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I notice the site has set up sub fora for halfs & fulls. Being an officionado of doubles both modern and vintage, I wouldn’t want the the double sovereign to be forgotten or passed by. It’s greater size all the more impressive in hand without potentially mortgaging your liver to pay for the Quintuple. By way of recognising the denomination I’ve posted a few nice examples I have from the vintage side

I've only been collecting for less than a year so for me budget has been key. I started with a modern date run to build up the numbers from zero, one per month and if I had some spare change I've added an extra one here and there... I suspect as many of us do, I've then traded some for more historic/numismatic pieces. For me it will be a matter of rinse and repeat as it's the only way financially I can obtain some truly wonderful and historic coins.

You don't see a lot of Machins in general bullion circulation in my experience. I recently got a handful in and they flew out again so fast I made a note to put up prices a bit higher next time! When you compare the official mintages (whether these are to be trusted or not I know not) there are around 37 million for the Machin portrait compared to 315 million of George V, and while more of the GVs will by now have been melted down, I'm sure they still vastly outnumber the Machins. Until recently I assumed the portrait by Arnold Machin was the same as his portrait on the stamp (the most reproduced artwork in history), but in fact they are distinctly different, not least as the portraits face different directions! I prefer the Machin portrait to the Gillick portrait, which I find a bit "soft", but not sure if that's down to the engraving or the strike.

Afternoon! I am by no means an expert on branch mint halves! I have consider branching out (forgive the pun) to collect these little beauties but stopped myself because I need to first complete my London coins first! However, I can answer some points below. First though, I must admit that I have the fairly easy to come by 1925 and 1926 SA halves. Two recent versions in beautiful condition were sent to PCGS for restoration last month so can update on those if there is interest! So I have already started to not just think outside of London….. As for the 1897 Sydney, this is what I can see from my books and other brief research: 1. Marsh First Edition (see pic) confirms ‘Not known’. Published in 1982. 2. Marsh Second Edition (see pic) confirms ‘Not known’. Published 2004. 3. Marsh/Hill ‘The Gold Sovereign’ (see pic) confirms three possible versions 503, 503A and 503B (Proof). Published 2021. So, as is the case with all research combined with societal and technological changes making obtaining and reviewing coins easier - more is being discovered. The 2021 Marsh/Hill is the place to concentrate and first check which coin it is that you have. You may also want to get some high resolution pics taken so someone can count the denticles!! If you can post pics we can have a look and see whether it’s a 503, 503A or 503B (incidentally, these are just the Marsh references for the coins). Cheers, Andrew.

Finally managed to get a 66+ with NGC and will be sending to PCGS next week for cross over. Fingers crossed it crosses!

I've nearly finished a 2010 - 2019 run and have already started on the Gillick's with a '58, '63 & '65. I've recently fallen off the wagon after a glut of 2022s - well, what I could afford 😆 but aim to continue once I've saved up some pennies again.

Hi folks As a mini goal I've decided to look out for a few other portraits that I don't have already in the bullion stack. Just added an old veiled Victoria today. I think I'm missing the second and 3rd Elizabeth head and Victoria's Jubilee head out of the 'easier ones' but will have to check when I go to storage. I did a bit of reading, would I be right in saying George VI is only on a single year proof design? George III and IV along with William IV might be a work in progress

I’ve always been a half sovereign collector! I have full date runs of George V and Edward VII and am working on Victoria! So far a full run of the veiled heads, all dates of the Jubilee (but NOT all varieties, yet!) and a number of young heads (with some varieties including the 85/3). I have the majority graded with PCGS (either self graded or bought graded) and quite a few top grades with just the one single finest at the moment. Currently concentrating on the 1870 period.

I started what is probably my first collection of sovereigns in 2020. The George V ‘small’ head variety, there’s 10 in total and I currently have 8, I’m just missing the 1929 M and 1931 M sovereigns. They are out of budget for me at the moment as these are £1,000+ each but I would like to some day complete the set. I’ve managed to get 8 in just under two years so I’m not doing too bad. Apart from my modern date run from 2018 - present I haven’t really stuck with any sort of collection. I just buy what I like but eventually I’d like to do a full date run from 1911 - 1932 of George V sovereigns. Another collection that would be good and one I’ve considered is a 1957 - 1968 Gillick sovereign collection.

So I've updated the ranks to be a little more on topic, please let me know if I've missed any! As you can see I will also add images for each coin type, a fair bit of time needed for that though but will look better than the default icons even though you can't truly see the coins themselves, worth it?

