I observe from my recently arrived coins that the 1Toz Britannia has a face value of £100 while the 1Toz Philharmonica has a face value of 100 Euros.

The people who issue these coins presumably don't just pull these numbers out of a hat. What is their real significance? When would these face values ever become vital? Could I be forced to exchange the coins for their face value under certain circumstances? You may be sure I'd enjoy Her Majesty's Pleasure before complying with such tyranny, I might add. I am just feeling out the extremer possibilities.

My superficial reading is that in extremis, should the currencies be forced back to the Gold Standard, it is the intention to merge Sterling de facto with the Euro. That is the only interpretation that makes sense, since they would not confer face value on these coins if they never intended them to have true face value exchange.

I notice the Canadian Maples and US Liberties have $50 face, while the Nugget has $100 face. In view of the rinsing-out of the value of the US dollar at the moment, I think the US Mint has a fat cheek issuing coinage to double the denominal value of Sterling!

Insights into this face value issue kindly received.

PS - love the coins. Once you handle real solid gold you understand how unique gold is. You can't fake the weight - unless you have some depleted uranium around. Anyone know the going rate for depleted urananium?

Yuk yuk!

hi malco

i like the brittanias as well and you bring up a good point

i believe the face value is redeemable


i buy sovereigns myself, i just think theve a better price over spot, especially than new mint issues.

usa eagles are nice as well, but a hand full of victorian sovereigns just does it for me.

Britannias and sovereigns are not just redeemable. They are legal tender in Britain, you could pay anyone with them. 1 Sovereign = 1 GBP, 1 Britannia = 100 GBP.

Interestingly, even if gold became worthless Britannias would still be worth their face value of 100 GBP, which is about 40% of their current price.

Another interesting consequence is that because they are UK currency, they are exempt from UK capital gain tax. Unlike gold in any other form, including foreign coins like US Eagles, Krugerrands or Canadian maple leafs.

I did a couple of articles on legal tender silver and gold coins recently:

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/watson072205.html

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/watson072905.html

The idea is that they provide a safety net above their legal tender value. Gold britannias didn't shape up too well since the premiums were quite high.

Silverity

http://www.newerainvestor.com

Shame we can't demand to be paid our salary in Britannias at 100 pounds each .

But yeah, I wondered about the face value myself, I'd noticed the '100 pounds' stamped on the Britannia when I looked at one recently.

This is not a criticism of gold, but I can't help thinking that although a Britannia might always be worth at 100 pounds as legal tender surely with inflation the real value of that 100 pounds will be eroded, so although a Britannia has a minimum value below which it can't drop, that real value could be an awful lot less with inflation.

Or am I missing a trick here?

Depending on your outlook, are you paying for an ounce of gold or a coin ?

an ounce of gold is an ounce of gold no matter what format it comes in.