Owner Comments:
S-3852D, Marsh 45A (R2, Very Rare), narrow date.
Acquired from: The Coin Cabinet, London
Means: Auction 67, lot 24
Date: 19 July 2022
Critique: I don't really have enough financial resources to make much of a dent in a collection of gold sovereigns, so I've decided to specialize in unusual varieties since most of them are relatively cheap. Back in the early days of the mint, the engravers played fast and loose with the punching of dates and legends, so there's quite a wide selection of fun coins to look for. This particular coin is not so easy to locate, so I had to settle for an AU example, but since it's fairly grime-free the offending mis-punch on the reverse is exceptionally clear. Spink, Marsh, and PCGS call this coin "F over inverted A", however the folks at NGC don't seem to buy that! As you can see from the coin label, they designate this as "So-called". NGC is correct, and everyone else is wrong. In reality, if you examine the coin very carefully, it's clearly NOT any kind of inverted A under the F. Many credible numismatists over the years have tried to determine exactly what was punched in DEF, but so far no one has come up with an acceptable answer. I'm also at a complete loss, so I have nothing to add to the discussion. Some people think that the engraver was re-carving another punch and left some flourishes on it, while others think there are actually multiple punches here, possibly as many as 3 or 4 at letter F. The previously punched letter E is rather badly mangled also, so apparently the engraver was not at his best on this day.
In any case, whatever this thing is, it's fun to look at! As of 10/2022 NGC has only graded two of these, but I'm guessing that there's really a few more that were just submitted as general 1862 sovereigns and nobody paid attention to the messed-up punching on the reverse. As it turns out, this coin is tied for Top Pop with the other examples, so that gives it a bit of flair. In the Victoria London mint date set, only one of the 1862 varieties is listed for NGC competition, namely the R over Inverted R on obverse. That's rather bizarre, since it's the rarest (R4) of the five known varieties. So for now I will just have to include this coin as a normal 1862 sov. Hopefully, a new category for all varieties will be added someday.
I picked this up in a British auction, which can be dangerous since the Brits are pretty savvy about their gold sovereigns. But this was not too expensive, which suggests that it's not a very popular variety. Understandable, since nobody actually knows what it is. Unfortunately this was in one of those useless PCGS holders, and I had to submit it to NGC for crossover. The coin still exists as a ghost in the PCGS pop report as cert #44871622. I should note that there have only been four of this variety graded by PCGS -- two in AU53, one in AU55, and one (this one!) in AU58. If anyone competing in the PCGS set registry for Victoria with varieties is hunting for this very rare item, they can forget about AU58 completely, since I've destroyed the sole Top Pop coin holder! Sorry about that!
UPDATE: It's been over a year since I acquired this coin, and six months since I picked up its twin having the "wide date" obverse variety. After studying a few other sovs in my collection of strange re-punches and overdates, I do believe that I've come up with the answer to what this re-punch actually is! I'm not going to reveal that here, however, since I intend to submit an article on my theory to one of the well-read British coin publications, and then see what kind of feedback I receive. If experts in the field agree, then the next edition of Marsh/Hill will rename this variety and finally clear up the confusion.