Absolutely not mine and not in my possession now or ever (or I wouldn’t post this), but check out what I helped put in capsules for a client today before she brought them to her bank for safe keeping...

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I have to say, those Britannia’s are nothing short of the most gorgeous coin I have ever seen, much less held. The security features are off the chart, they make the Eagle look like a late 19th century coin by comparison. Also, the price over spot is an outright bargain.

So, my client wanted just under 100k of gold. After vetting the options, I gave her three proposals to consider among...she effectively obtained three extra coins by going with the Britannia’s over the Eagles (55 ounces instead of 52 for just $200 separation in price). I had never really considered the Britannia’s until the 2021 upgrade and the Eagles and Buffalos going bandannas with the premium. My guess is the Britannia outsells the Buffalo this year for sure. The Eagles are getting a mid-year refresh so we will see what happens with those, I’m sure they will finish the year #1 like they always do...but that premium over spot needs to drop before I’ll recommend it to anyone.

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Those are cool.
That design dates back to the trade dollar in the 1800s.
Back then silver rather than gold was mostly used for world trade (especially in the East). Total opposite of today, but in Asia the wanted silver and that’s how a lot of world trade was facilitated.
The Mexican 8 real was probably number one at the time, but was competing with things like the US trade dollar, British trade dollar, Japanese trade dollar and yen etc.
Britainia is a pretty timeless design.

Here’s a pic of a trade dollar (not my coin, random photo from internet).

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I'm a firm believer in storing wealth in and trading metals, as societies around the globe used to, before the fiat dollar came into play. You can print dollars all day, but can't print gold and silver. They are hard assets that have been proven throughout world history to be effective.

As far as buying silver, I go to Dallas Gold and Silver Exchange's Bullion Express eBay store. I also check a reputable pawn shop's eBay store. Yes there are eBay fees and shipping which cost a little more, but DGSE offers quantity discounts on their buffalo silver rounds. Before they sold out of these a couple weeks ago, there were no quantity discounts. So I'm thinking they buy large bars and melt/stamp them locally then sell online when they have supply. This allows them to pass their economies of scale savings on to the customer. And I also tested multiple ways to verify their coins are legit. They seem to be the biggest metals dealer in Texas and have an awesome reputation. 100% rating on eBay with thousands of sales in less than 3 years. I mean these things are selling over 50 ounces a day. Crazy demand.

Those silver rounds from DGSE are selling out as soon as they are back in stock. Thousands sold daily. So fast even that I couldn't check out because the stock counter on eBay was behind.

Why are precious metals not keeping up with inflation?

Because the Federal Reserve, which is a private bank, and others have been suppressing the value of gold and silver since around the 1980s. The actual value of these metals, is much higher. This makes silver cheaper than a steak dinner. Good for buyers, but I believe people are starting to wake up to that and see metals as a viable alternative should the dollar hyper inflate and collapse some day.

https://www.roadtoroota.com/public/94.cfm

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Here’s a fun show and tell.
I bought a group of shipwreck coins recovered from the Akerendam (Dutch shipwreck that sank off the coast of Norway in 1724).

The coins were totally encrusted and unidentifiable when I got them.
Been soaking off and dissolving the marine encrustation to see what I’ve got.
It’s kind of like playing a scratcher.
Some are winners, some are pretty eaten up from salt water. Mostly various Dutch coins from different provinces and coins from Spanish Netherlands (places like Antwerp).
This is all bullion that was on route to Indonesia for trade in the 1700s.
The coins have some corrosion from salt water exposure, but all in all I’m pretty happy with what they look like.
Pretty neat.

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Just picked 40 of these up to pass out at this years Thanksgiving get together. Be a good reminder for all who survived the pandemic . We will have alot to be thankful for when this is over .

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do meteorites count? I bought two lovely ones off a fellow pinsider. they're precious, and metals... )

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Awesome.
I used to own a nice Camp del Cielo meteorite. They actually do contain some precious metal in very small trace amounts, including trace iridium.
Although mostly iron nickel, there’s a lot of random stuff in the mix on those things.
Very cool.

Is it normal for gold bars to have higher premiums for higher quantities? Hero Bullion does this for their fractional gold bars. I've read it's supposed to be opposite, with lower premiums the more you buy. Saves on distribution and packaging costs for fewer pieces stocked.

