id5

Put two 50KG plates on edge on a press bench and give them a cuddle. I think that there will be a lot more people that can dead lift 100KG as a small mass cuddled to the chest or on a bar at arms length than you think. Have a look at here for a synopsis of the stats from various places. Average Man height = 5'8 - 5'10 weight = 160 - 180 lbs. bench press (max) = 135 - 185 lbs. deadlift (max) = 185 - 235 lbs. squat (max) = 185 - 235 lbs. bicep curl (max double) = 60 - 100 lbs. bicep curl (max single) = 30 - 50 lbs. EDIT: Like you I lift as well for exercise, can’t stand running

100KG or 220LB is not too heavy to lift. It is small in size and easy to get your arms around. A fit male should be able to move their 1.5 times their body weight. Someone who is less than average weight should be able to move it, if not you might want to consider excersise.

Colloidal silver Silver is a very good anti-biotic but don't over do it, have a look at the Blue Man

Julius Baer starts physical gold fund Physical backed ETF that you can take gold out of Linky Hmmmm.....So are they going to be servicing a need or trying to fleece the sheep

What I find more worrying is why were you looking for it in the first place

I agree with you Magpie but I think that you should have included ‘C’ the gold bug who just likes looking at it as there will be those that will not have digested your second sentence fully and believe that they are included in ‘A’. ‘A’ would sell when their trading plan says that the investment has declined beyond the limits that they have decided based on a number of factors including the base currency that they trade in. If my base currency was USD then I would have dumped gold a while ago but as it is GBP I have not. For all investments you need to plan your trade and then trade your plan. If your investment is getting to one of the value boundaries that you have set then it is often best to execute the exit strategy for the trade regardless. If your trade is winning then you are better off, if your trade is losing then you will break the ‘denial and cognitive dissonance’ as Magpie has eloquently put it. This is just good investment sense

Half of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia have not just been subjugated in a world war, Russia and China are on the up or at least just starting to slow down. It would be very interesting to see how they would do it as the power balance has changed.

Gold coin is in short supply at the moment and bar is getting that way, this is resulting in positive margin on the purchase, so above spot price for a dealer to buy from you. The normal margin would be -4% to -8% so below spot for gold. The same is happening for silver. This could go anywhere from here, up, down, sideways. I would really not like to second guess which way these margins are going to go next. As to ratio between gold and silver then my advice would be to read Steve's thread

Chards do not offer live pricing on their website, you will need to ring them for accurate pricing.

No problems, just glad that I could help but now that you have heard a real coin you will know what to look for feel a 100 more and you will be able to feel a fake when you touch it, once you have seen 1,000 you can spot a fake in a pile of them. I am surprised that you got passed a fake at a coin fair. If you have a receipt check to see if the seller is on the list of BNTA Members ring the seller up and tell them about the problem. If they cannot or will not help then please report them to the BNTA. If there are enough reports from different sources about a member then they will be chastised or struck off. Chards are one of the most respected dealers in the country and Lawrence has been around for a long time. I would be very surprised if they passed you a dud as all of their coins are inspected at least twice but like everyone they can make mistakes. Again, if there are problems then give them a call I am sure that they will want to sort it out as amicably as possible.

Happy to contribute where I can. The two measurements that really will not move very much are weight and diameter. For any modern bullion coin that is above EF I would start to suspect the possibility of a fake if the weight or diameter was out by more than 1%. For thickness I would be getting concerned at more than 5% error. The biggest problem with silver coin is that unlike gold there are lots of replacement materials that can be used to fill the coin and the only way to prove it would to be to cut it in half but stick it on the end of your finger whilst your hand is over a pillow of something soft and tap it with a pencil, it will ring. Hit one filled with lead and it will make a different sound. If you have a coin of the same type from a reputable source then you can use this as you touchstone of what a real one should sound like.

Thanks for the compliment. I understand coins, engineering, refining, they really are pretty easy but I do wish I understood more about the vapourware of economics

No the thickness would have to be the same. It would only change if the design, diameter or weight changed as well. I think that in one advert you have the nominal thickness stated and in the other the maximum thickness. There is always a margin of error in any engineering work, people just never state it. Coins are also created by being struck rather than milled or cast. If too much power is applied by the press then the outside edge of the coin is raised whilst the inside thickness reduced, if too little then the opposite affect occurs. This is another reason why a small difference in thickness is not really a problem.

Annoying that they do not provide the detail, the reason is that they change the design on the faces and that affects the thickness unlike the Maple for instance where the design does not change from year to year. That said I still think that they could and should produce the specifications for each design.

