2013 Britannia's

Discussion in 'Silver Coins' started by mr-dead, Oct 24, 2012.

  1. dcau1

    dcau1 New Member

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    I take it the quality of these still haven't improved months after their initial release?

    Good quality strikes must be hard to find/almost non-existent. There is an MS70 on eBay at the moment that is listed for 800!
     
  2. DanielM

    DanielM Active Member Silver Stacker

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  3. AngloSaxon

    AngloSaxon Active Member

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    Were there any Proof versions of the Britannias made? About to take a trip and would be a good souvenir from back home.

    Assuming they could produce and polish them without all these marks described in this thread...
     
  4. Photonaware

    Photonaware Active Member

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    Update for all you fellow stackers on the Britannia 2013 fine silver coin.
    After rejecting 100% of my initial coins due to unbelievable poor quality etc - see earlier, I decided to buy some more at current low prices.
    I have inspected every coin from several tubes of 20 and most are okay for bullion coins.
    Perhaps 1 in 20 shows the odd mark from a reeded edge but the horrible scuffs on every coin have now disappeared.

    Quality is on a par with Maples now but much nicer looking coin so quite collectable.
    The earlier Britannia years are better because the alloy is tougher and less liable to production damage.

    There could be a fair amount of crap out there, but since the earlier production coins will have cost much more ( when spot was considerably higher ), I very much doubt anyone will be selling these right now.
     
  5. Photonaware

    Photonaware Active Member

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    Quality is substantially improved now but getting a perfect bullion coin might still be difficult.
    Compared to other non capsulated coins ( at the Mint ) they are not any worse than others.
    Because they are so mirror finished they will show up marks & imperfections more readily than ASEs or Libertads for example.
     
  6. barsenault

    barsenault Well-Known Member

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    The quality on the 2013's suck. I have many, many oz's of years 1999 - 2012. I will not buy any more for 2 reasons. 1. The quality sucks bad. 2. Minting to meet demand. No thanks Justfishin' put it best, they are no different than Eagles and Maples, without the added expense of a premium. No thanks.
     
  7. ArgentaLupa

    ArgentaLupa New Member

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    Hi Guys. First Post

    I've only been stacking for a couple of months and, being UK Based, a few tubes of 2013 Britannias were among my first purchases. I've been surprised at the reports of bad quality with these, as mine are just about perfect. The worst I've seen is a tiny scratch on a couple that are almost invisible unless you're looking for them and certainly nothing like the horror story photos I've seen of some of them. Admittedly, I've only opened one tube and checked about 10, but I've no reason to believe that the other tubes are any different. Unfortunately being a new member I can't upload pics.

    From a little investigating I gather that these bad quality ones are the earlier production, and the new current ones are ok.
     
  8. DanielM

    DanielM Active Member Silver Stacker

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    ^^ thanks for your input, but reguardless of when they were minted the Royal mint should never have released any duds, they tarnished their rputation
     
  9. ArgentaLupa

    ArgentaLupa New Member

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    Oh, no doubt. I've seen pictures of some of the early ones and they were horrific. I've no idea what the Royal Mint thought they were doing with those.
     
  10. barsenault

    barsenault Well-Known Member

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    I love every single Brittania coin pre 2012. They were some of the best...some of the prettiest minted. Glad I got a significant chunk of each each year...especially love the 1999, 2009, 2003, and 2010. I'm afraid they've done themselves in with the quality of the 2013's simply atrocious. Look at the picture of the one above...are you serious???? The 2 I got, were worse...sent them back. I remember Coinworld showing a comparison between the 2012 vs. 2013, and he highlighted the differences, and they were stunning!!! Unless I see a dramatic change, I'm done buying them, but thankful I nabbed 100's of the 1998-2012! Whew.
     
  11. Travelgall

    Travelgall New Member

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    I would like to add that my 2013 Coins are great. Love my Brittanias. But V sorry to all those that got bitten.
     
  12. Silvermonkey

    Silvermonkey Active Member

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    Anyone have any fractional 2013 gold bullion ones??
     
  13. Travelgall

    Travelgall New Member

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    Just picked up another couple of Brittanias from Germany. They were in great condition too.
     
  14. jameso

    jameso New Member

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    Hello, James from The Royal Mint here.

    I thought I'd register to address some of the concerns you guys are expressing about Britannia.

    The issues you refer to (scratches etc...) all relate to early production runs of the 2013 Britannia BULLION. These coins were not intended for serious collectors, but for those wanting to buy Britannia coins at a fix point on spot price.

    That said, we regret the quality issues which were largely down to transit and packaging problems, long since resolved!

    The new 2013 Britannia Proof is a new coin, with a new design. Each successive Proof Britannia will feature a new design. The Bullion coin will retain the original Philip Nathan design, and this will not change.

    Any more questions, fire away :D

    Oh, and very glad to be here by the way!

    James
     
  15. Photonaware

    Photonaware Active Member

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    Hi James,

    Nice of you to make a comment on this forum.
    However I do not accept what you say and the poor quality of your early Britannias 2013 has caused lots of problems and bad feeling.

