Swapping Gold for Gold with Atkinsons Bullion - My Honest Experience Dealing With Them

[BackyardBullion]

Disclaimer

Right, first up - Atkinsons Bullion did not sponsor me to do this deal and they are not sponsoring me to write this post. 

I traded Gold for Gold with Atkinsons - My experience!

Recently I traded a bunch of 1 oz gold britannias for Sovereigns with Atkinsons Bullion. It was a great experience and I will detail it all here. 

Why did I do this?

So, I sometimes actually listen to the videos I make and recently I did one about the liquidity of 1 oz gold coins. At nearly £2000 per coin they are hard to sell. I see deals here on the forum for spot or even less sometimes (I have also had a bunch of deals like this as an intermediary!) Large gold is hard to sell. We cannot ignore that. 

The vast majority of my gold stack consisted of 1 oz gold Britannias and of late I was "concerned" about the liquidity of my stack. Enter the bullion sovereign. They say "hold my beer" when it comes to liquidity. Trading up for sovereigns just made a lot of sense for me. 

Why not sell and  buy on here - Why use a dealer?

I thought about selling the gold here then buying sovereigns here too. But the practicality of selling the quantity of gold in a short space of time was daunting. Also, there are not that many sovereigns available on the forum!

I also wanted this to be done quickly so that any movements with gold price would not affect the sale/purchase rate. 

I COULD have sold the gold here, lets be honest at best I would get 1% over for the 1 oz gold. Then buying that many sovereings in one go, would have to be from a dealer. They sell for around 2.5% over right now. 

A 1.5% swing for all that work and trouble. 

The deal with Atkinsons

Being fairly daunted by this task I contacted Atkinsons. They were amazing with quick communications on this and without any haggling needed they offered terms of 1.5% for the trade. That number is familiar isn't it - about the same as if I had done it myself!

So, I bit their hand off. The prospect of having to not individually deal with lots of people both buying and selling was a big YES from me. 

I gave them X amount of gold britannias and then they gave me 98.5% gold content worth of sovereigns back in return. 

VERY SIMPLE!

My stipulations on the deal

I had one request - that the sovereigns I got in return would be nice older gold ones and not the modern pink ones - I hate the pink ones! 

They were very happy to accomodate on this (but it is stock dependant on what's in stock).

How the deal went down

Posting off large amounts of gold is expensive and nerve wracking. So, I made an appoitment to visit their showroom in the midlands. Drove up there, parked right outside (no long walks through town with lots of gold is a good thing!) 

VERY PLUSH and secure facility. Felt safe and secure at all times.

On the day the staff were amazing. They were very chatty, pleasant and happy to answer questions and shoot the breeze about the markets and all things gold and silver. 

I even was shown something incredibly special that they had had come in recently - a 500g Gold bar from the Royal Mint with serial number 0000001!!!!!! The first ever made!

The money side of things

No banks transfers were needed. I just handed them the gold, they handed me the sovereigns! There are sales invoices and purchase invoices, its all done above board and for record keeping this is SUPER important. 

I also had to present my ID for them to take a copy of. 

No lengthy calls on the bank to push through payments or anything silly like that. 

Very satisfied customer

Was in the showroom for about 20 minutes all told. 

All things said, it was an incredible experience and one that I would highly recommend to anyone that is looking to swap out gold. 

Here is my giant pile of shiny sovereigns!

I got a whole mix of coins, including QE2 1970's, Machin portraint, George V, Edward and even a number of Jubilee and Veiled head Queen Vic!

Bullion quality, but lovely old gold colour. 

An amazing experience and a huge thank you to Atkinsons Bullion!

 

[SilverRich]

4 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

Disclaimer

Right, first up - Atkinsons Bullion did not sponsor me to do this deal and they are not sponsoring me to write this post. 

I traded Gold for Gold with Atkinsons - My experience!

Recently I traded a bunch of 1 oz gold britannias for Sovereigns with Atkinsons Bullion. It was a great experience and I will detail it all here. 

Why did I do this?

