I have just leared that Austria has finally jumped on the bandwagon and started producing a silver bullion coin to go along with the U.S., Canada, Australia, China, and Great Britain to name a few! Seeing how the 2008 is the FIRST year of issue I will be needing to get my paws on a few of them. I am already seeing a price of over $33 being advertised here which is tad bit out of line so I thought some of our members on the other side of the big pond might keep and eye out for the bullion coin and going prices and keep US posted on such? Sure would appreciate it!
I think they are available for 6 weeks now and I posted 6 cheap shops on Coinpeople forum at the time
They sold more then a million allready and in Europe essentially cost the same as a Silver Eagle that is like 16 euro apiece since we have a silver tax which is different in every European country
However the wrapping is a disaster
I saw reports from switzerland that a box of 500 had about 7% shaking out of their wrappings and they were selling the coins in two categories
Unwrapped or damaged and prime quality
It is reported that the Austrian mint is trying to get adequate wrapping or tubes by April
So myself I will not touch them before I can get something better then MS60 with real bangs and scratches
I bought my last lot of Silver Eagles here but of course no Eagles and no Maples left in Europe neither
http://www.muenzdiscount.de/shop/index.php/cat/c7_Muenzen-1oz.htmlMore expensive but reliable
http://www.argentarius.de/shop/index.php/cat/c2_Silber.html/XTCsid/b1e7c8fd4e067220f679c9b75ea672dfTotally sold out now
http://www.geiger-edelmetalle.de/index.php/cat/c2_-b-1-oz---Bullionmuenzen-b--.html14.70 Euro but at least three weeks delivery queing
http://westgold.de/Available by 20,100,500 quantities
http://silber-philharmoniker.cshop.de/index.cgi?pid=3065&cart_id=2915440.15646&catid=&angelbote=1Since these people change price daily and since the guy I bought from during 4 years now his dead and his son refuses to sell outside germany I have bought from several of these guys and they are all on the list of "good" dealers in my German forum
However be prepaired for mailing cost to be a big part of the coin ( I do not have one but if I had it would cost me 15 dollars to send it by registered mail )
I finally sent that crucifix to an american costing me 40$ in mailing cost and he promised to send a bottle of perfume back which he did'nt so I kind of stopped posting on that forum too