Owner Comments:
S-3973, Marsh 209
Acquired from: Great Collections
Means: Auction, Lot 1153813
Date: 8 May 2022
Critique: Somewhat scratchy but lustrous example of this very common Edward VII gold sovereign. Over 2.5 million of these coins were minted, and quite a few have been certified, but as of June 2022 there is only one graded higher by NGC.
In fact, although tens of millions of gold sovereigns were minted during Edward's reign, it's hard to find an example of any date from an Aussie mint grading higher than MS64. Apparently most of them were released into circulation, and the rest were bounced around quite a bit in bank bags.
This coin was offered in a normal weekly auction by this company, with no special promotion. Top Pop coins usually attract quite a lot of attention. But when even a single higher graded example is known, there is frequently very little interest, and that was definitely the case with this lot. Since this company charges the lowest buyer's premium of any auction house that I'm aware of, the final price was essentially melt value. So I got a real bargain for such a highly graded specimen.