If the rate I charge is too low, the entire production will fly off the shelf and I will be stuck with willing and ready buyers willing to pay a far higher price than the one I'm charging, with no product to deliver them.  Whom exactly does that benefit?

On the other hand, if I happen to make a nice profit in the process, I end up with the means to increase production and quality.  I can suddenly afford, and make the business case, to go find and get some robotics to make enough of these things to satisfy the market demand, possibly at a lower price.  I can suddenly tell my silver coin supplier, hey, look, you need to prioritize my order, because I can afford to pay you for bigger orders at a higher tier.  I can start to afford to segregate the created products by quality and simply discard the lowest quality specimens so I'm only delivering the best of my product.  Ultimately, profits for me are good, because they directly lead to my ability and willingness to supply the market with a higher quality cut of the product being demanded.

So, no, it does not cheapen it, to answer your question.  And when the price I'm willing to sell equals the price people are willing to pay, it's very fair.  I will have competitors offering a lower cost product soon enough, probably using software I've given away for free and broadcast loud and clear "use this at no cost to you" to generate private keys for their own product, which I think is more than fair.

Awesome idea. Thanks for sharing!

From a quick look, the first site (VenetFX) is an actual FX trading platform, regulated by the FSA, whereas the second is a separate, non-regulated service, that piggybacks on VenetFX's platform to provide trading on FX pairs (probably with pass-through prices). Accepting only BTC as payments, and counting PnL in BTC, is a way to bypass the requirement for FSA regulation (no need for regulation if you don't take deposits, and because bitcoin is still not recognised as currency in the UK, they are not technically handling clients' money). Personally, if I wanted to trade FX, I would prefer to deal with an FSA regulated platform.

If I have to worry about licensing and who's entitled and not entitled to sell in different countries, then I have to manage a whole lot of things that I am deliberately trying to get out of managing.

I could see myself raising the minimum lot size.  It's a matter of balance.  If the lot size is too small, then individual collectors will bid on them directly, choking out the possibility of emergence of a reseller market.  If the lot size is too big, a lot of valued potential resellers will be shut out of the bidding process, and I see a value to having lots of resellers because a buyer should ideally be able to find a seller in his home country so he doesn't have to deal with international shipping.

I totally understand it may seem disheartening for those of you who have shown enthusiasm, interest, and loyalty to me and my products only to be transitioned to an arrangement where you're competing to buy products with newcomers who aren't.  I ask you put it in perspective.  The dynamics of the market changed overnight, and I am responding to them, appropriately I would hope.

The only thing I can promise is that I will respond true to my own values, which have not changed overnight.  Allow me to reward those who have shown enthusiasm, interest, and loyalty, with respect and favors of the same kind.  Me sending out or offering a closed bidding opportunity on some sort of rare or special items, or giving them as gifts, would be an example of me returning a favor.  Turning my back to the market and rewarding a favor with a fractional monopoly on all of my products and sacrificing my rational self-interest in getting a reasonable market-based wholesale price for the market's new valuation of product is something I'm going to see as a wee bit more weighty than a favor.

so you have seen the privkey for those blanks?

It would be nice if you read what I wrote instead of putting words on my mouth.

On point 1, I said it's free and practically instant to use Faster Payments, not debit/credit cards. Isn't this the case?
Debit/credit card usage of course is NOT free, but this is not an apples to apples comparison, as these methods offer a certain degree of protection so it's really a different product. To compare on similar terms, you can set up a system where you accept payments via Faster Payments, then you won't have to pay a fee. As a professional, you can certainly be paid that way, I have paid people like this many times.
For transfers abroad, you can use services as transferwise or similar ones, for a total cost less than the one it currently takes to transfer back and forth between fiat1 -> BTC -> fiat2. I've transferred between GBP, EUR and USD several times paying a total of 0.5% for the FX conversion compared to interbank prices, for example, if GBP=1.5338USD right now, I would pay 10k GBP to get USD 15261 in the US without any other transaction fees. Admittedly, this transfer is not instant, so clearly BTC has an advantage there, but at a significant cost, currently >3% in total to transfer across all the exchanges/currencies (which may be even more costly than doing a wire transfer from a bank). If you use Lloyds (or any other bank) for transfering money to other countries/currencies, you should check the alternatives, and currently the cheapest one is not BTC.
Either way, the original point was about loss of transactions for banks, which doesn't really seem to be the case, as people still use them despite those fees and the abundance of cheaper alternatives (I forgot the mention an even cheaper alternative, Interactive Brokers, where it would cost you practically nothing, maybe 2bps, to transfer between your different currency accounts - of course if you don't use their trading platform it's very costly due to inactivity fees).
It would be very nice to evolve to a point where BTC exchange fees are driven close to zero from increased competition and economies of scale, and then it becomes practically free to move money across countries with BTC, and I certainly hope this will be the case soon. But within the UK for example I can't see why I would prefer it over Faster Payments (same for within the Eurozone for SEPA etc).

On point 2, read again what I wrote. Deposits are not capital, they are liabilities. Withdrawals of deposits reduce the bank's balance sheet, by removing cash from the asset side and deposits from the liability side. They do not reduce the bank's capital, nor its capacity to lend.

And maybe instead of swearing, you should try arguing a little more politely. Just saying.

He did get a good deal, was only because it was on behalf of a relative of mine who wished to hedge a small amount of his coins incase BTC value remains the same or crashes.
This was a one off deal.
He was going to sell 10 BTC for £1000 but decided to do this instead so technically if the option is excercised he will make an additional £600.
I do not believe BTC will crash and neither does he, but he actually will make more money overall if BTC does jump over £150 - so hopefully it will and be win-win for all parties
He reads this forum but does not post so I am conducting this on his behalf - I also hold the 10 BTC in my posession until the end of this also.

If someone came up with a trading platform (like an exchange) I would be interested in trading options in BTC, settled in GBP. I would even consider proper market making providing bid-offers for an entire strip of options and different maturities. If in a few years, trading volumes have continued to increase at the current rate, I could even consider coming up with such a service as a full time job (not worth it yet though )

A pretty website does not a good business make.

The fact that the second and third dividends were both exactly 10 BTC tells me that he was just paying out a dividend to keep the shareholders quiet, not because ZigGap had actually made any money. I've seen this strategy before with other, now defunct, Bitcoin ventures.

Since the BTCJam loan is overdue, it's only further confirmation that ZigGap is broke.

I sincerely hope that nothing tragic happened to him, family wise, but I know if I was trying to hide from my creditors I would use the family excuse because it's not socially acceptable to question someone's claims when it comes to unfortunate family matters. Even I have to tread carefully while typing this out, lest I be criticized as an inconsiderate bastard.  

The lightning excuse is only icing on the cake; I had to laugh at that one.  

Maybe there's not so much interest in Bitcoin because the City of London being the world's financial capital already has too many other toys to play with.

That said, City forex dealers are missing out on massive profit potential with BTC. What other currency appreciates by 100% in less than a month.

I think it's true the UK banks don't like Bitcoin. Not to mention the government, they never like things or want to support things that they can't control.

I buy from my euro account in Germany via bitcoin24 only 1.24 euro per bank transfer. Unbelievable that the UK banks charge 25 GBP for a SEPA.

What century are they living in. UK banks still issue cheques as well.