I have the Michael Marsh book and often look at a few different resources for info on sovereigns, but it often involves a lot of flicking through pages and Google searches etc to find the info I'm looking for. Also I found it hard to keep track of the info when it is spread across several pages, e.g. comparing mintages from different branches for a given year. I thought it would be useful to have the information displayed graphically as a kind of "overview" with the main info at a glance. Such a resource may well already exist but I thought I would make one for my own use anyway and learn while I'm doing it. Then I thought why not share it with the community for feedback, input and ideally to be a help to others. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/156gWOBDS2n4f7P3ChMSJNIOgSnjLYqZxQuWv0mGCwYw/edit?usp=sharing The spreadsheet concentrates on changes in design (e.g. portraits and different reverses and mint marks) but ignores minor varieties etc. All the mintage figures are as per Marsh. Mints are colour coded. I will move on to proofs, halfs, doubles and £5s in time. Let me know of any errors or any comments and suggestions please 😄 Please could I request members not to share this link beyond the community right now.

Well I wasn’t happy with the ms63 grade on my 1)23 double…..so I sent it back to be reconsidered it should have been prooflike & now ngc have moved it to reflect this. I did get another 1823 which I’ve attached images of aswell. It looks prooflike and should improve on the ms63pl any views?

Well done it's a great coin 🙂 I know NGC is easier to grade with in the UK due to a few passthrough companies, but I would seriously consider PCGS's options. Sign up (I think for free), and take a look at their "Set Registry", it's honestly far suprior. I can submit a few coins here and there to PCGS for people on the forum, not in bulk and not all of the time, mainly for a few new collectors looking to get started!

I wouldn't like to go down the route of crossing from one to t'other, I have heard too many stories of strange decisions that suggests there are politics at work in both camps.

@Foster depends on your goal really, they aren't the rarest of the first legend types so depends on your cost to grade and purchase cost. It looks 55/58, little hard to tell the level of detail with the dirt, generally I find no harm in a little rinse with warm water 🙂

@Mike does sound like a really good idea but don't think that is a core feature, I will check the marketplace.

Makes a lot of sense. 1 year soon turns into 3 and then to 5 and before you know it you're scrooge mcduck rolling about in sovs 😁

Seems I'm a Rank Farthing!😄

“English Pattern Trial and Proof Coins in Gold 1547-1976” Due out at the end of the month (30/11) for anyone interested in English gold patterns … who isn't 😄, it’ll be beautiful im sure. Cheapest place I found it on pre-order was Foyles at £30 inc delivery but I see they've bumped it to £50 now. Probably worth hunting around to see if there is anywhere else selling it ‘cheap’.

Happy new year to all gold coin collectors hope you all had a good year and next year even better

Widely anticipated and could well be one of my favourites in the series tbc 🤔, the RM are releasing a re-strike of the Gothic Crown in gold and silver. Release is speculated to be next week (on the first of two coins), although there's an outside chance it could be tomorrow imo. My only reservation is that they are doing it as two coins to capture both sides of the Gothic Crown on a coin rather than having to call it a medal if it had been a straight out restrike. Personally I would have prefferd one coin (or a medal), with the reverse as we know it, then a special obv, could have been a Gillick head, could have been QEII in gothic garb, could have been QEII and Victoria in a double portrait like they did with a Phillip a few years ago, could just have stuck with the reverse and ditched the Victoria effigy alltogether (they didn't feel the need to do a second coin on the una where the young head there is in my opinion better than the obv of the Gothic, or George III on the three graces), but no they are doing two. So based on previous coins the 2oz gold is likely to set you back 2 x £5k for the set so quite a reach for most. The range is similar to the three graces, I hope they cut the mintages back to more like the Una though, but lets see... 2oz Gold and Silver 5oz Gold and Silver 10oz Gold and Silver 1kg Gold and Silver 2kg Gold and Silver 5kg Gold 10kg Gold I'll be after the same as everyone else I expect, 2oz G&S.... You can register your interest here to get an email from them: https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/the-great-engravers/gothic-crown/ As a separate thought, I think the RM need start doing something that the other mints can't completely rip off and / or stop licensing it out as it floods the markets with options that aren't too dissimilar other than the terrible obv's that the other mints have. *image courtesy of the Royal Mint

Hey @Dean13, I was one of those lucky enough to get a plain edge, I'll share photo's when it lands but.... sometime January

I also pre-ordered but now I'm seeing it's revised by Spink I'm not sure 😄. I've tried to contact them so many times about mistakes in their book, incorrect varieties and such but they are not interested whatsoever

I rarely buy raw coins because I have no eye for grading....I am of no help...........

