silenceissilver

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This appears to be a tender to look into the possibility of setting up a database in order to detect money laundering and tax evasion...
"This project shall look into various possibilities for collecting information to set up an asset registry which may afterwards feed into a future policy initiative... The possibility to include in the registry data related to the ownership of other assets such as cryptocurrencies, works of art, real estate, and gold, shall also be considered."
So, I would guess any developments are a good few years away!

Once they have the means and will to track assets, they'll make sure they track it accurately including private transactions.  No good claiming you have no gold if dont have whats expected from the record, they'll tax you on assumption you disposed of it.  
On the other hand naff all chance they'll get something this complex to implementation.

No one here owns any gold. We all just love the pictures of the shiny metal.
 I would love to see how a gold coin really looks like but they are really pretty on those photos. 

No one here owns any gold. We all just love the pictures of the shiny metal.
 I would love to see how a gold coin really looks like but they are really pretty on those photos. 

I need to watch again the movie Robin Hood where the Sheriff of Nottingham ( the actor that later appeared in Harry Potter as potions & spells master ) instructs his troops to raid the grain stored by the local peasants literally starving them to death over winter. With so much government debt, forget the bankrupt EU, and and a political reluctance to raise taxes, plus NHS back-log and social care etc etc to fund, who knows what is round the corner. For sure the uber-rich and city slickers will have their accountants and tax advisers working overtime in order that they avoid any hit on their wealth and assets whereas the rest of us will get raided like the "peasants" we are. Time to get that rifle licence ?
PS - I sold all my gold

Thank God we left. Having said that Dopey Boris won't be far behind. Any links of this news ?

Governments love a database.  
They love knowing what to tax. 

And probably becuase the ECB is broke also!

I dont even know what colour Gold is 😵

Perhaps they just want to know who has all the Hunter Biden paintings.

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

This is important information for all forum members who live in the EU:
The EU wants to create a centralised, EU-wide data base of the assets of its inhabitants, including property, works of art, crypto currencies - and gold. Not sure about silver.
Well, there is no other reason to do that than trying to steal it from you, eventually (after the hyperinflation).
That's why it's a good idea to buy it in person, rather than ordering it online - if you bought online and don't declare it, you might get trouble at some point. Of course, it's impossible to prove you haven't lost it in a tragic boat accident. However, given the state of law is ever more openly spit on by the politicians, you might still face trouble. However, gold is still one of only a very few possibilities to avoid getting your wealth taken away by the Neo-Bolsheviks. If you have property you rent out or shares, they can just take it - and they will in the not too distant future.
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:358265-2021:TEXT:DE:HTML&tabId=1

Governments can't adjust prices. They can only supress the true price  which leads to a black market.
That's also how the termination of the gold standard happened - they printed more money than the gold standard would allow - thus the official price of gold was too low, thus some people speculated on the too low gold price - it would rise, according to these speculators - and then this was provided as reason for the termination of the gold standard. So the government did A which caused B which the government used to justify C. That's how it always goes, with everything.
The abolishment of the gold standard was one of the worst things between 1945 and 2020 - maybe THE worst thing at all. It enabled the funding of many wars and a myriad of harmful government programs. 

Governments can't adjust prices. They can only supress the true price  which leads to a black market.
That's also how the termination of the gold standard happened - they printed more money than the gold standard would allow - thus the official price of gold was too low, thus some people speculated on the too low gold price - it would rise, according to these speculators - and then this was provided as reason for the termination of the gold standard. So the government did A which caused B which the government used to justify C. That's how it always goes, with everything.
The abolishment of the gold standard was one of the worst things between 1945 and 2020 - maybe THE worst thing at all. It enabled the funding of many wars and a myriad of harmful government programs. 

Governments can't adjust prices. They can only supress the true price  which leads to a black market.
That's also how the termination of the gold standard happened - they printed more money than the gold standard would allow - thus the official price of gold was too low, thus some people speculated on the too low gold price - it would rise, according to these speculators - and then this was provided as reason for the termination of the gold standard. So the government did A which caused B which the government used to justify C. That's how it always goes, with everything.
The abolishment of the gold standard was one of the worst things between 1945 and 2020 - maybe THE worst thing at all. It enabled the funding of many wars and a myriad of harmful government programs. 

