British Royal Mint Customer Complains He Was Left with £29,300 of Coins After One Bank Refused Them

A news item in This is Money http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...rmiles-cash-bank-s-refusing-accept-them.html?
states that a UK buyer ordered £29,300 worth of £100 face value legal tender silver coins, so he could get free flights from his MBNA credit card, complained when HSBC bank refused to take them, then a second bank Santander refused his final £8,000 having already taken the bulk of them.

I have submitted this comment on the article:
It is a shame that the recipient's details have been redacted on the Royal Mint letter. It is clearly not addressed to James. Nicky appears to be employed by a cash handling centre, possibly a bank.
The letter itself is unclear as to who the "members" it refers to are. Are these "members" of the Royal Mint's coin collectors' club, or are they members of the British Banking Association, or some other organisation?
From the letter, it is unclear on how owners should transport their coins to the Mint, and who should pay the shipping and insurance on them.
Their is also a very clear inference that if the coins are not in their original packaging, and with their original receipt, then the Royal Mint will refuse to accept them. It is regrettable, but unsurprising, that Cheryl Morgan failed to specify this point explicitly.
When the RM issued the first of its "face value" £20 silver coins in 2013, we published a warning at:http://www.chards.co.uk/news/twenty-pounds-worth-twenty-pounds/

We will shortly be adding a new blog about this.

In addition, I do think it was naive and greedy for James to expect to get a "free lunch" in the form of two business class return flights worth over £5000. This is one of the unpalatable faces of modern consumerism, exacerbated by banks somewhat unethical practices of offering cashback and other incentives for people to use credit cards, the fees for which are ultimately paid by cash and cleared-fund paying consumers.

One London coin dealer stated at the time (in 2013), that these £20 coins would only be worth their silver content (under £5) in future. Perhaps he was right, in which case the newer £100 face value coins are worth less than £20.

I think some clarification by the Royal Mint is overdue.

 

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I took my silver £20`s to the post office and they changed them right away.

 

Simple. Don't pay the CC bill, they sue for the money, pay in these phony coins.

Unhappily the term legal tender in the UK does not include the words 'for all debts, public and private'.

I'd really like to see someone take this to court, and I'd put money on it that the Mint would really, really not want this to happen.

 

Looks like his gamble didn't pay off. He's lucky to have been able to offload as many as he did.

 

Several Canadians have been similarly distraught whence they occasioned to take those $20 for $20 coins to banks there.