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TheGoldSovereign Community is a newly created set of forums, focused solely on the passion of collecting. Currently we are in BETA so make your suggestions known in the relevant forum!

Mike

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Posts posted by Mike

  1. Im thinking about buying a Synology DS720+ for home and work. Does anyone on here have any practical experience of these or comments / advice?

    reason being the interface sounds the easiest for a medium tech ability / interest person like myself and its a well known and established company … as apposed to a QNAP which although sounds very good it seems like its more benefit to those who like tinkering

  2. Hey @Shaun, I don't know where their stats are, i've had a quick look but without luck. I just go from personal experience, sometime ago now I had a 1937 sovereign in a PCGS PR65DCam slab cross to a NGC PF63Cam an 1893 proof half go from an PCGS PR64Dcam to an NGC PF63Cam and a similar experience on a 1937 half (I can't remember exactly now). The short story was it was obviously costly, but on the 1937 sovereign particularly I knew I'd bought a lemon the moment it arrived, but naively at the time hoped NGC would honour the PCGS grade. In all honesty, In terms of grading, on average I think they are as good and as bad as each other. Both have some bias' to certain groups of coins but it averages out across the total number graded and both definitely make big mistakes.

    Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate why you prefer PCGS, their back end, registry management and presentation is a lot cleaner, fresh and accurate. However the NGC one is ok for those who just want somewhere to build registry sets and compete, fully accepting the less than perfect data management, there is something quite nice and endearing about it in someways for those that aren't too bothered about the technology side. For me though, I choose NGC because I prefer the slabs, the aesthetics of the coin and its presentation way outweigh the differences in the registry. I also choose NGC because they've stumped up and backed the British collector and have a presence in the UK. Yes, it isn't perfect but they are here, PCGS aren't.

    At the end of the day, NGC and PCGS are direct competitors over a market space that is booming and jointly they are changing the landscape of the hobby globally and in my opinion are in no small part responsible for the value growth and the attitude towards it by investment companies. At one point though I think there was a working relationship, at-least NGC were willing to recognise PCGS graded US coins in their registry and allow them to compete. However a few years back I understand PCGS went on a big marketing drive to get people to cross to them (in the primary market of the US), this escalated with the NGC CEO posting an open letter accusing PCGS of over grading to attract crossing and destroying the value of rare high grade valuable coins, PCGS reciprocated by posting an equally derisory letter accusing NGC of the same and so the relationship collapsed and we are where we are today, where from collector through the CEO of the respective companies there is an attitude of superiority of one TPG over the other and to be honest, its garbage in my opinion, its like BMW vs Mercedes, both very good with faults, but different. Which isn't a bad thing imo 🙂 

    1 hour ago, Shaun said:

    his is virtually impossible online with NGC coins, their photography is shocking and often worse than just taking a picture of the slab with your phone. It's very hard to buy an overgraded PCGS coin if you know what you're doing, as you just pop the cert in and for 90% of coins they have high res images (not for some very old slabs).

    Agree, the NGC photography is very basic in the registry and tells you nothing about the coin, but a collector can pay for the HD photography if they wish and that can be used which is equal to the PCGS photography, NGC is also cheaper, so perhaps if the services were balanced the cost would be similar. Personally though where the NGC photography tells you nothing, I find the PCGS photography can be misleading and are over exposed, you have to look closely to fully understand the photo in front of you and you have to be experienced to know what you are looking at unless there is something very obvious. I take a more honest photo than both with my iPhone! (imo 😄). That said, I would prefer that NGC took HD photos by default rather than exception. Nothing is ever going to beat having a coin in hand but you are right, we are moving rapidly away from that and have to buy the grade in a lot of cases, hoping the TPG got it right.

  3. 2 hours ago, Shaun said:

    @CaptCaveMan Yes as I say convenience is important, but I did an awful lot if research before deciding, as my collection will be #1 at either grading body, and the features available with PCGS among other factors was important to me.

    Generally top coins end up with PCGS, their grades are also often accepted to be better, which is why crossovers aren't easy from NGC to PCGS, this is also why PCGS slabs tend to sell for a premium.

    Don't rush the decision, but if you are only starting out I would day do whatever is easiest and cheapest for you. 