So, I sometimes actually listen to the videos I make and recently I did one about the liquidity of 1 oz gold coins. At nearly £2000 per coin they are hard to sell. I see deals here on the forum for spot or even less sometimes (I have also had a bunch of deals like this as an intermediary!) Large gold is hard to sell. We cannot ignore that. 

The vast majority of my gold stack consisted of 1 oz gold Britannias and of late I was "concerned" about the liquidity of my stack. Enter the bullion sovereign. They say "hold my beer" when it comes to liquidity. Trading up for sovereigns just made a lot of sense for me. 

Why not sell and  buy on here - Why use a dealer?

I thought about selling the gold here then buying sovereigns here too. But the practicality of selling the quantity of gold in a short space of time was daunting. Also, there are not that many sovereigns available on the forum!

I also wanted this to be done quickly so that any movements with gold price would not affect the sale/purchase rate. 

I COULD have sold the gold here, lets be honest at best I would get 1% over for the 1 oz gold. Then buying that many sovereings in one go, would have to be from a dealer. They sell for around 2.5% over right now. 

A 1.5% swing for all that work and trouble. 

The deal with Atkinsons

Being fairly daunted by this task I contacted Atkinsons. They were amazing with quick communications on this and without any haggling needed they offered terms of 1.5% for the trade. That number is familiar isn't it - about the same as if I had done it myself!

So, I bit their hand off. The prospect of having to not individually deal with lots of people both buying and selling was a big YES from me. 

I gave them X amount of gold britannias and then they gave me 98.5% gold content worth of sovereigns back in return. 

VERY SIMPLE!

My stipulations on the deal

I had one request - that the sovereigns I got in return would be nice older gold ones and not the modern pink ones - I hate the pink ones! 

They were very happy to accomodate on this (but it is stock dependant on what's in stock).

How the deal went down

Posting off large amounts of gold is expensive and nerve wracking. So, I made an appoitment to visit their showroom in the midlands. Drove up there, parked right outside (no long walks through town with lots of gold is a good thing!) 

VERY PLUSH and secure facility. Felt safe and secure at all times.

On the day the staff were amazing. They were very chatty, pleasant and happy to answer questions and shoot the breeze about the markets and all things gold and silver. 

I even was shown something incredibly special that they had had come in recently - a 500g Gold bar from the Royal Mint with serial number 0000001!!!!!! The first ever made!

The money side of things

No banks transfers were needed. I just handed them the gold, they handed me the sovereigns! There are sales invoices and purchase invoices, its all done above board and for record keeping this is SUPER important. 

I also had to present my ID for them to take a copy of. 

No lengthy calls on the bank to push through payments or anything silly like that. 

Very satisfied customer

Was in the showroom for about 20 minutes all told. 

All things said, it was an incredible experience and one that I would highly recommend to anyone that is looking to swap out gold. 

Here is my giant pile of shiny sovereigns!

I got a whole mix of coins, including QE2 1970's, Machin portraint, George V, Edward and even a number of Jubilee and Veiled head Queen Vic!

Bullion quality, but lovely old gold colour. 

An amazing experience and a huge thank you to Atkinsons Bullion!

 

I started watching some of your videos recently and heard you mention this up coming trade. I would much rather have 4 1/4oz coins than 1 1oz coin as I agree, it's substantially harder to sell a 1oz coin. 

Even on eBay you can see that people are happy to pay a premium for 1/4s but nothing on 1oz coins. 

Could you just clarify the swing/margin for me? 1.5% under spot for your coins and 1.5% over spot for the sovs?

[BackyardBullion]

Just now, SilverRich said:

I started watching some of your videos recently and heard you mention this up coming trade. I would much rather have 4 1/4oz coins than 1 1oz coin as I agree, it's substantially harder to sell a 1oz coin. 

Even on eBay you can see that people are happy to pay a premium for 1/4s but nothing on 1oz coins. 

Could you just clarify the swing/margin for me? 1.5% under spot for your coins and 1.5% over spot for the sovs?

