Do the 1 oz silver britannia coins made by the british royal mint still suffer from severe scratches all over the surface like the previous year because they switched to making them out of 999 silver but they still made them on the same production line and hence damaging the coins. I'm tempted to buy these coins (but not in the UK) as they are free from capital gains tax as they are a "coin of the realm" but am wary of purchasing them because of the royal mint's bad competence record.
I seen some 2014 silver Brits, still have some amount of scratches as they are shipped in tubes. If you need spanking clean ones just go for capsuled bullion like the pandas, kooks, Lunars, Koala.
I'm not particularly too fussed about having coins in perfect condition but if I ever needed to sell them before their intended time when the price of silver hopefully spikes then it would be harder for me to recoup the premium paid on them if possible if they're all scratched. The benefit however is that I wouldn't have to pay any capital gains tax/sales tax on them since I am in the UK. They also have a rather high premium, around 6 dollars above current spot price so its a hard decision.
Dont you have a relative or good friend in the US you could use to buy? Not only would you pay no tax but the premium on the Britania's is much lower here
