Owner Comments:
S-4125, Marsh 306
Acquired from: Stacks & Bowers
Means: Auction Jan 2022 NYINC, Lot 7371
Date: 20 January 2022
Critique: One of the very first gold sovereigns that I acquired, before entering NGC competition. So it's not a very high grade, but it's a nice flashy example of the last "pre-decimal" sovereign. Unfortunately, like so many of my early acquisitions, this was in a forbidden, nasty PCGS holder and I had to submit it to NGC for crossover. I thought they might actually kick it up a notch to MS65, but no such luck. As usual, the PCGS census still includes a nostalgic ghost of this coin as cert #80017034. You may refer to the comments on my 1902-M coin for further discussion of ghosts.
I really like this early Elizabeth II series (1957-1968), and I want to complete it someday. But it looks like that's going to be hard, since the vast majority of coins that I see from this series have very poor eye appeal and would not be something I'd be proud to own. It seems that the highest and most vulnerable area of the obverse is the Queen's cheek, and that tends to get seriously scratched and discolored making the coin quite unattractive. I'd estimate that I've refused to bid on at least 95% of the available Gillicks that I've seen so far, so it's going to be quite a challenge to complete the series. Hopefully 2023 will bring some cleaner examples for sale.