New 2014 Proof Britannia is an absolute beauty

Found another completed listing of 2013 5oz proof Britannia... with more photos as proof!

Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-GREAT-...-BRITANNIA-NGC-PF70-ULTRA-CAMEO-/191166731870

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Even US Mint never does this, man... Royal Mint is really "low". Speechless, why are they even promoting "First Strike" anyway?
And I guess this is the main reason why we all got our coins a month later? Because the first 750 were minted so that they can be sent for grading huh?
 
yrh0413 said:
mmissinglink said:
The question is, does the RM own these graded coins or did they sell the coins in advance to some private company who immediately sent them for grading?
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pretty obvious don't you think? Why would a government mint endorse NGC, and sell their products as graded?

By the way to answer my previous reply... this is my 2013 Royal Birth coin that comes with the limited presentation packaging.
Notice the lack of "First Strike" and not numbered COA?
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/9621636297_69b7ea75dc_b.jpg
Click to expand...



Mint's are private businesses run by humans who are no more or less ethical than the average person. Mint's are in the business of making money. Selling graded coins can be lucrative especially if you yourself are producing the coins. Why would I put it past any mint to sell graded coins? I don't because they are in business to make money.

Also, how is it that only within the past couple of weeks did the public receive the first batch of 5 oz proof 2014 Britannia's but meanwhile ALL 750 of the other 1,350 have already been graded....ALL? Those would have either been sent in by the mint to NGC directly or sold in advance to some private firm some time ago and sent in by whatever private firm the RM had produced them for. Either way it means the same thing for me. Would I now put it past a mint to directly sell graded coins? No, not any longer.





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to be honest if Royal Mint sells graded ones on their website with price similar to their limited presentation packaging, I will certainly grab the graded ones. Those huge leather boxes are PITA to store.

however deep inside... I hope our "limited presentation packaging" are not the rejects (PF69 and below). mmissinglink your 5oz proof is flawless? any milk spots or defect?
 
mmissinglink said:
The eBay seller from the USA who is selling the 5 oz 2014 proof Britannia had 4 coins listed when I first saw the listing, if my memory serves me right. Now there are only 3 available. Could mean nothing or it could mean he sold one off eBay to avoid fees.

I think Pirocco is secretly getting a couple of the 5 oz awesome Britannia coins but is just making it appear that he's not. :)

No doubt, Pirocco, it is an expensive coin but there are plenty of other coins that are more expensive per ounce of silver straight from the mint.

Here's one of several silver coin (sets) which per the ounce, the coins are more expensive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8-9J4o4vVg

As for the 600 mintage, I believe that Danny-boy nailed it on the head (above). 600 is max...period. But 600 sales may not be reached then the total sold of the 600 becomes the important figure to look at.
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Yes there are other coins that are more expensive, alike those newzealand/cook islands photolike-colored/special shaped/diamondplanted and so on.
But this is, whatever the design is, a plain silver plain coin.
btw cant view youtube vids here.
And regarding more special coins, I buy these only if I like the design myself, AND I think alot people like them, now and/or in the future.
I consider mintage as just second or even irrelevant. I don't buy special coins mainly to resell them asap for more, as alot seem to do.
That's a difference that matters here, when comparing ebay sellers with 'end users', being actual collectors.
And at this price not a hair on my head that thinks to buy these Britannias.
For the same price I can hang 50 paintings like this on the walls:
[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/1798_maio1.jpg]
1798_maio1.jpg
[/imgz]
And these don't look like steel-egged Calimero's. :/
 
First time I am aware of that the BRM has made arrangements to sell first struck coins in a year series was with the 2000 UK Bullion 5 Sovereign coins (max mintage of 10K). First 1K was sold to a third party and slabbed by PCGS. Here are two that I have of it...

slab-23.jpg
slab-56.jpg
 
I am very disappointed in hearing the actual mintage. It doesn't take away from the coins beauty but now it really doesn't justify the premium.

I don't follow coin news as much as I should, I'm disappointed in hearing about all this FS nonsense.

Their lucky they came up with this great design this year.
 
yrh0413 said:
to be honest if Royal Mint sells graded ones on their website with price similar to their limited presentation packaging, I will certainly grab the graded ones. Those huge leather boxes are PITA to store.

however deep inside... I hope our "limited presentation packaging" are not the rejects (PF69 and below). mmissinglink your 5oz proof is flawless? any milk spots or defect?
Click to expand...


I hope they are not and I would assume that they are not rejects.

My main gripe with the Royal mint is that they were not transparent at all about this. In fact, they purposely hid these details from the public. Why is that a problem? Because in fact we have now learned that the coins sold to the public by the RM were not among the first 750 allegedly produced which COULD mean that the quality is inferior. It is possible that the RM struck most of the 1,350 coins and simply pulled from the top of a stack of those produced coins to be packaged and sold to the private company. If this is the case, and if the RM did not stack and pull those 750 in any particular order, then that would be some consolation to me.

