New 2014 Proof Britannia is an absolute beauty
- Thread starter AgAuNEWS
- Start date
yrh0413 said:http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2NlgxNjAw/z/~zEAAOSwd4tT8JBs/$_57.JPG
Source: http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Britann...28339?pt=US_Bullion_Coins&hash=item4185c92d73
OMG!! This eBay seller has the sexiest 5oz proof Britannia photo! Whether mintage is 600 or 1,350 I would be proud to own one!
Very nice indeed!
Can't help myself (sorry guys for offtopic) but this probably still remains my favorite (5 oz) coin. I have 100$, but obverse is the same:
Source: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-2003-A...F-50-5-OZ-OUNCE-999-FINE-SILVER-/281418042170
^^
yrh0413 said:Received both my 1oz and 5oz proof Britannia today. Compare to the 2013's the 2014's are so much better. Very impressive strike and I absolutely dig into this year's Britannia design.
1oz and 5oz proof Britannias, comparison in size
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3851/14793184340_610f5b3693_b.jpg
Sexy and Shiny! My apologies for not cleaning the capsule before I took the shot.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5571/14979859905_c0455e652a_b.jpg
By far the first high relief Britannia. The 5oz has this convex surface in which the "globe" sinks in the centre thus lady Britannia becomes extremely high relief and she just stands out from the whole design.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5567/14793253088_4a1ddf02ef_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3836/14976760551_53d265b976_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3925/14976775001_799112fd75_b.jpg
Unfortunately my joy and excitement.... was a short one. I have to go through last year's experience again.
yrh0413 said:trozau said:Bummer! Maybe your hunch is right that the group of 600 are the rejects and the 750 sold to a third party company and slabbed were cherry-picked.
Will have to wait for Royal Mint to get back to me. However if it is a perfect coin this will be to-date my favourite Britannia coin (from 1997-2014).
I have this 5oz proof in front of me... have been staring at it for the past hour!
Notice how the coin is thicker at the sides and curve inwards to the centre, just like Perth Mint high relief kooks/lunars/koalas?
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3887/14977204691_661e2c27e3_h.jpg
Source: http://giphy.com/gifs/12ZE7zEuD5F49q
yrh0413 said:My defects are obvious to naked eye. If you look at all my photos the dots next to the lion's front leg and the dot next to the letter "E" are obvious on all my photos.
Royal Mint has requested me to send my coin back to them. In our reply it was mentioned that the QC staff examine the coins with naked eye and not with a magnifyer... If your coin looks perfect to your eye then you got a perfect copy my friend.
After your return the coin, I wonder if the mint will send it out to someone else?
hmmm, I wonder if this is where those 750 other 5oz proofs will end up....
http://www.govmint.com/2014-great-britain-silver-britannia-proof-first-struck-ngc-pf70-5-pieces.html
All that I know is that for paying a 500% premium to the spot silver price, my coin damm well better also be a PF 69 or 70!
Cheers,
Luker
http://www.govmint.com/2014-great-britain-silver-britannia-proof-first-struck-ngc-pf70-5-pieces.html
All that I know is that for paying a 500% premium to the spot silver price, my coin damm well better also be a PF 69 or 70!
Cheers,
Luker
Luker said:
Their description is a bit hyperbolic, but it does indicate clearly that the Royal Mint has selected the best coins to send out to NGC: http://www.govmint.com/pages/limited-edition-2014-silver-britannia-proof-set.html
mmissinglink
Active Member
Stark said:@mmisinglink: if you plan to send back 5oz rather sell it to me.Only problem is that I would need to pay customs fees to get it.
But I think it's better to keep it.
How much is customs for you? A percentage of declared value? I can declare a value of $100
.
mmissinglink
Active Member
Luker said:
So I still want to give the RM till tomorrow to respond to my last email (that I sent to the associate this morning but due to the time zone difference and the fact that I'd been out till the early afternoon I won't get a response till tomorrow) who stated she was going to give my questions over to her colleague (I guess she had enough of my interrogation-like questions).