    I bought around 100 of your new coins and nearly all of them were total "crap".
    I use this description because they were in a very poor state.
    I called the Royal Mint to discuss quality issues and was basically fobbed off being told any poor quality was down to my supplier.
    I bought coins from Atkinsons and rejected them all.
    Atkinsons were equally frustrated.
    Each coin was in a plastic bubble and the scratches, reeded indentations, deep scores etc were not due to transit but originated in the Mint itself.
    I bought some tubes of 20 from a dealer in Germany and the quality was mixed.
    Some eBay sellers were stating in their descriptions to expect substandard quality.

    Fortunately the problems in production and lack of QC seem to have been corrected as most Britannias now supplied are fairly good.
    I have a few tubes and they are fine, but it has not been a nice experience from a source that was World Class - something went badly wrong and I am not at all happy that it was brushed under the carpet by your colleagues. Blaming transit and packaging problems doesn't stack up - sorry, you have been misinformed; try looking at how the coins moved in process after stamping and before packaging.
     
  16. Lunardragon

    Lunardragon Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Not sure what you meant by this.
    I paid mine (which has scratches on the coin) spot+10 and I consider a premium coin for this price.
     
  17. Lunardragon

    Lunardragon Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    the pic on one side only

    [​IMG]
     
  18. jameso

    jameso New Member

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    The coins you refer to are bullion Britannia - bought primarily for their metal value. The weights and purities you can trust completely, but as I have already accepted - we had quality issues with early runs of 2013 bullion Britannia that we deemed unacceptable and have now addressed. I think had these been sold as collector's coins we would have dealt with the issue differently, and with hindsight maybe we didn't immediately identify the root of the problem and respond appropriately. I think all I can do is reassure you that this was the result of teething problems with the new coin specification and process and is not something that will be evident in the future.

    Worth noting that the coins were shipped in tubes in quantities of 25. Tubes, incidentally, that we have also improved since launch. Many coins were bought and repackaged before being sold on, at which point we lose a degree of control over the quality and which is what, I think, caused us to question the cause of the scratches.

    I am genuinely sorry that you are so disappointed with our coins. What should we have done to handle this better, in your opinion?
     
  19. Travelgall

    Travelgall New Member

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    Jameso. Not a question about Quality Control which pissed many off, but you sorted it so that's good. It's not like the Royal Mint is not listening, unlike the RCM that keeps issuing Milk Spotted coins despite continued negative feedback. My question is about future issues. Will the designs that appeared previously on the 1997-2012 .925 coins be appearing on the .999 proof ones? If so the 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 worked well IMHO. The 2008, 2010, 2011 did not, especially 2011 which was confused.

    Are the designs going to change every year like Pandas (Except 2001 and 2002) and is 2013 the last year we will see that design which has appeared previously. Or is it going to be on a basis like before and the designs popping up at random with our good lady with the Toast Fork as appeared on the 2013 and many others making regular visits throughout the years.

    Oh and what pressure is the Royal Mint putting on the Government to make these coins 0% Vatted like your Gold Offerings? It is quite clear that the Britannia could become infinitely more popular if in its country of issue you didn't pay an extra 20% for the privilege of collecting what is quite clearly an investment. I have to buy them in Germany or Guernsey and then get them shipped back to the UK which is daft. Last time I checked you only offer Proofs on your web site, will that continue or do you plan to offer bulk sales of the ordinary rated coins?
     
  20. Photonaware

    Photonaware Active Member

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    Where do I start ?

    1. Those of us who purchased the early release of silver 2013 Britannias expected a superb product.
    Previous bullion coins were stunning and your gold coins, proof coins and other coins were consistently of a very high quality.
    The promotional literature for your bullion coins used words like stunning, beautiful etc.
    If we were purchasing silver rounds or seconds then we should not have paid the usual high premiums on Britannias compared to say Philharmonicas which remain one of the cheapest coins yet are in very good condition always.

    2. All coins can become collectors coins whether bullion or not.
    Perth Mint coins for example are shipped in capsules for protection yet are bullion coins costing no more than your bullion coins.
    How many people on this forum would have accepted the coin condition you issued if it applied to their Kookaburras, Snakes & Dragons to then be told they are not intended as collectors coins but merely for their scrap value ?

    3. You were not novices in producing fine silver coins and the English Rose didn't show all the process damage of the new Britannias so somewhere on the production line there was a defect. What is worse, the coins were shipped with a QC number / sticker so I assume the only check you made was weight with no inspection whatsover ?

    4. I cannot comment on the tube size only hearing that you were unable apparently to supply coins in tubes or there were problems with tubes.
    The tubes I received my coins in contained 20 and not 25 and had a Royal Mint tape seal on the grey lid.

    5. The early coins I refer to were supplied in sheets of square sections that easily separated.
    Each coin was effectively encapsulated individually.
    Across the sheet was printed Royal Mint and there were QC stickers on each sheet.
    Are you really saying that these sheets did not originate from the RM ?

    6. What should have been done better ?
    How about admitting there was a production problem and not lying about it at the time ?
    How about treating customers better and not passing the blame on someone else ?
    You should also have been more receptive to customer complaints and have been willing to exchange subquality coins - those that were seriously poor and there are pictures on this thread.

    Fortunately the newer coins are okay so I don't wish to complain any further.
    The problems seem to have been resolved so the early damage & frustrations will work through the system in time.
    Pity that you were not posting to this site when the issues were at their peak.

    [​IMG]
    Source:
    Coin tube which can only contain 20 coins.,
    Mint seals removed.
    Source:
     

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