In the UK you will find that not all of these people are private buyers, you will find that some are small and medium companies who are looking to spread deposits as they do not get the same level of protection from the FSA.

The best guide as to what to buy is to answer the question how are you going to sell them. Have a read of Steve's thread to make up your mind on buying either coin or bar. Steve's Thread don't forget that spreads do change over time. Any of the big dealers would be a good place to purchase, they are all very friendly especially when they are selling to you

Nice find cgano! So with no afternoon gold smackdowns, hopefully an order to lay of the shorts, moving nicely along now for forcing through the US rescue package.

And when it does it will become just commodities, paper and base metals

I keep on seeing these bags of coin for offer and I keep on thinking that is seems high but then if silver is to follow gold upwards then they buyer is just paying a premium for something that they could sell at a profit later. If silver does not follow gold then they will sell them at a loss. The current dealer purchase price for 1KG would be just over £100, so approximately a 45% premium. Looking at today’s price of a silver 1oz Maple from CoinInvestDirect you have a sell price of £12.56 and a buy price of £8.75 so a premium of approximately 43%. So what would be better, if the SHTF then in the UK it would be the 1KG bag as the coin would be instantly recognisable whereas the bullion coin would more than likely need to be changed into something else before you could purchase with it. But as an investment or once life had returned to normal then the bullion coin would be the best buy as the dealers purchase price would be higher as requires no refining to be used in industry or if resold but the 1KG bag would. So my advice to all would be to buy the correct tool for the job that you need the tool for.

Lots of Forex brokers agree with you Steve, the one I use has as forex pairs XAUUSD XAUAUD XAUEUR XAUJPY XAUHKD and the same for silver

In the post http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index....ost&p=61381 Tazer ask if Sovereigns were really CGT free and this is the answer. All Sterling coin ("Legal Tender") is not a chargeable asset under the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 Section 21 (1) All forms of property shall be assets for the purposes of this Act, whether situated in the United Kingdom or not, including ...( b ) any currency other than sterling, and ( c ) any form or property... It does not matter if you own 1 or 1,000 What is Sterling coin or "Legal Tender" is a bit more confusing as all coins before the Coinage Act 1870 are within the prerogative of the Crown and everything else is covered by Parliamentary Coinage and Currency Acts. Basically everything before 1969 is no longer legal tender and can be melted down anything after cannot. Gold coins are treated separately in the different Coinage and Currency Acts and this makes all gold coins minted after 1837 legal tender and illegal to melt down.

Before the credit crisis there haven’t really been any major fluctuations with the bullion coin market since the eighties and the last gold spike, prices just drifted with inflation just like everything else. The operation of the dealers remains the same except now a permanent eye is firmly fixed on the price of bullion. Demand .vs. supply is the current problem hence the changes in spread. I do not see any reason why you cannot get a feel for the bullion coin market place from sitting at home on a computer especially now that most of the main bullion dealers have online facilities. You can plot the buy and sell price of coin from ATS, Bairds, Coin Invest, Hatton Garden, Weighton, and some of the auction sites like Fellow & Sons & Spinks. I am sure that you will soon have a handle on it. If you want to learn about numismatic coin then the best place to start would be at COINEX at Earl’s Court on September 26th & 27th or go and talk to your local dealer, you will find them in http://www.bnta.net

Yes, there are two multipliers but they both relate to spot price but it also changes with supply and demand. There is no simple answer to your quest for a suitable method to work out the value of your silver, coin, bullion or tableware. It really is very driven by supply and demand. Even for stock valuation purposes I would never go beyond 80% of spot as that is what you would achieve in a fire sale but the reality is if you pick you time and place of sale you could well achieve spot + 50%. I know this sounds mad but it is true, just take a look at 1KG bullion bars at the moment.

If you liked it then you might like the others in the series http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index....ost&p=58089

Nearly, a troy ounce is 31.1 grams but you can ignore this for old UK coin silver as the dealers will buy it off you for the face value of the coin regardless of its weight, they just add a multiplier to the face value of the coin for example, Four crowns, a florin and a sixpence from pre-1947 weighs 127g and contains 63g of silver but has a face value of £1 2s 6d which is equal to £1.12p, they will always round down. The average multiplier for today is 11 so you will get £12.32 although some dealers will give you more some less but they don’t need to know the weight just the multiplier for that day. Spot price would be about £7.10 per ounce so you would have thought that you would get 2x spot or £14.20 but the cost of refining silver is quite high compared to gold hence the increased margin.