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mint_mark

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Posts posted by mint_mark

  1. All this is just my understanding... I'm not a tax expert or a financial advisor.

    Ebay have a reporting threshold if £1740 per year https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/uk-digital-sales-reporting?id=5454, which I guess might trigger HMRC to check whether that is from trading or not.

    I think HMRC use this "badges of trade" system to assess whether someone is trading https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205

    If you are trading, then I suppose you'd be taxed like a small business (I don't know much about that).

    If you're not trading then there is still capital gains tax (from disposing of possessions), but I think almost all coins would be exempt

    •     De-monetised coins count as chattels, so they are only chargeable if they sell for more than £6000 (per coin, or set). I'm OK... 😀
    •     Foreign currency (that is legal tender in that country) is chargeable... so foreign bullion could get you over the annual allowance.
    •     Modern sterling is exempt anyway.

    (explained in https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg78305)

    That's it for tax.

    Eb*y are introducing buyers fees from next month... so that will affect the viability of using it.
    From what I've read on other forums, I'm more worried about avoiding all the scams that people try 😟 I haven't sold on there for years, and everything is putting me right off.

     

    • Thanks 1
  2. Those coins aren't super thick to start with are they? It seems like a lot of material would need to be moved to raise a rim on both sides like that.
    And what is the groove for? I thought maybe threading, but can't think of a purpose...

    Could it be two coins stuck together? Or does the central thickness seem right for one coin?

    • Like 1
  3. Hi everyone,

    I visited the Royal Mint experience yesterday... it was a long day trip for me (from near Southampton).

    It was a good tour and the exhibition was really interesting, although similar in parts to the sort of things you see in the British Museum. This was aimed more at the general public so everything was explained nice and clearly. It was more popular than I expected, with coach trips and families providing a varied audience. I hadn't expected the preparation stages of the blanks and dies to be so interesting... never really thought about how the lettering, milling and fusing of bimetallic coins was done. Not all at the same time! Also surprising that all the coin presses were German machines... You don't get to see the whole process in action, just the striking and counting/packaging area.

    Our guide explained that the mint is required to have tens of millions of pounds worth of coins in stock, but they don't get paid for them until they're issued. She said that the mint makes no profit from UK circulating coinage... all their income comes from foreign countries and collectables, which explains the panoply of commemoratives and precious metal releases.

    Some disappointments... I couldn't find much to buy in the gift shop, even though I wanted to. I thought there would be more coin themed items like lapel badges and keyrings, maybe with a tasteful Britannia or George and dragon design. Most of the gifts were related to the current commemorative themes... Beatrix Potter, world wars and royal anniversaries. And when you did buy something (a box of fudge in the end) there were no new pound coins for your change. Ironically, they were almost out of change :/

    Still, I did strike my own pound coin... it's a 2017 BU coin which I think will be the same as the circulating one in due course, so maybe that could have been a little more special. It does look practically perfect under the magnifier though... and just £7.50.

    I'm glad I went... mostly because it's something you just couldn't do until recently. Not sure I'd go again... and I'm still pretty sure I'm not really interested in most of the things they sell. They did have some cardboard albums for people to collect coin designs from change... if this becomes popular they could offer coins to fill in gaps in those collections, although I hate to think what they would charge!

    Back to checking my change...

     

       Mark

    • Like 2
  4. Does anyone have any old CCGBs to see when this coin was first added?

    I have a lot of old CCGB... it's in the 2005 (and later) edition at £450, also in the 2001 edition at £450 (pre Perkins) but it's not in a 1987 edition.

    It's not in my old Krause catalogue, or in an old Spinks or in a coin yearbook.

    But it is in Coincraft where it says "Error coin with New Zealand reverse; weight 5.8 grams; possibly unique" and a value of £500.

    Hope that helps,

    Mark

  5. Buy a set and break it up? Where's the challenge in that?

    In the introduction to the decimal section in Coin Yearbook (2005, it's OK Chris I've never bought it since :)) they say that since 1984 the coins in BU sets were made by the proof coin division instead of the coin production room and that they are readily differentiated from normal circulating coins.

    Also, I wonder if those mintage figures from the mint include the coins in sets. Maybe that's where most of the Britannia 50ps are?

  6. Another thing about the 'goings on' at the Royal Mint, why did they feel it was necessary to issue 3.9m pound coins with the Royal Arms on in 2008, prior to issuing 29.4m of the new Dent design ?

    There is no evidence that there was an emergency in terms of supply. They have never done this before in 26 years, why not just wait until the new coins were ready like they've always done ?

