The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom, one of the world's leading mints and manufacturers of circulating and commemorative coins, has established a disturbing precedent by actively advising UK banks not to redeem collector coins at face value-despite the fact that the Royal Mint states in its online product descriptions that collector coins are legal tender in the UK.

It's a move that troubles industry insiders and the British public, many of whom were unaware that the commemorative coins they've bought over the years have no practical monetary value.

The issue came to prominence at the end of 2015, when the Mint learned of a scheme wherein buyers would order bulk quantities of the Buckingham Palace £100 commemorative coin only to later redeem them at face value.

According to article published in January 9 by the UK financial website thisismoney.uk, one man purchased 293 of the coins in order to accrue airline miles on his credit card.

It wasn't his first time, either. The man, identified only as "James", said he would "purchase the face value of coins of £20, £50 and £100 and max out [his] credit card." Then he would take the coins to a branch of HSBC Bank and redeem them.

This seemed to work, until it didn't.

For while James was making deposits, the bank was seeking guidance from the Royal Mint on what to do with these precious metal commemorative coins - coins that, while advertised as "legal tender", were not intended for circulation.

Fortunately for James (but maybe not so much for his preferred bank branch), he unloaded 210 of the coins before being told that the remaining 80 would not be accepted.

At the time of this writing, 80 £100 pound commemorative coins, if convertible to circulating money, would have a value of US$11,303, with an intrinsic value of approximately $2,441.60.

... the Royal Mint provides the following guidelines for the maximum legal tender of each of the coin denominations that it strikes:

It is interesting to note that the coin denominations of £20, £50 and £100 are all special commemorative issues, and not struck for general circulation. Yet, according to the Royal Mint, coins in these denominations have unlimited legal tender status.

To read the complete article, see:
How The Royal Mint is Attempting to Redefine "Legal Tender" for Collector Coins (www.coinweek.com/opinion/royal-mint-redefines-legal-tender-coin-collectors/)