So you're saying they want to charge you more money per individual item if you order multiple of the same thing?
If so, then no that is not normal.

Not exactly. What I meant is higher quantities of weight. The heavier bars that weigh multiple grams have higher premiums vs. the one gram bars.

I dont know if this is out of place, but does anyone want some wearable gold jewelry, a few points below spot?

I would have to see some examples.
Some items demand larger premiums than others. Some it’s just a percentage, so by that nature a larger item will have a larger premium in dollars.

Here's an explanation I have from Hero Bullion:

"Hello,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the premium per gram for 1, 2.5, and 5 gram Valcambi Gold Bars. Here is what I found:

Valcambi 1g Gold Bar = $19.99 over spot per oz
Valcambi 2.5g Gold Bar = $28 over spot per oz
Valcambi 5g Gold Bar = $29 over spot per oz

Here are the formulas I used to calculate the premiums above:

spot/weight = melt price or price per gram
spot x weight + premium = Price
Valcambi 1g Gold Bar = $58.49 x 1g = $58.49 + $19.99 = $78.48
Valcambi 2.5g Gold Bar = $58.49 x 2.5 = $146.23 + $28 = $174.23
Valcambi 5g Gold Bar = $58.49 x 5 = 292.45 + $29 = $321.45

I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns. Have a great day!"

Ok, gotcha.
This breakdown actually makes perfect sense.
A few thing to keep in mind:
There are fixed costs associated with minting an item. Examples, refining the metal, creating planchets, producing dies, striking the coin or bar.

Just to get it into coin or bar form there is some kind of set up costs involved. Sure melt = whatever price on a given day, but that doesn’t account for production costs (at least on a newer product).

So it’s not necessarily a percentage over spot, in as much as is a set cost plus a percentage. And yes if you are buying multiple ounces it always cheaper to buy larger units, than a quantity of smaller fractional units.
It’s a lot easier to strike one 1 ounce bar, than ten 1/10 ounce bars (which is 10 times the labor).

Right, and that makes sense from an economies of scale standpoint. I don't understand the high premium for larger pieces. IE, a $19.99 premium for a 1g bar, a $28 premium for a 2.5g bar, and a $29 premium for a 5g bar. This is just the premium, and of course buying more grams is more money. The premiums should be lower for higher weight bars.

The only thing I can think of is Valcambi is charging bullion dealers a higher premium for larger bars, maybe due to supply and demand. Then the dealers have to pass that cost on to the buyer. Perhaps the larger bars are just selling out a lot more, driving up the the price and negating any savings from economies of scale. Those larger sizes were out of stock when I checked. And shortly after the smallest 1g bar went out of stock as well.

Checked again and the premiums on the larger Valcambi bars on Hero Bullion are actually lower (as normally expected). Likey because stock of these larger bars has been replenished.

New coin arrived, thought I'd share.

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https://www.apmex.com/product/232585/2021-great-britain-1-oz-proof-silver-music-legends-the-who?feed=gmc&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_source=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5uWGBhCTARIsAL70sLJCsQZh4BEQvUlX7IIH-FizEavc2VG6wei2qWO9pWF8lOwA4ns1oPAaApjvEALw_wcB

Actually got the coin from bold precious metals. They don't have as wide of a selection as apmex but usually cheaper.

Would anyone be interested in trading a pin for American Gold Eagles?

So, this is one of my favorite threads on Pinside. I’d love to see some more action in here. I know that I for one would trade pins for gold coins, I’d do this more readily than taking cash.

People always talk about how a gold coin 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago always had the same purchasing power (one suit and a nice pair of shoes). I wonder how this would translate into pinball purchasing power. Today, roughly three one ounce coins land you a NIB Stern pro. How many were needed for a Doctor Who in 1992?

I would have no issue doing it as long as it was a value for value trade.
Would much rather have gold than something like paypal.

Yea, I’ve not been adding to collection at all recently. Premiums are just too high right now. I think premiums will be dropping toward year end. I just couldn’t justify buying any silver right now with that mark up. I do want to develop a relationship with my local coin shop, I may go buy one of the new gold eagles from them and just eat the premium to gain the contact. Supporting local coin shops is important, I recognize that more now than ever.