But then there's the issue of higher premium paid, as chubbycheeks duly noted. And as yrh0413 suggested, would we have known before hand that the RM was producing 750 of the same coins to be sold privately to a company for a discount that was then going to be all graded, I might not have purchased the version that was offered directly to the public....why would I if I could get a coin for about the same price that is already graded in a slab which may denote something like "One of first 750 struck"? Afterall, while I like the presentation box and packaging that my coin arrived in, I might have opted instead for an already slabbed coin with a special label which may or may not actually reflect the truth that they are one of the actual first 750 struck coins. I am more interested in a higher quality coin than a really nice box.

The coin I received does appear to be in superior condition but since I have no other of the same coin to compare it to...it's difficult to make a judgement on the comparative quality of this coin.


To be fair to the RM, I have had several email exchanges with one of their customer service associates today but I am still in communication with this associate trying to find out pertinent details about the 750 pre-sold coins.

I will report back to this thread on those communications once I am satisfied that i have obtained a clearer picture of this concern.



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If they still talk a century later about it then it must have really be a spectacular case lol.
Not sure if relying on such things is an idea.

That coin set, well, it's indeed.... wait looking up..... hum couldn't find a word for it in the dictionary. :P
It's like someone tried to reach the level of the handcrafted mspaint drawings I recently showcased on the forum.
At least he tried! :D

A beautiful wooden case to protect and display your coins.
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A beautiful... black box. Heh. Compare it with a Mexican Libertad Proof kilocoin wooden box.
Only 2,014 presentations to satisfy worldwide demand.
Click to expand...
I think they will be able to satisfy Universe demand with it. :P

If you would like to discuss this coin
with one of our sales team, please click
http://www.royalmint.com/Features/Premium-Range?promocode=W1468B&product=D14SP to arrange a call
Click to expand...
I clicked.
and I
YELLED ALL THE TIME
till I
heard another click.
:P
 
mmissinglink the reason I asked is because I went through 3 exchanges for my 2013 5oz proof Britannia. The first 2 I received have milk spots and the 3rd coin has black oil stains. On my last exchange the customer service staff assured me that they will handpick a perfect copy for me, and that was what I received in the end. I do suspect the 1,150 limited presentation ones are "leftovers" after the grading process... when 3,300 of them got graded PF69/70, those that failed to get high grades likely to end up in so-called limited presentation boxes. :(

I am still waiting for my 2014 Britannias to be delivered to me... should be receiving them by end of this week of next week. Hopefully I am getting a perfect copy.
 
I will probably still buy this coin as it looks very nice. The mintage number is a little bit disadvantage for me as well.

If some coins have milk spots, I guess they don't try to resell them, but destroy them, or play hockey with them or whatever. So the actual amount can be lower.

That's why is sometimes (well usually always, based on my experiences) better to wait of the purchase and not "jump to bandwagon" immediately. Most of the coins have loose some value after a while. It can be true that it will go up in few years.

I've bought Tiffany Art 2013 in "late" preorder. I paid around 515 for it. I expected the price will only go up. I guess nowadays I could get it for same price or lower (don't follow prices so much).
TA are limited to 1000. That is not so small number. Depends on how you look on it. They are truly work of art, but they don't have any presentation box, certificate is just typical CIT "piece of paper", etc. I know some people who get TA with scratches, so they return it back to mint.

Anyway, when I look at Britannia for some time I start thinking that I've found my wonder woman. :P Replacing lion with tiger would be even closer to that! :P

And obviously mints around the world give Jack's sh**t about customers...
 
yrh0413 said:
Found another completed listing of 2013 5oz proof Britannia... with more photos as proof!

Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-GREAT-...-BRITANNIA-NGC-PF70-ULTRA-CAMEO-/191166731870

Even US Mint never does this, man... Royal Mint is really "low". Speechless, why are they even promoting "First Strike" anyway?
And I guess this is the main reason why we all got our coins a month later? Because the first 750 were minted so that they can be sent for grading huh?
Click to expand...
Just aside comment, regardless how things will turn out, you already did some + detective job hunting answers this far.
 
mmissinglink said:
I will report back to this thread on those communications once I am satisfied that i have obtained a clearer picture of this concern.
Click to expand...
Very much appreciated that you are chasing this, thanks!

I wonder if anyone will try to cancel their order based on this latest information? I think order cancelations may require dircect contact with a representative at the mint so it would be interesting to hear what they say if anyone tries.
 