I don't know a great deal about grading but if I were choosing what I thought was the nicest coin based on the pics I'd go left. Sorry I can't help with an actual grade though, beautiful coins mate.

good luck............

I have had worse and sold for that price...........but this one seems to be unavailable................good luck

Regarding half sovereigns, according to Marsh, 1982 was the only year that normal halfs were minted with the Machin portrait. There were 2.5million minted in 1982 compared to over 90 million minted between 1893 and 1915!

Hi Folks. As a bullion stacker I'm relatively new to the idea of proof coins but interested in picking up something from 1989. I'm not keen on slabs and boxes etc generally What is a fair ballpark price for £2 double sovereign from 1989 ungraded as seen in the pics? It has box and coa included. Looking at eBay and the Coin Archives site prices seem to go from about £1300 upwards? Thanks

Nothing changed for me since Brexit, maybe for Paris yes but for US things have always been the same. I agree with turnaround times in general but that's because the market has grown in the last 2 years and the businesses need more time to grow, which they are every day.

I think this can be done only in us headquarters. I will try and help and see what i can do.

Hi all, I’m just looking for some advice or clarity I suppose. Half sovereigns aren’t really my thing but I like them none the less. I’ve recently bought an 1897 Sydney Mint half sovereign and the latest Marsh book is confusing, at least to me regarding this coin. I know this is listed as R3 in the latest (2021) version of Marsh which is telling in how few have been sold through various auctions. It’s listed as ‘Marsh 503’ can anyone explain or help me to understand the description and is this really as rare ‘R3’ as it is described? As you can see, half sovereigns aren’t my main focus and my knowledge reflects that.

Thanks Mike

Really need to get it under a good microscope to tell that if S and 5 is similar on halves. On fulls its normally 5 and 3 that's the issue Do you have a loupe? Try photographing through it if so.

"Cleaned" is typically for harsh cleaning, an ultrasonic (the cheap type off amazon) will be fine, but just use warm water and only for a minute or so. I would only use the ultrasonic if there is direct deep in the details, legend etc. It won't remove the surface dirt so much. A gentle wipe with your thumb under warm water is best for that. But do note, that dirt can cover up things, scratches and wear will look less obvious uncleaned.

I'm sure I can spare a bullion Jubilee if you want one 🙂

@SovereignSaurus thats my type of set 😊 yes unfortunately in terms of Sovereign the George VI is only available in a 1937 Proof. However, you can get a gold South African George VI 1 pound which might fill the gap if you didnt want to fork out for the 1937 proof. These normally aren't that expensive. https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces44913.html

No they don't work together, when you cross a coin (to PCGS at least), they send you the NGC cert back. You then have to send this to NGC and hope they accurately act on it. After my recent correspondence with NGC I'm not too trusting in their processes, which for me isn't surprising. So before I send off any certs I am writing some scripts on the backend of the reference to store historical pop reports weekly. That way when I send certs off I can more easily see the figures change. Super important when like me you have single finests or an example where only 3 exist etc.

@Foster Just to add that this is DISH M7, and the first legend types are rarer with the different JEB formats (hooked type)

I think a lot of us have followed that path @CaptCaveMan 👍

Yes still flawed either way in that sense.

Wow please do name and shame! Shocking to see that listed good condition and really not your mistake... But for sure this is as your describe, it's very clear to be honest. I love my varieties but I'm not familiar with pre-victoria but this is in the ref just without images as of yet: https://thegoldsovereign.com/coin/1102/1826-george-iv-gold-sovereign-london-6-over-small-6 A real shame it's a details coin to be honest 😞. I may have to trouble you for some excellent images with a proper lens if that's possible to use in the reference? In terms of price I can't see it being that much because of the condition, I mean it's a 4-500quid coin without the variety so maybe 6-700 but I don't think I would pay over 400 for a cleaned coin personally.

Great idea I think

Love this thread! Makes me want to send all my coins for conservation now. I usually just ask for grading. Have a fair few high grade halves bought via auctions and direct from sellers that are in older PCGS slabs and was considering sending them off for the photography and gold shield additions. May have a think about conservation now too. My one question is whether you think this is worth it or not? I should add that my coins are all MS and so the issue of a reduction in cameo is not such a problem for me!

They are nice box, how much do they want for them? I think, but not certain, that this is the guy that makes them for the RM: http://www.robdaviscabinets.co.uk

A bit late but HNY all!

Strong prices again. Prices shown as realised need 20% adding for fees… this is one of my least favourite heads but seems I'm in the minority 5 Sov 63UC 2 Sov 66Cam

1853?

I don’t appear to be able to edit any of the posts I have made. Except this one.