7 coin gift box arrived

[quintain]

Unexpectedly with no message the following box with coins (see pics) arrived, correctly addressed to me.
I have done reasonable google search but I cannot find what the coins are made from, the cost/value etc.
Can any one tell me what they are and where they can be viewed online.
I will wait to hear from someone telling me they have sent them. i.e. family-friend-business contact.

 

[PerryGunn]

Have you taken out a subscription to the Daily Mail - if so, they're been sent to you free...

https://www.mymail.co.uk/pages/commemorative-coin-collection

 

[ajs]

Well the box tells you they're from the Mail, as I type this I see PerryGunn has supplied the same link I've found. Have you recently subscribed, or do you have any other relationship with them, e.g. long time subscriber, written to them, supplier or anything? I wouldn't be surprised if they overordered and are looking for other routes to get rid of them.

Notional value is £49.99 but that is essentially a made up number. They have no intrinsic value being neither legal tender or precious metal, there'll be too many for any rarity value and lack any "official" standing to create a demand. Quite possibly the most expensive part of that is the box.

 

[quintain]

Thank you both PerryGun & AJS

Yes I took out a weekly subscription last year to the Times & The Mail.
So they are free and unexpected with visual but no other value.
I will consider placing them in a "out of reach-top of shelf-dark area" and tell our guests of the exceptionally high value!!! gotta be worth a try after a couple of glasses of red wine!!

Thanks again.

Regards
Richard

 

[Stan]

Strictly speaking these are not coins but commemorative medallions. ajs is spot-on about them having no purchasing power. They will have value as collectors items, but it is likely to be low.

By the way, a lot of people have an incorrect view of the meaning of the term "legal tender". It does not mean "can be spent in shops as money". It refers to payments for pre-existing debt, not for buying/selling in a shop and paying at the time of sale. If you buy/sell with an agreement to pay later, then it will apply as there will be a pre-existing debt when payment becomes due.

You can pay in shops or pay off a debt using anything you like, as long as the other party is happy to accept what is offered. If you offer to pay a debt using something that is not legal tender the other party can refuse to accept it and still sue you for payment because the debt still stands. If you offer to pay a debt using legal tender and this is refused, you cannot then be sued as you have offered to discharge the debt.

What is legal tender varies from place to place. In the UK Bank of England banknotes are legal tender along with coins of £1 and above. Smaller value coins vary as legal tender according to the size of the debt. For example, if somebody chooses to pay off a debt with a van-load of pennies as a protest, this can be refused and the debt would still stand as pennies and tuppences are only legal tender for debt up to 20p. Bank of Scotland banknotes are not legal tender, but are widely accepted.

 

[Richard_C]

If you are a woodturner or box maker and like such things you might be able to make use of them as medallion style inlays.

Nothing is free. Lord Rothermere (non dom for tax purposes, non tax paying estimated £1.6bn net worth owner of the Mail group, arch-brexiteer and outspoken supporter of Johnson and Truss) doesn't strike me as a generous person. Somewhere in the deep bowels of the marketing department there will have been a careful calculation of likely uptake and likely duration of subscription - our innate inertia and fomo means that when we sign up for such things we often stick with it for years - to work out the return on the investment. Sort of adult version of the free squirt ring you got with the beano comic back in the '50s.

 

[quintain]

All are now located slightly visible to visitors on a top, darkish, corner shelf, ..BTW I cleared the spider web while I was up the ladder.

 

[schnapps95]

Strictly speaking these are not coins but commemorative medallions. ajs is spot-on about them having no purchasing power. They will have value as collectors items, but it is likely to be low.

By the way, a lot of people have an incorrect view of the meaning of the term "legal tender". It does not mean "can be spent in shops as money". It refers to payments for pre-existing debt, not for buying/selling in a shop and paying at the time of sale. If you buy/sell with an agreement to pay later, then it will apply as there will be a pre-existing debt when payment becomes due.

You can pay in shops or pay off a debt using anything you like, as long as the other party is happy to accept what is offered. If you offer to pay a debt using something that is not legal tender the other party can refuse to accept it and still sue you for payment because the debt still stands. If you offer to pay a debt using legal tender and this is refused, you cannot then be sued as you have offered to discharge the debt.

What is legal tender varies from place to place. In the UK Bank of England banknotes are legal tender along with coins of £1 and above. Smaller value coins vary as legal tender according to the size of the debt. For example, if somebody chooses to pay off a debt with a van-load of pennies as a protest, this can be refused and the debt would still stand as pennies and tuppences are only legal tender for debt up to 20p. Bank of Scotland banknotes are not legal tender, but are widely accepted.

What is the position with gold coins then? a new gold sovereign is still legal tender at £1 but the gold content is anywhere between £300.00 to £400.00 so you would'nt spend it in a shop and if it's not legal tender then it would have to be hallmarked. Also i think the 1oz gold Brittania is classed as legal tender at £100.00 ( which is actually on the coin ) but to buy would cost in the region of £1500.00 Would some knowledgable person please explain. Than you

 

[J-G]

That's an interesting point which I hadn't previously considered - Hallmarking of 'Coinage' - I do know that to commercially trade any article made from Gold which weighs in excess of 1g Troy must be Hallmarked and any gold coin will certainly fall into that category.

I've just checked with my local Assay office and can confirm that Coinage is exempt from the law on Hallmarking. The purity (which is what the Hallmark guarantees) of bullion, and therefore investment coinage, is guarnateed by the London Bullion Market Association.

Although this information is correct, there are coins which do have 'identification' marks which may well take a form similar to a Hallmark. Specifically, The Tower of London issue a collection which are marked.

 

[ajs]

What is the position with gold coins then? a new gold sovereign is still legal tender at £1 but the gold content is anywhere between £300.00 to £400.00 so you would'nt spend it in a shop and if it's not legal tender then it would have to be hallmarked. Also i think the 1oz gold Brittania is classed as legal tender at £100.00 ( which is actually on the coin ) but to buy would cost in the region of £1500.00 Would some knowledgable person please explain. Than you

Things work a bit different with coins no matter where they're from, provided they are legal tender somewhere. The design of the coin is in essence the state's stamp of approval, akin to a hallmark. The precious metal coins are (excepting historical examples) valued for their metal content rather than the nominal face vlaue - that tends to be more for legal and tax reasons than anything else, since if you are buying currency it is a purely financial transaction. Europe as a whole exempted fine gold (from memory 22ct+) from VAT while we were still in there, but that exemption does not apply to e.g. silver. Thus if as a private investor you want to invest in silver and buy silver bullion you pay VAT on it, which eats into your returns. If you buy e.g. silver Britannias you don't.