Agpanda

I went to LPM to pick up some of my purchases last Friday, and happened to note two gold ingot were on display.  They were salvaged from the SS Central America shipwreck.  I did an internet search: the gold ingot and coins were shipped from US western coast to eastern coast New York (through Panama) and was sunken in hurricade at the North Carolina coast in 1857.  The golds were salvaged (twice) in 1990s and 2014.   These two ingots bear the refinery name (Kellogg & Humbert Assayers) and the weight (oz), the purity, and the then market value (using 1oz = USD20.67).
One bar weights 102.36 oz, that's quite a trunky stuff!  For the web search I did, the 100+ oz don't turn up quite often. 
The SS Central America wreckage gold is a "famous" one and often offered at auctions or the coin dealership.  So they are not that "rare", but it's still an interesting experience to me that I can look at the two bars quitely and took some photos to enjoy. 

Following on from the deal posted on the gold/silver deals last month, I took the plunge in between Christmas and new year and purchased some things from tavex bullion. On the deals thread there were a few people who were interested in buying from them but unsure due to their recent arrival to the UK market, so I'd thought I'd share my experience.
So I managed to buy 10 silver britannia's, a 1oz gold Britannia and a queen Victoria sovereign.
The Silver brits all came in coin capsules, they look to be free of any dents, scratches or damage, and are all minted in 2021. But nearly all of them do have heavy milk spotting. Now I'm not an expert on milk spots, but this package was held up with royal mail for over a week and I'm wondering if being stored in a cold sorting office/van has contributed to the milk spotting as I've not got any other coins as heavily spotted as these. I'm not worried though as these are bullion coins going into a coin tube.
The gold Britannia is in perfect condition, again arrived in a coin capsule, minted in 2022 and the only fault I can find with it is the luster of the coin isn't as high as my other 1oz gold brit.
The Queen Victoria sovereign is dated as 1898 and I have to say the condition of this 124 year old coin is absolutely fantastic. Apart from a few very light surface scratches (from cleaning maybe) the coin it's self is absolutely lovely. Didn't come in a coin capsule, but well packaged.
The packaging of the coins was great too. Arrived in a jiffy bag, 2 boxes with foam packaging cut out to hold each coin. On the whole apart from the milk spotted silver brits there is nothing I can complain about. I was invoice number 180 odd, so going by that I'm guessing they are slowly picking up customers. I'll be sure to buy from them again. Hope this helps anyone who was in 2 minds about purchasing from them.
 

Formally    Pipers
Hi guys, 
Letting you know that after a illness i forgot all my login details and with the forum security i was locked out of the forum. 
 A big thank you to Pete who helped me get back onto the forum.
Anyway most of you know what i like to collect and buy.  and my views are not always with the 'wisom of the crowd'.  
I look forward to engage again in topics.
Piperscoins 

Big BIG arrival today!
The 2000 mirror ring.
But... it is graded... and none of my other pandas are.... I got it brought in for me from China and it's hard to find a 2000 at the best of times, let alone a mirror, let alone OMP or good condition in capsule. So I just got a graded one and will probably end up taking it out of the slab at some point, but ridiculously nervous about doing so!!
There's one thing that the panda series is not, and that is consistent... So maybe this might be the inconsistent member of my collection.

This is what i found in my mailbox today

Got home a small package from Air-tite today.
Well worth the high shipping cost.
Sure like the caps for 1oz silver bars.

 
Also got a 2014 MS70 Panda.

 
sry for bad quality of pics, hate my camera

About a year ago I first started taking an interest in 1oz China silver pandas after someone on the forum listed a short date run of recent years which I snapped up.
Once I'd decided to start collecting a date run I quickly amassed a few more years, and it was about that point when I discovered that some years are particularly hard to find, and also when I discovered that there are different varieties of each coin. But it was too late for that - I was hooked! I posted this thread: 
 
It became something of an obsession, but armed with Peter Anthony's panda book I persevered.
A year on, my collection has reached this stage, and I have only three coins still to find. Some coins have been peculiarly elusive, like the 2007 of which I eventually picked up a bundle of 15 which had been imported from China!
1989, 1990 and 1991
The series of 1oz bullion pandas strictly began in 1989. It is convenient for the panda collector to remind themselves of that, because although there are silver pandas going back to 1982, they are either not 1oz or not bullion, so they don't count!
1989 had only 1 variety, but I have collected two so as to show both sides. After this there are two or three varieties for each year up to 2003. This is because they were minted at three different mints: Shanghai (which are on the top row) and Shenzyang (bottom row). The Shenzhen Guobao mint-coins only began in 1999.

 
1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995
In 1995 for the first time there were 3 varieties. The bottom one, the "micro date" is one of the rarest varieties of panda. Both came from the Shenyang mint

 
1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999
I have still to source a 1998 Large date and the extremely rare 1999 large date with the serif on the 1 (which I believe was the first silver panda minted at Shenzhen Guobao).

 
2000, 2001, and 2002
The gap here is the Shanghai-minted 2000, which in contrast with the frosted-ring Shenzhen Guobao panda had a mirror-finish ring on the date side. This is one of the hardest-to-find and most expensive panda (aside from the silly-money 2003 with small D)

 
2003, 2004 and 2005.
2003 had two versions - one with a mirror/satin texture of bamboo in the background to the right of the panda and one with a more frosted finish.
Although the others from 2002 to 2005 all had the same design, they have come from different mints as seen from the edge of the seals. I am endeavouring to collect one of each so still looking for sealed 2003s. 

