a pre 33 10 Dollar, Indian Head or not. I wouldn't recommend it though, living in the UK, maybe it's different in the US but here it has a premimum well over that of that of a half Britannia or Double Sovereign. Just a personal quirk.

File Bigmarc jr jr, 7/3/2037 9:34:17 first chewing gum purchased, one Orbit Strawberry ultra, bought for £1.350.000 at the age of 6 years 7/5/2045 19:54:51 first online porn magazine purchased, Playgirl Climax, issue 5/44 for £133.500.000 at the age of 14 years 2/6/2053 11:21:41 first Sovereign purchased, William V second portray with a 100 year QE coronation privy mark for £932. 438.000.000 at the age of 22 years 2/3/2054 23:20:04 book order Amazon "What women REALLY want" for £532. 000.000 at the age of 23 years 8/3/2064 15:47:35 book order Amazon "Does your wife cheat you? - The ultimate guide to find out the truth!" for £674. 500. 000.000 at the age of 33 years 15/3/2064 22:57:53 entry fee swinger club "Threesome Free Hearts" for £3.821. 500. 000.000 at the age of 33 years 2/9/2067 11:30:00 consultancy fee divorce solicitor Andrew Strong for £629. 983.821. 500. 000.000 at the age of 34 years 2/9/2067 11:30:00 165 Sovereigns and 2 one ounce Britannia silver coins 2053 and 2054 sold to Chards for £5.658. 629. 983.821.500. 000.000 at the age of 35 years 2/9/2068 11:30:00 attempted purchase 70 Stella Artois - transfer declined due to climate lockdown No33, at the age of 36 years 2/9/2068 11:44:17 attempted purchase 19 Stella Artois - transfer declined due to climate lockdown No33, at the age of 36 years 2/9/2068 11:45:02 attempted purchase Dairy Milk 80g chocolate bar - transfer declined due to a body mass index of 32, at the age of 36 years 17/1/2069 17:00:00 failed to show up for 3montly booster jab - account blocked for a fortnight, at the age of 37 years. 17/8/2070 9:24:36 account closed after assisted suicide, at the age of 38

Finally it doesn't matter if Bitcoin was created by the NSA or CIA because if it wasn't, it could as well have been. It has a public ledger and thus you can look into everyone's wallet, see how much they have, where they got it from and you can track the history of every single bitcoin. You could do the social credit system with bitcoin. It's very different with privacy coins like Monero and Pirate chain where you can't see all of this. There are more and more crypto currencies implementing some sort of privacy functions but mostly it's a joke. The whole crypto market is extremely immature - even declared joke coins shoot through to the moon. That doesn't mean all crypto is sh.t. There are 10K different coins and some will be useful - certainly privacy coins - once the social credit system kicks in and is combined with your bank account, people will start using it on a massive scale. As @sixgun has said, most or all first generation crypto currencies - and most of the newer ones - will go to zero, eventually, of course including Bitcoin. But some are here to stay, maybe some of the existing ones, maybe some that don't exist yet, who knows. There are very good use-cases (online payments) and therefore cryptos are here to stay. The thought though that this could make gold worthless, is ridiculous. Gold is here to stay, even much more.

It should also be noted for newbies, it's considerably more difficult to store than gold because unlike gold it can tone over time (if exposed to air), not to mention milk spots. Well, that's another 5 topics in their own right but at least it should briefly be mentioned. Also, if the budget is low, I assume there is no budget for a proper safe, and silver isn't that easy to hide because of its volume. That being said, I started with both metals and would do the same again, specially when your total stack is only about 3 Sovereigns, you'd need to break up ca 30% of your total stack, if you needed to sell something. I think at least a bit of silver should be part of every stack. You can then tick it off, if you want and focus on gold.

Is it a Coca Cola lid? Well, too many serrations, I guess. Maybe Fanta?

Heubach Edelmetalle has stopped delivering to the UK too but it's my impression most German PM dealers still deliver to the UK, although I have not ordered any silver from the continent, since Brexit, only gold, so I can't shed any light on VAT, customs, import duties etc. However, I have ordered different goods from 2 German companies, this year. One of them added German VAT - wrongly in my opinion - it hasn't arrived yet - the other one hasn't and out of several orders, only one time was there a UK duty added, upon arrival - the other times, this seems to have been forgotten. Maybe worth a try, for a big silver purchase? 😃

No amount of virtuosity in the art of minting could save a Merkel coin from being ugly. There is a reason not even the Perth Mint has tried it. They'd be scared to lose their reputation overnight.

I have got a George III and two Maria Theresa coins and I love them because there is no such thing as an ugly gold or silver coin - for as long as they don't mint one with the likeness of Frau Merkel.

My first piece of PM was a fake - went into the jewellery and decided to finally start buying gold coins. I had played with the thought for a long time and finally was ready for it. I had no idea about any coins on the market although I had heard about Krugerrands, Eagles and Philharmonics but I'd no clue what they look like, how much they cost and how big they are. I asked for a gold coin for about 100 Pounds. I wasn't sure gold coins for that price would exists but I thought I'll give it a shot. I got a half Sovereign which later turned out to be I think it was 17K or was it 19K - I can't remember now - but far off 22K anyway. My first piece of silver was a fake too, briefly afterwards a one ounce bar that was only plated and was only meant to be plated - from the same jeweller. Luckily, I found this out myself, when I googled the bar and found out it was even officially sold as plated. Got proper replacements for both, for the half sovereign even a proof half sovereign. It's the best scenario to make this experience with not too high a budget and right at the beginning.