ordered 4 gold sovereigns and received 4 differing busts

I admit that I buy a little gold "for a rainy day." I don't buy it at speculation or investment level-and I always buy physical gold over paper gold. I'm a firm believer in that old analysis.....

"100 hundred years ago a man could buy a quality tailored suit for $20 currency or a single $20 gold piece. Today a man may buy a nice suit and have it tailored to size for $1500 currency, or roughly 1 $20 gold piece." Give or take a few bucks in either direction, it doesn't matter-the point is the same, currency continues to decline in purchasing power drastically.

No, I'm not lauding or pushing people to be "goldbugs" or try and get rich quick with PM's. We have had many people on this board pushing others to buy precious metals. I remember one journaling member reported almost daily on the rising value of silver and the need to keep buying--even as silver reached $45, then $48, then $50 an ounce--"I expect it to hit $100--keep buying, the gold to silver historic ratio...yada, yada, yada..." In the end when silver dropped back under $20 an ounce I heard nary a whisper from that guy ( or even apologies in case anyone listened to him and lost their shirt.) He did post about selling many of his pour bars a few months ago--probably at $25 an ounce--but never mentioned that most of them were purchased at 50 to 100% of what he was reselling them for.

So, what little I buy is hopefully for the long haul holdings--maybe to liquidate for some living cash in 20 years when I retire

My small amounts are almost always limited to 1/4 oz to 1 ounce and hopefully they also have some numismatic qualities that I can enjoy. It is actually unusual for me to buy 4 at a time of the same type or denomination. I like to get a rooster, an angel, an old napolean, a maple leaf, krugerand, AGE etc...one 1/4 oz piece of different designs ( raw also most often--I like to handle the gold coins.) I still want one of those 50 peso gold mexican coins--just beautiful--and I never purchased the $20 High Relief gold eagle and now it will cost me quite a bit more to have one.

I recently watched a BBC or history channel show as an informative piece about gold mining. Currently, it costs the larger mines in China and Africa around $1200 an ounce to mine, smelt, test, pour, ship and sell the gold they dig. This got me thinking that now might be the time for me personally to add a little more--get it while the gettins good.

So I place an order with Silvertowne. I use them often because they are always having various sales on "Hot Items" that are near melt costs and if you can find a Hot Item with a free shipping category, then you can get even nicer bargains. So I order 4 sovereigns-roughly 1 ounce total of gold--and to my surprise and enjoyment, they selected me 4 different busts.

It's pretty cool that they did this--just shows some extra customer appreciation, which in a day and age where waitresses sigh at you, fast food cashiers roll their eyes when you order food and grocery clerks stare at the size of your grocery cart and shake their head when you enter their line---a small sign of customer appreciation is very welcome.

Not any beauties and not numismatic quality--but still fun for me to have 1 of each type--2 different victoria busts and a R facing and L facing George sovereign---almost makes me want to start a sovereign type set---almost.

PS: I don't want anyone to think that I am asserting that gold can not drop below $1200 an ounce in the future--demand, inflation, deflation, govt policies about individual holding rights--lots of things could affect the value. I only was reporting what the documentary was stating about the costs for large mining operations and deep digging... happy hunting e1

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