£5 coin - 80th birthday Queen Elizabeth II

Just got a flier in this morning's post, saying I have been "specially selected" to be offered the chance to buy the Royal Mint's new £5 coin to commemorate the Queen turning 80. It will apparently cost only £5, post free.

Language like that smells like a scam to me, but I have found the same offer on what does genuinely seem to be the Royal Mail's website. Which makes me curious about how they can afford to send you a coin that is worth £5, post free. If they are bearing the costs of postage and of this marketing, and so on, I reckon that must mean they are only making about £4 after costs. So who is taking the £1 loss?

Does anyone out there know how the Royal Mint operates? Do they have to pay the government £5 in order to mint each £5 commemorative coin? Or do they pay £4? Or what?
koru
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Comments

  • Postmen are going to be busy - no disrespect to posties intended!
  • tatts_2
    tatts_2 Posts: 255 Forumite
    Not sure about the post free bit.........think they usually charge for p+p
    But if you go into your local post office, you should be able to buy them for £5 anyway! (they usually have them just behind the glass partition in all our post offices, on display) If in doubt, the on foot method is probably the best bet?!?
    Tatts :hello: :kisses2:
  • Mumstheword
    Mumstheword Posts: 3,760
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    If they have your address they will probably plague you with offers of other coins they bring out in the future, obviously at profit to them, which they hope you will buy to make it a collection.
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  • melancholly
    melancholly Posts: 7,457
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    i was given a £5 coin for a present a few years ago and have resisted the temptation to spend it (and at times when i've had very little money the temptation has been great!) - would shops accept it as payment, or do they go up in value and become worth holding on to?!
    :happyhear
  • It's legit. I've got mine.
    When it comes to thought, some people stop at nothing.........
  • jimladin
    jimladin Posts: 42 Forumite
    By buying these "special edition" coins you are effectively gifting the treasury money for nothing. They know that the majority of people that buy them will hold onto them (ie not spend them) that means that a fiver - or whatever the coin is worth- has been gained by them.

    The only flipside (pardon the pun) is that the coin may increase in value... which in my opinion is quite unlikely
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,494
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    tatts wrote:
    Not sure about the post free bit.........think they usually charge for p+p
    But if you go into your local post office, you should be able to buy them for £5 anyway! (they usually have them just behind the glass partition in all our post offices, on display) If in doubt, the on foot method is probably the best bet?!?
    No, it is absolutely clear that there is no p&p.

    I have the same point with the Post Office - presumably someone is paying them to carry out the service of selling the coin, so the net proceeds will be less than £5.
    koru
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,494
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    If they have your address they will probably plague you with offers of other coins they bring out in the future, obviously at profit to them, which they hope you will buy to make it a collection.
    I suspect you are right. Perhaps that explains why they are selling at a price that will not cover their costs. If A&L can afford to pay me £50 to open a bank account with them, perhaps the Royal Mint is willing to bear £1 of costs in the hope I will buy other stuff from them.
    koru
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,494
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    jimladin wrote:
    By buying these "special edition" coins you are effectively gifting the treasury money for nothing. They know that the majority of people that buy them will hold onto them (ie not spend them) that means that a fiver - or whatever the coin is worth- has been gained by them.
    Yep, its a pretty good racket. Perhaps for this reason the Treasury expect the Royal Mint to pass on only £3. Ok, it is less than the face value, but as you say, most people will sit on them for years, so the treasury is still £3 up and Royal Mint makes a nice profit.
    koru
  • quoia
    quoia Posts: 14,428
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    jimladin wrote:
    By buying these "special edition" coins you are effectively gifting the treasury money for nothing. They know that the majority of people that buy them will hold onto them (ie not spend them) that means that a fiver - or whatever the coin is worth- has been gained by them.

    The only flipside (pardon the pun) is that the coin may increase in value... which in my opinion is quite unlikely

    Some years ago I got 250 AIRMILES by buying these.

    I took advantage at the time of a similar offer (today I think you can only buy 1 coin with free P&P per application)

    I "bought" 1000 coins for £5000 with FREE P&P on a credit card where each £20 earned an Airmile.

    I duly received 2 boxes, each about 18" x 9" x 6", and each weighed about the same as a sack of potatoes (about 25kgs). Each box contained 25 plastic tubes of 20 coins.

    I swapped many of the coins at work for banknotes - friends and colleagues taking between 1 and 10 for their kids, themselves, their family etc for presents or similar.

    I paid a load (in several deposits) into a few of my accounts at banks and building societies, and even used £1200 of them as deposit for a car at a local dealership.

    By the time the credit card bill arrived I'd moved all the money back into my current account (except the car deposit, which was already there since I'd not written the cheque I planned to) and paid it off in full - like I always do.

    250 Airmiles for free - well about 2 hours of my time everything considered
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