Chards Coin And Bullion Dealer: 60 Years In The Making
Synopsis
Since our foundation as R and L coins back in 1964 we have been known under the various monikers of Chard 1964 Ltd, Chards (with an “S”), taxfreegoldco.uk, 24carat.co.uk, goldsovereigns.co.uk, eurocoins.co.uk, and more recently “Chards Coin and Bullion Dealer” which is our primary trading name. We have over 40 website domains, so it is very likely you have engaged with our business without even realising we are behind the content with websites dating as far back as 1998! In this article we explain more about our personal service, online presence and proliferation of our business.
Award Winning Local Business
As a business we have taken pride in straying away from the overly corporate approach taken by many of our sector’s major and emerging players.
Number 1 Bullion Dealer - As Voted By Customers
Our service and expertise has always remained at the forefront of what we do, allowing us to carve out our unique position in the coin and bullion industry, championing our historically proven authenticity and passion. Our commitment to upholding these practices has been officially recognised with our team being awarded the prestigious title of UK Bullion Dealer Of The Year 4 times running! We are proud to have been awarded UK Bullion Dealer of The Year from 2015-18
The success we enjoy is built upon honest business practices, getting our customers the best deal, publishing educational material and showcasing over 20,000 products online. As a result, the business has enjoyed success with Chards outgrowing two showrooms and reaching the status of a multi-million pound company. We have been there since the world came off the gold standard, through the rise of private gold and silver ownership, the introduction of fractional coin sizes, VAT changes, anti-money laundering regulations and the introduction of controls on gold trading. Our extensive knowledge has allowed us to successfully traverse the challenges of a constantly evolving industry, keeping our customers satisfied and adjusting our service to meet their needs.
See For Yourself
We believe in engaging with the community both online and in person. You can find us in our impressive showroom (where you don’t even need to book an appointment) and at coin fairs both here in the UK and across the world. This physical presence allows anyone to interact with our specialist staff at any time they wish, which is not always the case with our competition who either have appointment only or no showroom at all! Our staff (many of whom have worked over 10 years for us) have been selected for their attentive service and their ability to accommodate the needs of beginner and experienced investors alike. Our showroom comprises an expanse of coins from across the globe, with our strong rooms holding coins from the Roman era to this year’s new releases. We can cater for those with the most eclectic of taste to collectors sourcing an elusive dated piece.
A Secure Way To Do Business
This level of personal service extends to every aspect of Chards, with each step of the buying and selling experience conducted in house helping to control and maintain the quality of the products we sell. We go to great lengths to protect your privacy, investing tens of thousands of pounds each year to optimise our systems. Our website, databases and servers are even subject to ethical hacking audits by a CREST approved company, so you can take confidence we are at the forefront of digital security and do everything we can to maintain confidentiality for our customers. We even shred printed data on site with GDPR compliant equipment rather than sending paperwork away to be shredded minimising third party risk. The costs to maintain our systems are staggering (considering customers never see a direct benefit) and we invite you to probe other dealers to see how serious they take privacy and security, asking whether they go to the same lengths we do.
Our Online Showroom
After leading the digital charge since 1998 we have remained on the cutting edge of online e-commerce, ensuring that the confidence placed in Chards is reflected in our modern-day site which provides a seamless and safe experience on any device.
As a renowned and well trusted figure in the gold and bullion industry we innovate in any way that echoes our motto to “inform, educate and inspire”. This helps us enhance every aspect of coin collecting and/or the investment customer journey. This is at the foundation of the Chards brand, with our founder Lawrence Chard dispensing our fifty five years’ experience online (for free!) since 1998. We never ask you sign up or pay to read our educational content and believe it is in the interests of consumers that it is freely accessible. Whilst in the late 90's a simple one-page site would have been sufficient, these days our sites have grown to over 25,000 pages and counting!
Unlike many firms within our industry we don’t follow the grain but instead innovate for the benefit of our customers and readers. We could say with confidence some of our pages cost us more money to produce and maintain than they generate in revenue. We do this to follow our values whilst bringing pages which are unique, amusing and informative. We have over 5 decades of knowledge and experience which we bring to you through professionally curated and easily accessible guides that provide advice on buying and selling precious metals whilst also commenting on the state of the market through our news channels. There are few other dealers who act as such an integral source of information or central hub for the coin collecting or investing community. We have hundreds of articles detailing the lineage of renowned coins, the heritage each design holds and the latest news and updates on the markets significant, economical and geopolitical influences. Each product we offer is also accompanied by rich insights, allowing our customers to make fully informed purchases with clarity, understanding and peace of mind. We also cultivate the trust and respect of our customers through the transparency at which we operate. For example, ensuring our premiums are not only visible but easily comparable, making assessing the best purchase for your investment or collection needs as simple as possible. It is not just about maximising profit for us and we want to see you get the best deal you can and we hope through this practice you become a returning customer.
We even have a feedback system from verified buyers which results in daily improvements on the site and we will inform those customers of updates who were kind enough to leave constructive feedback. All communication is conducted by real staff (not an outsourced call centre) which helps maintain our personal approach across the whole business.
An Honest, Personal Service
Since taking the business online in 1998, Chards has been proud to maintain a mantra of transparency and expertise alongside exceptional service. We prefer to deal in person where we can and always invite you to our showroom if you can make it. The online medium may lack the intimacy and personal nature of the face to face dealings but without it you might never find us!
Tightly Packed
Imagine if we tried to put 20,000 products on display, we would likely have to have a showroom as big as a two storey Tesco Extra! In the old days of 10 Dale Street and 521 Lytham Road we could barely present 1% of our physical stock due to a lack of space, whereas our new showroom is large enough to boast a good range of display items across our core products. We use our website as an extension of our showroom allowing customers to browse thousands of products that would otherwise not be on show. If you do see an item in our “digital showroom” you can always come and see it in person without an appointment but it does help if you tell us what it is beforehand as it can take time to pull out coins from stock.
Honest Self Promotion
This article aims to educate but also help customers realise there is a lot to our business; sometimes it's necessary to point out the good bits as otherwise they go unnoticed. We see a lot of company self promotion that is misleading and dishonest and hopefully our discussion above has laid out why we believe we are the best coin and bullion dealer in the UK. Don't just take our word, here is what our customers have to say.
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