No, just 1.5%

Heres an example  (I am not going to say how much  my deal was for 🙂 ) 

You give them 11 oz of gold

This is 46.72 sovereigns worth of gold content. Take off 1.5% (multiply 46.72 by 0.985) and you get 46 sovereigns. 

So I handed them 11 oz of gold and got 46 sovereigns in return. 

[BackyardBullion]

Here is my video talking about this trade too: 

 

[SilverRich]

1 minute ago, BackyardBullion said:

No, just 1.5%

Heres an example  (I am not going to say how much  my deal was for 🙂 ) 

You give them 11 oz of gold

This is 46.72 sovereigns worth of gold content. Take off 1.5% (multiply 46.72 by 0.985) and you get 46 sovereigns. 

So I handed them 11 oz of gold and got 46 sovereigns in return. 

Ah ok. That's not bad at all! 

Definitely a good trade in itself and in my opinion for future you too. 

You get to play with the sovs too. Unlike your protected 1oz coins. 🙂

[BackyardBullion]

Just now, SilverRich said:

Ah ok. That's not bad at all! 

Definitely a good trade in itself and in my opinion for future you too. 

You get to play with the sovs too. Unlike your protected 1oz coins. 🙂

It works out basically the same as if I had sold my gold myself for 1% over spot and then bought sovereigns from a dealer at 2.5% over spot. A 1.5% swing. 

No faffing about, just done. No potential gold price change to mess with it too. No awkward accounting, just swapped and done. Most importantly, no horrible banking issues of being interrogated for fraud. 

[SilverRich]

1 hour ago, BackyardBullion said:

It works out basically the same as if I had sold my gold myself for 1% over spot and then bought sovereigns from a dealer at 2.5% over spot. A 1.5% swing. 

No faffing about, just done. No potential gold price change to mess with it too. No awkward accounting, just swapped and done. Most importantly, no horrible banking issues of being interrogated for fraud. 

One more question, why sovs and not 1/4 Brits? Just because more bang for your buck with sovs?

[MrStacker]

Thanks @BackyardBullionfor sharing your experience. Good insight for many of us to consider if we needed to do something similar in large quantities. I can't imagine the energy and stress involved shifting an X amount of 1oz gold coins in any given market to be honest. That's just me but it's nice to hear the positive experience you had and they were happy to agree to a sovereign swap deal.

I have noticed as well that less and less sovereigns are being sold on TSF which is quite sad to see. I would usually buy batches of old sovereigns from the forum but I guess times are changing and sellers are finding easier platforms to sell or shift them faster. I hope this climate improves on the forum though.

[BackyardBullion]

1 hour ago, SilverRich said:

One more question, why sovs and not 1/4 Brits? Just because more bang for your buck with sovs?

Yeah, the premiums on 1/4 oz brits are too high so the ratio of exchange would not have been as good. 

[msez]

Did you  get a better purchase price than their website price for a given number of sovs ie 25 full sovs = 460.60 each right now?

[BackyardBullion]

29 minutes ago, msez said:

Did you  get a better purchase price than their website price for a given number of sovs ie 25 full sovs = 460.60 each right now?

I would say I got a better selling price rather than buying price. But thats basically the same thing really. 

You have to speak with them. Its not something you can just do through their website. 

[Bratnia]

8 hours ago, BackyardBullion said:

Here's an example  (I am not going to say how much  my deal was for) 

Your video suggests you gave them 11 Britannia's and got 46 Sovereigns in return. If so, 46 x 0.2353544 ounces of gold per sovereign = 10.826 toz, in exchange for 11 toz (Britannia's) = 1.58% 'spread'. Nice!

Out of interest did they use a Sigma Pro or similar to test each coin (your Brits, their Sovs) as part of the exchange?

Edited August 25 by Bratnia

[Bratnia]

4 hours ago, MrStacker said:

Thanks @BackyardBullionfor sharing your experience. Good insight for many of us to consider if we needed to do something similar in large quantities. I can't imagine the energy and stress involved shifting an X amount of 1oz gold coins in any given market to be honest. That's just me but it's nice to hear the positive experience you had and they were happy to agree to a sovereign swap deal.