But I did learn, after calling GovMint.com, that they are the exclusive holder of the new 2014 5 oz silver Britannia holdered in NGC slabs with the label that states "First of 150 Struck". At the time that I called, the agent Scott told me that GovMint just got these available for sale 2 days ago and that only 6 remain in PF70 condition (with these labels just noted). Apparently they also have PF69 graded NGC slabbed coins as well but I didn't ask how many of these were remaining. These coins apparently also come with a special COA from the Royal Mint....I don't know the details of the COA.
Scott tells me that these are unadvertised and that normally their customers get contacted by phone alerting them of new arrivals so that they get first dibs on new arrivals.
The price of the PF70 in that labelled slab with the special RM COA is $995. The PF69 is something like $799. I forget the price he stated.
If you call GovMint (for fun or for business purposes), you might want to ask how many PF70's are remaining. If they tell you like 25, then I may have just been given misinformation by agent Scott. If GovMint tells you 6 or less then I suppose these coins may have sold very quickly.
If you call GovMint and inquire about the graded "First 150 Struck" labelled coins please report back here and tell us what you were told....I am curious.
EDIT: I just finished reading SilverPete's post from above and based on what is written on those pages SilverPete referenced and the fact that the RM associate had written to me that she was turning over my questions to her colleague as soon as I asked of her if the RM hand picks the best 750 coins to be privately sold to a firm, I am beginning to lean more toward believing that in fact the RM may have hand picked the best to be sold to a private firm.
I doubt that anyone from the RM would spill the beans on that if it's true. It's also possible that the customer service associates at the RM don't even know about how that process works in terms of the 750 sold to a private firm. It may be a case of the fewer people working at the RM know, the fewer can accidentally divulge such information; loose lips sink ships.
.
wow, after reading all this, just realised how naive i am entering this world of coins..
can someone point me in the right direction to learn more about grading
ps. what is OGP?
was about to place the order yesterday until came across this...will wait to get an update from mmissinglink before doing anything
can someone point me in the right direction to learn more about grading
ps. what is OGP?
was about to place the order yesterday until came across this...will wait to get an update from mmissinglink before doing anything
Pirocco
Well-Known Member
My Maio "Girl with Mandolin" painting wasn't such a long story to buy and hang up lol.
4.5 euro, and I bought a couple magnets 0.35 each for the hanging.
You people here are way too focused on silver lol.
If you really want to have this to look at then store a picture of the "2014 Proof Britannia is an absolute beauty" on a usb stick or so then run to some printcopy shop and ask for a 50 cm x 50 cm or so print and select a nice frame to put it in. All together it will probably not cost more than 20-25 euro.
Instead of a coin in a box or slab that you have to lay your nose on to see what is on it.
Just my 5 cents base metal!
4.5 euro, and I bought a couple magnets 0.35 each for the hanging.
You people here are way too focused on silver lol.
If you really want to have this to look at then store a picture of the "2014 Proof Britannia is an absolute beauty" on a usb stick or so then run to some printcopy shop and ask for a 50 cm x 50 cm or so print and select a nice frame to put it in. All together it will probably not cost more than 20-25 euro.
Instead of a coin in a box or slab that you have to lay your nose on to see what is on it.
Just my 5 cents base metal!
Well after reading through this thread over and over again, my stand is:
1. I don't mind Royal Mint handpicks the best of the lot for their largest customer, they are running a business and those who pay a premium would definitely be given some advantages. Even buying fruits at the fruit stall, if you are their biggest customer it is not too much to ask for the seller to pick the best ones for you.
2. The "leftovers" do not mean they should be labelled as lower grades, it could be rejects below PF69 but I do not believe all 600 of them are.
3. Royal Mint customers are given full privilege in which Royal Mint foots the shipping bill for all expenses incurred when you return a defective coin. Know your rights and execute them accordingly until you get a perfect copy. We as customers should not settle for anything less than perfect.
4. On Govmint website it seems that both Royal Mint and NGC certifies that the 750 coins are in fact the first 750 coins struck, that does not mean the remaining 600 of them are any inferior. The 5oz Britannia I have with me has very strong strike and certainly look perfect to me (sans the stains).
5. Royal Mint is at the losing end as last year they reimbursed close to $200 shipping cost for all my returns. If there are too many returns I guess Royal Mint will up their QC standards for their whole production line and that will benefit us who buy directly from the mint.
