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” Blackbirds tend to like Shiny Things” ~ The Bloody Raven

The Whole Bloody Saga

It all started out great when Punky’s Dad and I planned a combined order from Scottsdale Mint a little more than a week after the silver price bloodbath of March 13th. It was a bit of an experiment so all you Canadian stackers please pay attention.

There were five rounds I wanted to order and Punky’s Dad wanted five items as well for a total of ten pieces equaling a total of 14 oz.

We waited a total of nine weeks, six emails sent, five phone calls made, three ‘Promise’ dates pass, two Stackers become very worried and one mystery duty tax bill.

The first issue right off the Bat was the monstrous shipping charge of $45 USD. That’s about a million ‘Canadian Pesos’ so we agreed to split the cost and go ahead with the plan since we are convinced that we will never see these products retail on our side of the border. Explains part of the high premiums here from our retailers.

Next hurdle was that the Website could not process our order due to a Database bug in the mailing address routine so the order was made manually by phone. PayPal wasn’t accepted but Scottsdale accepted the Credit card which took a hefty 5% exchange fee on the transaction, par for the course here.

Since the order was processed manually we could not Log in to enquire on the status of the order as time went by so that gave us the reason to call personally. This was concerning as I was starting to think we may have ordered through a very well made phishing site rather than the real Scottsdale site.

The Scottsdale 5 oz. Poured Bar
Top

There was some feeling of relief when Punky’s Dad got the notifying email of the shipping and the confirmation email from the Fedex Courier having received the package. He was thinking the same as I did, “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.”

The Scottsdale 5 oz. Poured Bar
Bottom

The last hurdle was a shocker. Fedex called and wanted us to prepay the Duty prior to delivery so the Driver and customer could respect the Social distancing practice.
“What Tax?” said Punky’s Dad.
The Fedex Representative replied, “Canada Customs levied a $58 tax as (ROD) Receive On Delivery sir.”

2019 Dominica 2 Dollar
Reverse; Plane over Island, Dominica, Sisserou Amazon Parrot, Flora, 2019 Silver 0.999, 31.1g39mm Diameter, 3.2mm thickMintage of 25000

Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic that shares the larger island of Haiti, Dominica is an Island country known as the most southern of the Leeward Eastern Caribbean Islands formerly and collectively known as the British East Indies.

Christopher Columbus first discovered this Island on his second voyage in his quest to find the new trade route to the Indies. The volcanic Island blessed with its natural beauty in flora and fauna.

The Whole Bloody Saga, continued

To his credit and patience PD put a hold on the delivery and went on to dispute the charge insisting that Canadian Tax laws exempts silver bullion products of 0.999 fineness free of tax. The bill of Lading states that the product is 0.999 fineness and the CBSA had clearly levied the charge in error.

2019 Dominica 2 Dollar
Obverse; EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK, QUEEN ELIZABETH II, 1 oz. .999 SILVER, TWO DOLLARSWreath, Queen Elizabeth II facing rightLegal Tender in Eastern Caribbean, Dominica

A half an hour later PD receives an email from a Fedex Customs Liaison reporting that the package is now exempt of the $58 charge and forwarded the parcel back into delivery status.
PD gets the bird coins, and I get the Rum Runners.

1965 East Caribbean One Dollar
Front: $1,Chart. East Caribbean Currency Authority, One Dollar, Queen Elizabeth II, $1Reference P-13d(2)

We split the silver coins between us but he slides the Scottsdale 5 oz. bar to me and says, “Oh by the way Kerris, this is your tip and thanks for looking after my Mrs.”
My jaw dropped, "You're kidding!"

1965 East Caribbean One Dollar
Back; $1, Island coastal scene, Watermark of Queen Elizabeth II, $1Montserrat, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Antigua, St. Christopher, Nevis, Anguilla, ONE DOLLARPrinter Thomas De La Rue, London

Closing thoughts

First is don't let the CBSA get away with charging a Duty on 0.999 Bullion, period.

I’m glad that I am able to get the rounds and coins I wanted to get but ordering across the border is fraught with so many barriers I can understand why Canadian dealers carry a limited line of a Mint’s products along with a higher premium.

Again, I thank without end, Punky’s Dad for combining our orders together that made it more worthwhile endeavoring into this retail experiment and him loaning his Dominica coin and Banknote for me to share with you. I can see why he selected this lovely coin for his Silver Birds and Banknote collection.

R

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Reference notes

1. All are my own pictures shot with a Samsung SM-A530W unless otherwise indicated. P. Image under PixabayR. Clip art from 123RF W. Wiki Commons

Numista: EC8 2 DollarsScottsdale Mint 2 Dollar DominicaBritannica: Dominica

From SSG now #silvergoldstackers

“Et lux in tenebris to serve laboro, sum sicarius” “I work in the shadows to serve the Light, I am an Assassin”