I'd imagine timing helps. If a dealer is down to their last 10 or so Britannias, have plenty of Sovereigns and you offer to swap 100 Brits for xxx Sovs and they'd be more likely accepting to that and offer a reasonable/good deal. Better for them to be filling purchase orders rather than sitting with a 'Brits Out of Stock' flag waving.

[Bratnia]

4 hours ago, BackyardBullion said:

Yeah, the premiums on 1/4 oz brits are too high so the ratio of exchange would not have been as good. 

Surely the premium on 1/4 should only be around £1 ... the cost of a £4 tin snip (to cut the 1oz into quarters)

[Tn21]

I think many will follow suit as whether you like it or not, you are influential in the precious metals market. 

It is clearly evident that the 1oz market has suffered big time here on the forum, having said that I do believe there will always be a market for the "bigger" weights.

The 1oz weight has it's brief phases here on the forum. As the gold price increases the phases will be even more sparse😬. 

Great transaction and I can see why you went down the route you did. Congratulations on the trade with Atkinsons BYB, thank you for sharing it with us. 

I definitely think others will follow the trading into sovs strategy now.

"Gold is gold" as they say. 

 

[Roy]

33 minutes ago, Tn21 said:

Gold is gold" as they say. 

This is why I use Bullionvault for my bullion 😇

Calm down darlings, calm down

😂

[Paul]

Thanks for sharing your experience and know that this option is there and deals are possible

This the art of a good a business, being a good middle man, a market maker

not being too greedy

making and creating win win situations. 

Look who are the highest rated sellers here on the forum

I'm surprised with your 60k+ YouTube subs, your standing here on forum and built up reputation you couldn't move the 1oz coins yourself 

But sometimes it's just easier to do things in bulk 

Edited August 25 by Paul

[BackyardBullion]

5 minutes ago, Paul said:

Thanks for sharing your experience and know that this option is there and deals are possible

This the art of a good a business, being a good middle man, a market maker

not being too greedy

making and creating win win situations. 

Look who are the highest rated sellers here on the forum

I'm surprised with your 60k+ YouTube subs, your standing here on forum and built up reputation you couldn't move the 1oz coins yourself 

But sometimes it's just easier to do things in bulk 

I definitely could have done it myself.

But, time is money and it would have taken time and energy that is better spent on other things in life.

I also genuinely think that the gains by doing it myself would have been so marginal compared to this deal I just don't know why I would bother!

[Esjayc]

Even at the age of 34, I believe in 'ease' - less stress, less hassle, equals happier life.

[Spyder]

This was by far the best outcome.  No having to post out 11 packages, 11 transaction into ones bank and on top looking to purchase 46 sovereigns. Even purchasing that amount of sovereigns, the price above spot would have been more. 

Would have be interesting to see if Chards would have matched or bettered that deal @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer

[Mysstree]

So the next purchases are (in no particular order) a parrot, eyepatch, treasure chest and an old cutlass.

Next BB video will feature said items.

[Paul]

31 minutes ago, Mysstree said:

So the next purchases are (in no particular order) a parrot, eyepatch, treasure chest and an old cutlass

Yarrrrrrrrrr !! 🦜 

[ant1882]

Sovereigns have been my go to purchase, since moving to keeping metals vaulted I've switched to 1oz Brits. Slightly lower premium and only going to sell back to the dealer anyways.

When I can't afford 1oz, I'll still be buying sovereigns though 🙂

[JamesH]

Like Ant, I’ve got a mixture of Sovs and 1oz’ers. If/when sold some will go privately whilst the ounces will likely go via a dealer 

[Scootermuppet]

Have dealt with Atkinsons personally several times, as I'm within reasonable travelling distance of their facility.

Always extremely helpful, polite & professional - applies to all of their staff I have had dealings with - but a special thanks to Ben in particular 😁

Would recommend without hesitation 👍

Edited August 25 by Scootermuppet
spellings