UK Mint Tells Banks To Refuse Deposits Of Commemorative Coins

I find this amusing!

In this instance, I have no sympathy for "James". He highly overextended his opportunity to make a profit at someone else's expense. To me, it's similar to those who figure out ways to cheat to get 'free' welfare money.

I'm sure that his well would not have dried up if he had performed at a more reasonable level. This goes for some coin roll hunters also. One or two boxes a week is tolerably, but when they start dumping at a higher rate and their bank finally tells them "sorry, no more", they start blabbing like a baby. Of course, both cases end up hurting people who (though they act properly and orderly) get caught in the same net. It's really just the matter of hurting many hobbyists with the abuse of a few others.

The banks in Canada will take the face value silver coins and the other NCLT as well. Not a problem. There is a directive from the RCM on file.

But in the USA, the Presidential dollars were and still are redeemable at banks. The UK government should not be stating that the coins they are issuing are legal tender if in actuality they are not legal tendar.

In the UK legal tender does not mean what most UK people think it means.

Most people think it means money that can legally be spent in shops etc. Quite a lot of people even think that there is some sort of obligation for shops to sell goods which are on display. Both are incorrect.

Where there is a pre-existing debt, if the debtor offers payment in legal tender the other party cannot then sue for non-payment of the debt. The debtor can pay in anything they like, including goods, as long as the creditor is prepared to accept it.

At the point of sale in a shop there is no pre-existing debt, so the concept of legal tender does not apply. Shops are not under an obligation to sell, so can refuse a sale even if the customer is offering payment in valid currency. Shops can accept any form of payment they wish. Many big London stores will accept Euros. I have known some English stores refuse to accept Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes.

Not at all, this all came about because some folks wanted to getting something for nothing.

They were buying the 100 for 100 coins from The Royal Mint at face value with free delivery on their credit card and they were earning miles for airline or building up a cash back balance on their credit card.

Once the coins arrived, they were depositing them into their bank account and then repay their amount on their credit card.

Royal Mint was losing money due to credit card fees and postage fees.

So rather than restrict the number coins that a person could buy, they just stopped the ability to cash the coins in. The coins were never meant to be used a means of currency.

In the UK, when you go into a shop, you are making an offer to buy which the shop has an option to accept or not. Many shops refuse to accept the £50 Bank of England bank notes and no one makes at big deal about that.

So this whole saga with the folks not being able to redeem their £20 for £20. £50 for £50, or £100 for £100 coins is really a non-story just some folks unhappy that someone figured out their little credit card miles/cashback scheme. Daily Mail loves running such stories about people gaming the system.

Can you please explain your outage about not being able to bank modest numbers of commerative coins?

http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/po...r-guidelines

"We receive a lot of enquiries about our popular silver commemorative coins (including £5 crowns, £20, £50 and £100 coins) and their legal tender status. Each issue is authorised by Royal Proclamation in accordance with the requirements laid down by the Coinage Act 1971. This means that in common with coins in general circulation these coins have legal tender status.

Please note that whilst the coins are legal tender, they are not designed for general circulation, so banks and shops will not accept the coins. The Royal Mint cannot accept returns of such coins outside of the 14 days return policy."

So I don't understand why anyone would buy the £20 for £20, £50 for £50, or £100 for £100 with the idea of banking them in the future.

The £5 coin has not been available at face value for several years now. So I doubt anyone would buy one from the mint for over their face value and then bank it later on.

There is an earlier thread to be found on this exact same subject, here, posted back when the article was first published in January.

As I said in that older thread, the Mint isn't saying anything the banks shouldn't already know. And frankly, it's none of the Mint's business what people do with coins once the Mint strikes them and hands them over to the government for distribution. It's the government's job to make laws on what people can and can't do with legal tender, and as of right now, the laws are clear: the coins are "legal tender for any amount". Whether the coins were "meant" to be used as money or not is irrelevant, if the legal basis for using them as money is identical to the basis for using circulating coinage as money.

I'd also respectfully disagree with the Mint's assertions that these coins are "commemorative". What, exactly, are the Big Ben and Buckingham Palace coins "commemorating", for example, other than the actual existence of these monuments?

The "problem" is entirely of the Mint's making, in (a) issuing exotic coins with high face value and then selling them for that face value, and (b) in accepting credit card payments for them.