6. The defective coin in my possession, I choose to believe this is a QC issue instead of a rejected coin from NGC. In Royal Mint's email, I quote their reply "This is not the quality standard acceptable by The Royal Mint... please return the coin to us". Royal Mint acknowledged the defect and accepted my return in exchange for a replacement coin.
Nevertheless I am keeping both my 5oz and 1oz 2014 Britannias, this is the best Britannia design so far. Royal Mint's mistake is that they failed to state the actual mintage on their website, thus misled some of us who actually purchased these coins believing the mintage was low. If Royal Mint originally stated 1,350 as the total mintage I don't think anyone would have complained.
As long as I own a perfect copy I am very sure mine will either be a PF69 or PF70 if I were to send them in for grading, and based on Govmint's pricing I definitely will not pay $995 and $799 for them. In fact I could even take advantage of this by sending mine to PCGS... it will end up PF69/70 with population of 1 on PCGS census
sidenote: Pirocco for the price we are paying (500% over spot) we expect to receive perfect coin from the Mint. Those stain spots on my Britannia are visible at normal viewing distance.
1. I don't mind Royal Mint handpicks the best of the lot for their largest customer, they are running a business and those who pay a premium would definitely be given some advantages. Even buying fruits at the fruit stall, if you are their biggest customer it is not too much to ask for the seller to pick the best ones for you.
2. The "leftovers" do not mean they should be labelled as lower grades, it could be rejects below PF69 but I do not believe all 600 of them are.
3. Royal Mint customers are given full privilege in which Royal Mint foots the shipping bill for all expenses incurred when you return a defective coin. Know your rights and execute them accordingly until you get a perfect copy. We as customers should not settle for anything less than perfect.
4. On Govmint website it seems that both Royal Mint and NGC certifies that the 750 coins are in fact the first 750 coins struck, that does not mean the remaining 600 of them are any inferior. The 5oz Britannia I have with me has very strong strike and certainly look perfect to me (sans the stains).
5. Royal Mint is at the losing end as last year they reimbursed close to $200 shipping cost for all my returns. If there are too many returns I guess Royal Mint will up their QC standards for their whole production line and that will benefit us who buy directly from the mint.
6. The defective coin in my possession, I choose to believe this is a QC issue instead of a rejected coin from NGC. In Royal Mint's email, I quote their reply "This is not the quality standard acceptable by The Royal Mint... please return the coin to us". Royal Mint acknowledged the defect and accepted my return in exchange for a replacement coin.
Nevertheless I am keeping both my 5oz and 1oz 2014 Britannias, this is the best Britannia design so far. Royal Mint's mistake is that they failed to state the actual mintage on their website, thus misled some of us who actually purchased these coins believing the mintage was low. If Royal Mint originally stated 1,350 as the total mintage I don't think anyone would have complained.
As long as I own a perfect copy I am very sure mine will either be a PF69 or PF70 if I were to send them in for grading, and based on Govmint's pricing I definitely will not pay $995 and $799 for them. In fact I could even take advantage of this by sending mine to PCGS... it will end up PF69/70 with population of 1 on PCGS census
sidenote: Pirocco for the price we are paying (500% over spot) we expect to receive perfect coin from the Mint. Those stain spots on my Britannia are visible at normal viewing distance.
mmissinglink
Active Member
Silver91 said:
Here's how I see it - no one knows everything about coins....even experienced people who have been collecting for decades. That's because there is so much to learn and things change all the time.
Together though, when sharing the knowledge we each individually have come to learn, we can make more informed choices based on the cumulative knowledge of those inputting / sharing on a particular topic / coin issue. This thread is a good example of some things we have all learned thanks to the input of many.
OGP = Original Government Packaging
COA = Certificate of Authenticity
TPG = Third Party Grading or Grader (companies like NGS, PCGS, and ANACS are examples in the arena of coins. Currency collecting has it's own separate TPG's as does comic book collecting and so on)
Slab = a coin holder used to display and identify a coin or medal. Slabs are universally rectangular in shape and are made of a plastic that is not supposed to react chemically with coins, particularly silver coins
Coin = a piece of (usually) metal (not necessarily a precious metal) bearing an assigned monetary value and issued as money usually by a governing body.
