I realise that it has been quite a long time in between making silver posts, but I had been stacking steadily during the last year. However, the Coronavirus time has put a bit of a tight hold on my buying as we have had little in the way of disposable cash for my collecting! Plus, the higher price of silver means that I'm more tempted to start selling a bit of the collection, the less good examples of historical coins and that sort of thing that I had picked up generally for the silver composition rather than the beauty of the coin!

Still, there is quite a backlog of interesting pieces that I had added to the collection over the year before... and this particular group is a pretty interesting one!

I have very little in the way of physical gold in my collection... generally, the prices on eBay on the sellers that I trust tend to rocket way past my limit and so it doesn't tend to be the sort of pieces that make their way to me! However, I do have some digital representations of gold (PMGT, backed by the Perth Mint in Australia) which you can purchase on Kucoin and is redeemable for physical gold from the Perth Mint!

However, in this particular bidding round, I got lucky and happened to be the highest bidder (still around the market price for gold in euros about 12 months ago!) still standing when the auction finished. Which meant that I added my FIRST piece of physical gold to my collection! I was so excited to receive it, silver is very nice... and I do think that it also looks better than gold anyway, plus the larger size of the silver coins make for more area to make pretty designs!

It's quite amazing how little the gold pieces are though... they are pretty damn cute! Placed next to a AA battery, you can see how tiny they actually are! About the size of a fingernail!

Along with the little gold bar was a Netherlands Antilles non-circulating silver coin with a nominal value of 25 Gulden from 1979. I actually have a few of these already, but I do love the design on this... and seeing as I try to keep the limit to the rough price of the silver composition I'm not too fussed about picking up extras! Plus, it gives me some leeway to sell of any that are in less good condition.

This particular coin was for the celebration of the UNICEF International Year of the Child, you can see the symbols flanking the 25 Gulden marking, and features a ring of children playing and the Dutch Queen Juliana on the reverse.

Weighing in at around 27 grams with a silver content of 92.5%, it is actually quite a largish coin with a nice heft to it. I love the clean design and subject of the coin! This one is one of the better examples of the coin that I have, which definitely frees up one or two of the other examples for eventual sale.

There are some instances where I will pay a bit more of a premium over the silver price... and that generally is for Science or Music themed coins. I can't resist these ones, especially if they are of Classical composers or famous Scientists! This particular coin is one of my prized pieces in my collection, just because it is a Scientist and a great role model for my little girls.

Marie Curie needs very little introduction, as a researcher in the early 20th century... she was instrumental in the discovery of radiation, much to the detriment of her own health. As such, she is one of the most revered figures in the history of Science... and also of France.

This coin comes in three different flavours, a circulating coin (100 Francs, 15 grams, 90% silver), a pure silver variant (100 Francs, 15 grams) and a gold version (100 Francs, 17 grams, 92% gold). All were minted in the 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Marie Curie, and my particular version is the circulating coin.

As you can see, it has quite a bit of tarnishing around the lettering on both sides, but otherwise, the design is in okay condition. It was a bit of a toss up whether I was more excited to receive this coin in the box, or the little gold bar... I have to say, it was probably more this coin that I was more overjoyed about!

The last coin in the package was this 1985 coin from Canada which is a commemoration for the 100 years of National Parks. I have enjoyed collecting the Canadian coins (dollars), they always seem to have a nice weight and feel to them coupled with nice designs. This particular coin is only 50% silver content, but it has such a nice moose design on it... plus, a pretty decent rendition of our QUEEN!

It was a non-circulating coin, and as such, there are many more examples in good state. This coin has seen no tarnishing and is in pretty good state. From memory, I have another example of this coin in my collection... but slightly less shiny!

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