Governments can't adjust prices. They can only supress the true price  which leads to a black market.
That's also how the termination of the gold standard happened - they printed more money than the gold standard would allow - thus the official price of gold was too low, thus some people speculated on the too low gold price - it would rise, according to these speculators - and then this was provided as reason for the termination of the gold standard. So the government did A which caused B which the government used to justify C. That's how it always goes, with everything.
The abolishment of the gold standard was one of the worst things between 1945 and 2020 - maybe THE worst thing at all. It enabled the funding of many wars and a myriad of harmful government programs. 

Why would it need to be linked to anything? Everything would be linked to gold.

If they changed it back to gold colour it could become crucial for smaller collections to have at least one rose sovereign, in the future. Changing it back to gold colour, would make them more special. That's how you would have to try and convince the Royal Mint - as great as it was to have them (cough) as great it is to get rid of them - just like with guests in your house, after a few days.
 
I'm wondering how many full and half sovereigns you could get into a normal jar and if they would bother at airports, specially if you blended a few real pennies in.
...
It's nice to have a few 24K gold coins so you know how the look but 90% and 22K is much more preferable if you want to keep it interesting and get loads of different coins from the last 2 centuries, many of which you get a rather low premiums.

As a number of members have already pointed out, most circulation gold coins were alloyed to make them more durable.
Two slightly different systems evolved, namely 900 and 916 fine gold (90.0% and 91.66%). There is not much difference between these.
When the EU and UK recognised "Investment Gold" as VAT exempt as from 1st January 2000, they decided that, to qualify as "Investment Gold", coins had to be at least 90% fine gold, which acknowledged the precedent and tradition which had evolved. Gold bullion bars, however, in order to qualify as "Investment Gold", had to be at least 99.5% gold, which also recognised the existing international standards for good delivery bars which had evolved over a long period of time. Most "small" gold bars, usually one kilo downwards are actually produced in 99.99% gold, a.k.a. "four nines",  In 1979, the Royal Canadian Mint were the first to introduce fine gold (maple leaf) bullion coins, initially in 99.9% (three nines), then later in 99.99, and ultimately also 99.999% (five nines).
It is good that we now all have a choice, traditional gold coins or newer fine gold coins. To the pure investor, it should not matter much, just buy whatever has the lowest premium (within reason). If you are buying as a collector, or for aesthetic reasons, then buy the colour, type, size, and alloy of coins you like best, but be aware that you might be paying slightly higher premiums to be able to exercise your choice.
Also, when it comes to sell, bear in mind that not everybody will share your preferences, so paying a higher premium will probably give you a lower financial return, but this is offset by the pleasure of owning what pleases you more.
One more historical point though is that if we go back to ancient times or antiquity, most gold coins did not circulate freely, but were used as stores of value and a means of exchange, so they were mainly kept in treasuries, and not often seen by the general population. They did not need to be mechaniclly durable. These earlier gold coins were usually made using the purest gold which was commonly obtainable using the refining methods readily available. The very earliest "gold" coins, from ancient Lydia, were made from electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver (no refining or alloying necessary). Later gold coins were often produced in 23ct or 23.5ct gold alloy, again almost certaianly because this was a convenient alloy to use without resorting to extra cost and effort involved in further refining.
So, in older times, gold coins were traditionally made with nearly-fine gold.
Choose your preferred tradition! 🙂
The Royal Mint has clearly chosen its own tradtition. Back in about 2000, some nameless person at the Royal Mint appears to have decided or misunderstood that British gold coins were traditionally made using a red gold alloy, sometimes called pink gold or rose gold. This is achieved by adding only copper to the pure gold, instead of a mixture of copper and silver. This was of course incorrect nonsense, but the RM, in its infinite wisdom (?), has continued to follow its own newly created tradition. This is why modern sovereigns are a revolting red, instead of yummy yellow, and look like copper discs instead of real gold coins. I have never discovered anything in any of the many "Coinage Acts" or other Royal Mint historical document which specifies that no silver should be used in its gold coins.
Almost every collector, stacker, or member of TSF knows that "older" sovereigns look better than modern sovereigns. Most probably also know that it's because there is some silver content. I have tested hundreds, possibly thousands, of sovereigns, halves, doubles and quintuples, and noted that most pre QEII sovereigns contain about 3 parts per thousand of silver. This is enough to make them look desirable. It is my sincere hope that some day, someone at the RM will open their eyes and ears, and come to realise that adding some silver woulf imrove their product, and do so at an almost negligible cost. They could commission some consumer research to resolve any uncertainty. The change may never happen as doing so might mean admitting they were wrong for the past twenty or more years, and that I, along with most collectors, dealers, and ordinary people were right.