Medal = a piece issued to commemorate, honor or recognize an event, place, person, group, or anything for that matter with no stated value and not intended to circulate as money. A medal may be a private, or a government issue, but its sole purpose is to commemorate something.
The avatar next to my name is an example of a silver medal issued by an official mint which is a subsidiary of the state mint (CBPM) in China. So it's produced by a mint not much unlike the US Mint's West Point facility, but the product has no monetary value stamped on it...therefore it's designated a medal
Round = generally refers to a bullion piece of precious metal that is minted in a round shape
"Blob" = common, non-denominated bullion bar of any make, size, or origin
.
mmissinglink I got a reply from Royal Mint's customer service. To quote the exact email reply:
The 750 "First Strike" coins and The 600 Royal Mint Limited Edition Presentation coins are created by the world's best Mint as part of a Maximum Coin Mintage and are of the same high standard, and that coins we sell directly to our personal customers are not of a lesser Grading or standard than ones we sell wholesale as First Strikes.
I take it as some large account just place a 750pc order to Royal Mint and as a business entity they fulfilled their order. My 5-ouncer has been shipped back to Royal Mint 2 hours ago, now another long wait for my replacement coin. Fingers cross and I hope the replacement will be a perfect copy.
Have you examined your coin? Does yours look anything like an inferior copy?
The 750 "First Strike" coins and The 600 Royal Mint Limited Edition Presentation coins are created by the world's best Mint as part of a Maximum Coin Mintage and are of the same high standard, and that coins we sell directly to our personal customers are not of a lesser Grading or standard than ones we sell wholesale as First Strikes.
I take it as some large account just place a 750pc order to Royal Mint and as a business entity they fulfilled their order. My 5-ouncer has been shipped back to Royal Mint 2 hours ago, now another long wait for my replacement coin. Fingers cross and I hope the replacement will be a perfect copy.
Have you examined your coin? Does yours look anything like an inferior copy?
yrh0413 said:
My order status is "Shipping within 3 weeks (We are currently reviewing your order)" Maybe they are waiting for your coin to come back to post out to me.... please no
Everyone should take a detailed photo before returning a coin. Then we can check if any of us get someone else's returned coin.
Pirocco
Well-Known Member
Someone / some company risked the purchase of 750 of these coins, totaling about BP296,000 EUR371,000 USD495,000 AUD531,000 (excluding grading cost? maybe got a quantity reduction?).
While the Royal Mint itself decided to go through the mess/cost of minting on order as to avoid risking unsold.
So out there, some company / dealer now owns 750 of those, even more than the Mint has left to produce for the mintage.
Well heh, quite a different risk assesment.
While the Royal Mint itself decided to go through the mess/cost of minting on order as to avoid risking unsold.
So out there, some company / dealer now owns 750 of those, even more than the Mint has left to produce for the mintage.
Well heh, quite a different risk assesment.
It looks like the royal mint are changing their stance, and now trying to say the figure of 1350 was on their site all along.
Excerpt from the reply i received; (by the way, from the same person who replied to mmissinglink admitting the online information was wrong)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your email
I am sorry to hear of your disappointment that you feel The Royal Mint has misled you with regards to the Maximum coin Mintage figures on this coin. This is certainly not the case.
I can confirm that this coin has a maximum coin mintage of 1350 with Only 600 Limited Edition Presentation by The Royal Mint. The MCM and LEP figures are provided both online and on all literature on these coins so customers are informed before making their purchase.
Kind Regards
Jane Clark
Customer Services
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
knowing as we all do that the specs page was only amended to 1350 yesterday, they have a bit of nerve.
Excerpt from the reply i received; (by the way, from the same person who replied to mmissinglink admitting the online information was wrong)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your email
I am sorry to hear of your disappointment that you feel The Royal Mint has misled you with regards to the Maximum coin Mintage figures on this coin. This is certainly not the case.
I can confirm that this coin has a maximum coin mintage of 1350 with Only 600 Limited Edition Presentation by The Royal Mint. The MCM and LEP figures are provided both online and on all literature on these coins so customers are informed before making their purchase.
Kind Regards
Jane Clark
Customer Services
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
knowing as we all do that the specs page was only amended to 1350 yesterday, they have a bit of nerve.