 
2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
These were not issued in seals any more.

 
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. 

 
2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
For the only time in 2015, the panda did not show the weight, "Ag" and purity on the coin, but was still 1oz of 999 silver. This was a highly controversial change, so in 2016 they put these details back, and replaced it with another controversial move - they went metric and decreased the weight to only 30g of silver!

 
2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
This is as far as I've got so far, but I should be able to add 2022 in the next couple of weeks when the very first ones arrive from China in a very fun new design!

 
Many members of the forum have helped me greatly in assembling this collection. A special mention should go to @DavePanda who has given me loads of invaluable advice, lent me his Peter Anthony book, and sold me many of the coins in the collection.

2016 goldpandas, 8g, 3g and 1g

2007



2015 1/4oz

2000 Frosted ring


2008

1993 Large Date


1993 Small Date

1991 Large Date


1992

Photos of your Pandas, only your own and no comment please


1990 Large Date


1990 Small Date

a set of S2 1/2ozers

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve but I will add my two pennies worth. 
I have zero artistic skill but I have done a fair bit of transferring images on wood. I think what you are after is a sublimination type of method on the cheap. It would usually cost about £1000 to get set up but if you wish to do it on the cheap this is how I would do it. 
Download inkscape, it's a free open source software for creating graphics. You can use photos,, images, vectors or just create your own. 
Access to a laser printer. This method only works with a laser printer as the ink separates easily. With wood I use the waxey paper you get with postage stick on labels. 
This vid will give you some idea how it works. 
 

Well, quite an enjoyable visit as far as I was concerned, room was pretty full with dealers tables, and there was something for everyone, from what looked like Roman coins and maybe earlier (to my untrained eye) through the ages to modern day decimal, silver and gold, proofs and bullion.
There seemed to be plenty of visitors,  but it wasn’t so crowded that I felt ‘twitchy’ - I wore a mask, though it wasn’t compulsory - and access wasn’t too bad around the various tables.
All the dealers I spoke to seemed very pleasant, even when they found out I didn’t have a huge budget! 😂 and extremely knowledgable in their chosen fields - although I did spot a ‘rare piedfort’ 2oz Silver bullion coin on one stand 🤭!
Prices varied between tables, certainly for the kind of things I was looking at (50p’s and 1oz silver mostly] so was worth a mooch on each one. Plenty of sovereigns there too, from eye-wateringly expensive proofs and such, to bullion at the going rates.
Spotted a couple of interesting items (to me) and thought “I’ve enough time to collect my friend and come back and get those, as the opening times said a 3:30pm finish and I only live around 15 minutes from the venue - sadly, friend couldn’t make it, so had a bite to eat and headed back - only to find a half empty hall and the rest of the dealers packing up 😲 (this was just before 2pm) so the advertised finish time of 3:30pm seems dependent on how brisk the trade is after lunch I’d guess…
At least I saved the money I was going to spend on the things I’d seen ☺️ - will add it to next months budget and try again - the Fairs are on the second Sunday of the month, so the next will be 14th November at the Motorcycle Museum, near the NEC.
I’d recommend arriving at the official start of 9:30am …and not nipping home for some lunch before making your purchases! 🤣🤣
Incidentally, the Cafe at the Motorcycle Museum is open to the public, so refreshments can be had on-site - Please Note: they only take cards, and I believe there is no cash machine on the Museum site either! 
 
Might see you there in November ☺️
Bob

I do quite a bit with the police and they are not interested in these. They kinda have more important things to worry about! None had seen a fake £2 coin though and were surprised as it obviously takes a bit of manufacturing. Will see if thefakepoundcoindatabase want them unless @LawrenceChard wants them for his growing collection?
In answer to your last question, yes that's fine. I know a lot of people who collect bombs and you wouldn't believe the money some of the rare ones go for! I don't personally collect bombs but I used to have the largest collection of 30mm RARDEN ammunition. Sold the whole collection a few years ago as there was literally no other variations or experimental versions left to collect and it got a bit boring then but I still help EOD/EOC out occasionally with identifications.

I do still collect these though 🙂

 
Anyway, back on topic. I believe the royal mint tried to protect the name 'sovereign' in court a few years back and failed http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2017/417.html and anyone can legally make a coin and call it a sovereign. It doesn't have to be gold. So what we perceive as fake gold sovereigns being sold from china and the likes are actually legit sovereigns (if they call them a sovereign, and they can because they are allowed to) made from a base metal and gold plated. It would therefore only fall on the wrong side of the law if you intentionally tried to pass it off as a different metal than it was actually made from? I believe, although I could be wrong, that the dragon design would also not be under copywrite due to the age of it (from memory 50 years after the artist has died.... or something like that)??

This is what i found in my mailbox today

Here we can put up pics of our bars, photos only and no comments

For some reason, that reminds me of a girl I used to know! ☺️

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Any panda collector can appreciate this major score from my LCS. 1998 1/20 oz. gold panda. Paid melt + $10. This is most definitely heading to NGC.