Stark said:
If some coins have milk spots, I guess they don't try to resell them, but destroy them, or play hockey with them or whatever. So the actual amount can be lower.
Click to expand...
I think Royal Mint might have tried to sell them as OGP, not all buyers scrutinise their coins and examine them in detail when they receive theirs. From my experience of getting 3 defective coins I have more reasons to believe the perfect ones would have ended up in NGC slabs. The defects are minute, like faint milk spots and minor stains... buyers might overlooked these defects.

SilverPete I won't cancel my order, but I do hope Royal Mint will state CLEARLY on all future release the exact final mintage which should and must be the same as the mintage figures printed on the COA.
Just like the 2013 5oz Britannias, would you have bought the mint packaging (falsely advertised as 1,150 mintage) when you know there are 3,300 of them being graded and another 2,000 of them in somewhere else?

I just do not like the way Royal Mint mislead collectors in believing their coins have low mintage thus artificially driving up the demand for these coins. If Royal Mint stated 1,350 maximum mintage on their website, with 600 as limited presentation packaging then I am perfectly fine with it. Probably will send an inquiry to check on where are the 750 leftovers but at least the final mintage is fix.
 
Luker said:
I was disappointed to see that possible mintage as well. Had I understood the true mintage I likely would have instead put my money towards another 2013 1 Kilo Proof-like Libertad (mintage 400), one of the 2014 Libertad silver proof sets , or tried to get one of the lower mintage 2 or 5 oz silver proof libertads.

Cheers,
Luker
Click to expand...

hey luke,
can you point me to where i can find a 2013 libertad kilo?
thanks
 
Okay, so to respond to some of the comments above:

Immediately after I placed my order with the RM, I contacted their customer service to insist that a customer service associate or a packer make sure that they check the coin in my order because as this was going to be my first order of perhaps many (over the ensuing years) that I was likely to place directly from the RM, I wanted the coin I received to be in excellent condition so that my experience as a loyal customer would start off positive.

I received a reply e-mail shortly after that from an associate who stated that she was going to make sure that the coin in my order was looked over before being sent. Of course I have no idea if the coin I was sent was quality control checked before it was packed and sent to me. The coin looks good to my naked eye and I am satisfied with the quality of it. If the quality of the coin was not satisfactory, I would send it back.

I am still considering sending the coin back depending what details I further learn about the 750 coins that were already graded by NGC. The lack of transparency by the RM in concealing the fact that 750 coins were sold to a private company prior to the one's being offered to the public is unethical in my view...period. Knowing that 750 coins were already sold, would I still have ordered the coin I did? Maybe, maybe not...but that's really not the point in my view. The point is that the RM has acted irresponsible toward the public and toward their customers in doing this.

I will definitely need to reconsider ever ordering from the RM now that I am aware they have pulled such a stunt.

I may still keep my coin....it really is a masterpiece of minting. Were it another coin with a less appealing design and less than exquisite strike, I would probably have put it in the mail today to return back to the RM.


As for the process of returning to the RM, I already have a response from earlier today because I had inquired in my first e-mail to the RM after learning of the 750 pre-releases about this. I was assured by the associate who I have been in communication with that not only would I get reimbursed for my initial purchase price plus the shipping cost to me, but I demanded that the return shipping back to the RM be reimbursed as well. She acknowledged that it would be. Now, that may not be their policy but I did really lay hard into the RM condemning what they did and so perhaps they are making an exception because I don't play games when I believe that I am at the end of bad policy or behavior.

I still haven't decided if I will return this coin or not...like I said I am still awaiting my last e-mail which will probably not be seen by the agent until the next business day because of the time zone difference.

I will keep all posted on this.





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Yes Royal Mint will refund all cost incurred for this purchase, including shipping cost from RM to you, import taxes incurred at your country, and return shipping cost you paid to ship the coin back to RM. However regardless of that you still lose out a little as the refund is in GBP and paid back to the mode of payment you made upon purchase.

For my refund last year it was a few dollar less than what I have paid, probably due to exchange rate fluctuations and my bank take a cut on lower exchange rates. But the time spent packaging and repackaging the coins, queuing up at the post office, tracking my returns from end to end and countless emails bombarding the customer service staff everytime i arrange for a return item can never be recovered in $$ terms.

By the way mmissinglink I think RM could have improved their production process. All 750 coins were graded PF69/70 meaning they were perfect coins without spots or stains. However it could also be (I hope not) RM picked the best 750 for grading... Won't want to speculate on that.
 
"However it could also be (I hope not) RM picked the best 750 for grading... Won't want to speculate on that."

If that was to be true, I sure hope that someone from the RM who knows of it whistleblows and spills the beans. That would be the end of me ever ordering from the RM again....period. I would also tell everyone I could because spreading the word would be the ethical thing to do.


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