    Here are some crossover stats from PCGS as an example for the last 30 days:

    Screenshot_20220201-202231.thumb.png.78af1f7d9b397ce139ed451ed938b829.png

     

    Although I don't doubt their stats, i do believe that both registry's make it a point to show they are more conservative than the other and crossing is a challenge for them at times. I’ve had coins fail to cross or come back significantly lower (when ive elected for cross at any grade) and also coins cross as expected when going from PCGS to NGC. All this 100% justifying your statement of buy the coin, not the grade, although in current times that is sometimes difficult. 

    edit: its been a while since ive crossed as now I crack the slab and send in raw and i have done this on some valuable coins. Again, it comes down to your confidence in the coin rather than the grade it has been given

  4. @Shaun Just a thought, is it possible for members to have their own referral link to invite people to the forum? If so could a “founding member” badge be then added to their profile? It could be awarded to any member who has say 10 inbound referrals through their link?Could run for 6months or a year…

    It might not be possible but add’s a little incentive. I think FB groups have a similar idea

    after that it could be something we could run competitions and other awards on or points gained for referrals of referral's etc…

    • Like 1
  5. 10 hours ago, CaptCaveMan said:

    I've only been collecting for less than a year so for me budget has been key.

    I started with a modern date run to build up the numbers from zero, one per month and if I had some spare change I've added an extra one here and there...

    I suspect as many of us do, I've then traded some for more historic/numismatic pieces.

    For me it will be a matter of rinse and repeat as it's the only way financially I can obtain some truly wonderful and historic coins.

    I think a lot of us have followed that path  @CaptCaveMan 👍

    • Thanks 1
  6. Cat is officially out the bag, the mint are releasing a 5 coin pattern set (first they have done since 1937). Basic information that I believe is accurate, is that each coin will be a piedfort, 1/4 sov through to Quintuple. Each will be plain edge and the set will have a mintage of 70. So it going to be sort after.

    Someone has posted as set up for sale on ebay as a pre-sale (incorrectly describing it, but close enough) and there is chatter across other forums and groups.

    If anyone hears anything post here.... 🙂

    • Like 1
  7. 17 minutes ago, Shaun said:

    @Mike I've added this now, would you be able to pin a topic there on how to use the trade section and this feature at some point?

    The way this works is you create your thread, and then click "Mark Topic" from the thread at the top, then when you need to change it you just jump back and hit it again.

    If we need more fields I can add them and also tweak colours a bit if needed

    No problem 👍

  8. I’ll start this by saying I know very little about the crypto world, however from what you have said I assume they purchase the gold to match the mined currency to keep it in balance, if so it’s similar to a gold ETF surely? The difference being you can put an ETF in an isa wrapper.

    that said, perhaps its of interest to people who only want to hold crypto and the idea is it gives them a safe(r) haven to go in times of high volatility without stepping outside of crypto and the various instruments that exist? I can’t see how it can make the investor any money though other than by gold spot movement, unless they started removing crypto from circulation, the opposite of a mining?

    its not for me, but I do understand the argument those that don’t want to hold physical make and that’s fair enough.

  9. Recently bought this in an auction, not quite blind but I relied on the description. This was a mistake, it was described as good condition / high grade. On receipt its not, its ex-mount and probably too bright, so I was in the process of preparing to return it when I noticed the striking of the lettering. From the photo’s, is it an R6 Marsh 11B “6 over small 6 and GEOR over small GEOR”? Im in two minds. To be honest it wont change my feeling about it but may give it some numismatic relevance.

    if it is, does it have any value considering its problems?

    if not, well I doubt anyone will pay what I did, so it’ll go back

    11874482-86C5-40A9-B3DF-51B9A14A5980.jpeg

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    8CA9C27A-F869-46FD-BAEC-AA5EC460777C.jpeg

  10. Some amazing coins there, not that im crossing 😄 but I disclike the sincona label a lot and ive sent my purchase in to have it relaballed with something normal.

    Out of interest, did you get any of the provenance from Sincona for the coin(s) you bought? mine was ex-terner, seems sincona must have binned it all, including the PCGS label that it had previously sat on when the crossed it to NGC, which I know gets sent back with the coin. Which is very annoying

  11. On 1/12/2022 at 10:02 AM, CaptCaveMan said:

    May have to bookmark that @Mike for future reference, thank-you... like the idea of one fitting in a safe or deposit box!

    The RM cases are £49.99 inc VAT plus shipping (£5.00);

    * The Sovereign 19 Coin Collection Case
    The Sovereign 10 Coin Collection Case
    1oz Gold Bullion 10 Coin Collection Case

    To be fair, thats not a bad price for one of them, they are a nice box. Weird to only allow for 19coins rather than 20

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