    I wondered this at the time. In January they made a big fuss about the competition results and we'd all have to wait a couple of months to see the new designs... so I was quite surprised to see 2008 coins with the old designs turning up in change. I didn't think they would bother.

  7. But then, what about those who modelled for certain designs? The young woman who posed for the Edward VII florin reverse ( the standing Britannia), the man who posed for Pistrucci's St George, the copper reverse Britannias of the 17th and 18th centuries - these are all commoners who appeared on coins (though un-named).

    Technically speaking the persons you refer to above are allegory, and representative and not meant to portray a particular person. Since Lady Diana was on the crown in 1981, several commoners, notably Isambard Kingdom Brunel etc have appeared on commemoratives.

    The question is, was that Roger Bannister's actual leg?

    And don't forget that Una lady with her pet lion :)

  8. Yes, I've nearly finished my 1902 to 1936 shilling collection, and with the exception of some of the Edwardian ones, including the notoriously rare 1905, I've got the lot in either EF, UNC or BU. It's taken me several years and a fair bit of money.

    During that time I've noticed some interesting details.

    Hi 1949threepence,

    Have you ever noticed any difference in the graining (milling) around the edge? I've got a late George V shilling (1935 I think) which I noticed has finer graining than the other couple I have of the same type.

  9. OK thanks folks. That was really informative :)

    I never thought about the mintage for any given year, including some still dated the previous year.

    The first explanation I read was that the figures are the number of coins issued into circulation in a year. "That makes sense", I thought. They had loads left over from last year and didn't use them all up until Autumn, so there's not much time to make coins with this year's date. The same thing seems to happen with modern coinage today... sometimes you don't see new coins until Christmas.

    But now it seems that they carried on making coins with last year's date. Are they doing this to eke out the last useful life from last year's dies before making new ones?

    Are the mint allowed to do what they like with regard to dating coins? For example, all the 1967 pennies and 1925 sovereigns... do they need special permission to mint coins with anything other than the date at the time of minting?

  10. I have looked at the coin and ther is a letter J on the face of the coin just below the beginning of the date 1847-1934..presume this is what you mean.

    Susan

    That's it, just behind his neck. J means Hamburg. For 1938 2 Mark they all seem equally common.

    For the Weimar coin it's above the wheat sheafs and for the 10pf it should be between the oak leaves below the value.

  11. The fourth is an Ottoman Empire coin, 20 qirsh or something and I cannot read a date on it.

    I think this one is from Turkey, 20 para, reign 1277 year 4 (=1865 I think). Catalogue number is KM701. Not scarce.

    The date is to the right of your picture with the writing round the edge. It looks like 1, backwards 7, V, V.

    You know, I think identifying coins like this is the part I enjoy the most :)

  12. Hello Ali. I made some cases for some special coins once which turned out alright for what I needed.

    The basic case was a CD box. I removed the tray and inserts and just used the clear plastic case. Then I cut two pieces of quite thick cardboard so that they would fit in the box, one in the tray and one in the lid. I bought some black velvet from a material shop and cut out enough to cover the cardboard. I stretched it over one side and stuck the flaps on the back with parcel tape while pulling it tight.

    Then I put the cardboard into the CD box (velvet side up) and put a plain white CD insert and other cardboard into the lid (velvet side down). Now you can put coins into the box and arrange them on the velvet. When the box is closed it provides just enough pressure to hold them in place. You can't really store it vertically and shake it about, but you can store it flat.

    The tricky parts were getting the size of the cardboard squares just right so they fit snugly into the CD box with the velvet covering. The thickness of the cardboard is crucial so that when the box is closed the coins are held in place. Too thin and they can move about, too thick and you can't close the box.

    I did think about cutting holes in the cardboard for the coins but it would hard to cover it with velvet. Be very careful what you use to fix things in place (like the velvet). Some glues will give off vapour that can migrate onto the coins (I have had this problem with CDs before). It might depend on the metal of the coins.

    Now I have written this, I reckon a good idea might be to try the same thing but with that memory foam instead of cardboard. I have seen it used for shoe insoles. If you could use a square of that then the coins would form their own indentations as pressure was applied. Wouldn't know where to buy it though. Again, I would test it with some unimportant coins first just in case it affects them.

    Good luck!

  13. I have not found the old design 2 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, and 1 pound.

    Nor have I found the £2 2008 coin with the 1908 Olympic Games reverse.

    According to the Royal Mint site, there are:

    700,000 Britannia 50 pence minted for 2008.

    910,000 £2 1908 Olympic Games reverse...what is interesting is they list 3,910,000 Royal Arms £1.

    Ken

    I'm surprised to see some figures up there so soon. I also notice that the 2007 figures have changed since they were first published, so I expect these figures might change too.

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