Each year since 1987 the Royal Mint has minted proofs of the annual Britannia. Sometimes these were the same design and sometimes special designs. Most years apart from the early 90's there were 1/10th and 1/4oz single proofs and sets of 4 coins (1oz, 1/2oz, 1/4oz and 1/10th). In 2012 there was a sea change and the last separately boxed gold proofs were issued. In 2013 the mint started to make some smaller denominations believing as the price of gold spot increased then there would be a greater need for smaller coins and the 1/20th coin emerged. So in 2013 there was a 5 coin set and a 3 coin set with the smaller coins. In 2014 the 1/40th oz denomination was introduced giving us the 6 coin set. In that year they introduced a Premium 3 coin set and a regular 3 coin set. The Premium set has 1/2oz, 1/4oz and 1/10th oz and the regular set has 1/10th, 1/20th and 1/40th oz. In 2015 there was the same line up with the new helmet Britannia Pattern and in 2016 there has just been a release of the new Suzie Zamit designed Britannia (She Also designed the 2010 Britannia). The line up for 2016 is: 5 oz gold proof (80 mintage) 6 coin gold proof set (175 mintage) lowest mintage ever for 6 coin set 3 coin gold premium proof set (70 mintage) lowest ever for a 3 coin premium set 1/4oz single proof coin (1125 mintage max and 730 in individual box) After less than a 1 week on sale the 80 5oz, the 70 x 3 coin proofs sold out at 1,350 and the 175 6 coin sets sold out at 2,850. There are some boxed 1/4oz coins left in stock. I was lucky to score a 3 coin premium set and this set contains the 1/2, 1/4 and 1/10. The 1/2 and the 1/10 are the lowest mintage Britannia coins of those sizes ever with 295 coins max mintage 2016 3 coin premium set 2016 Half Ounce Gold Proof Here are some pics of the 2013 and the 2014 design 2014 six coin set 2013 5 coin set [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm95ZDDYCpA[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsLSJ5QFLSo[/youtube]
The Britannia gold series has never had the success that it deserves but I am conscious of a growing interest in the same way as Libertads in some respect. Its always better to buy when the demand is not there if you believe as I do that this series will be found. The RM have decided to bet on Queens Beast AND Britannia and so far queens beast has had a good start. Britannia is at a low for 2016 and that is normally bad for the mint but great for collectors.
http://www.royalmint.com/shop/The_Britannia_2016_Quarter_Ounce_Gold_Proof_Coin 425 with a slightly high max mintage of 1100
My 3 coin set arrived but there was a mistake on the cert so they had opened the box and taken out the cert. The Britannia brochure was creased and there were imperfections on two of the capsules. I spoke to them on the phone and they asked me to send back the while thing for replacement and that they would pay the return postage. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN6Ot1xDmLg[/youtube] Here is the unboxing and this is a lovely set and extremely limited
Excellent review, nice product, but systematic of the issues with The Royal Mint, that has fallen behind so many other mints. Did you get direct from them? I bought a premium gold coin from them last month, it was literally rattling around with no bubble wrap in the silver special delivery mailer. Needless to say packaging was dinged. 725 for a coin and they can't even bubble wrap it. The Royal Mint need a root and branch review of all their policies. It's absolutely clear the set in your video has been tampered with.