The interesting thing will be to see what happens to precious metals when the inevitable crypto regulation hits…will some of the crypto people move into metals or will they ride out the regulation wave and see where things end up.

What kind of premiums are we talking about over spot gold price? Also what about these mail order gold sellers, is that a better way to go to buy one ounce coins? My dad just ordered one ounce coins from an online seller, I didn’t ask him details but I was surprised that you can mail order gold coins.

Original Cost of Doctor Who pinball from Bally = $3227.70
Cost of gold ounce coin in October 1992 = $345.00 approx.

So your answer is 9.35 ounces of Gold in 1992 prices.

Price of gold Ounce today 2021 is $1815.

Price of Doctor Who pinball ranges from $3300 to $5000 on pinside (Not Ebay $9000 rediculous price)

So you can buy a Doctor Who pinball for 2 or 3 coins today.

A new pinball from Stern would cost 5 or 6 coins.

It depends on the specific coin and the size of the coin, as the premiums are higher for local coins and premiums are bigger for smaller denominations of coins. The most popular gold coin in the US is the American Gold Eagle, for a one ounce gold Eagle today you’d be looking at around a $135 premium over the spot price to buy a single coin from a reputable online dealer, higher for an in the store purchase. The smaller you go the bigger the premium over spot.

Premium on silver is about $10 on an ounce…when the spot price is $25 an ounce that is a huge premium.

Mail order is usually a bad idea. Sometimes on the silver coins they will cut you a good promotional deal on your very first coin (like a good drug dealer), but after that you get gouged. It really is better to buy from one of the major distributors line apmex or your local coin store. The Facebook things about fractional gold are all rip offs, you are paying vastly over what you could buy the gold for and most places have deposit plans if you want to work up to something (or something similar).

Wow I had no idea, those are huge premiums!

That is super neat! I wonder if that is the first pinball theme’d investment grade silver round.

Interesting article and video on the composition and making of the Tokyo Olympic medals:

"(Kitco News) It is no longer a secret that the Olympic gold medals don't contain a lot of the actual yellow metal. But how much gold does it have, and what about silver and bronze medals?

Here's the breakdown:

Gold medal: Only 1.2% of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medal is actually gold. The other 98.8% is silver.

Silver medal: The silver medal is the only one that truly lives up to its name. It has the same weight as gold and is made from 100% actual silver.

Bronze medal: The bronze medal is lighter and is made up of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

The data are provided by Compound Interest.

It is even more interesting how Japan got the needed metals to make approximately 5,000 medals that are currently being handed out at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

As part of the "Tokyo 2020 Medal Project," Japan collected approximately 78,985 tons of used small electronic devices. Out of those, 6.21 million were used mobile phones. These were collected all across Japan from April 2017 till the end of March 2019.

Japan managed to collect 32kg worth of gold, 3,500kg worth of silver, and 2,200kg worth of bronze."

https://twitter.com/i/status/1410110230533267458

I had no idea how low the gold content was. How long has it been that way? That is basically just gold plated.

So, this thread induced me today to make an order online…I plan to make the visit to the coin store next time. I bought a one ounce maple and a one gram maple, should be fun to see those side by side. I’ll take pics and post them when they come in.

It's a modern variation of the age old "clip the coin" scheme, essentially boasting the best with a cheapened imitation!

So...Japan couldn't cough up the other 98.8 % gold for the so called 'gold medals' and substituted gold plated silver for gold!

Ok then...shouldn't 'shrinkflationary' Gold medal winners shrink to nearly as tall as Silver medal winners on the podium, or maybe they should just come out with a new category...'Gold medal LE' winners!?

Another interesting article from Kitco:

https://www.kitco.com/news/2021-08-03/Gold-reserves-fell-10-in-2016-20-but-enough-to-support-production-for-over-10-years-report.html

My comment:
With decreasing gold reserves / resources concurrent with increased production,
this confirms the trend of high grading and / or buying known reserves rather than funding adequately for exploration.

Just picked up this beauty last week. It's the 1/2 oz version.

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Is that version one or version two? Show the other side!

I have 26 rolls of dimes all 1964 and below they were rolled about 20 to 30 years ago any advice or just worth what the silver value is?

Thanks John