Owner Comments:
S-3829B, Marsh 19 (Rare)
Acquired from: SINCONA, Zurich
Means: Auction 79, Lot 1378
Date: 24 October 2022
Critique: A rather sad condition for William IV, but the auction company listed it as an example of the exceedingly rare overdate 1835/3 and I thought that might be correct. I ended up paying WAY too much because some other collector thought he needed it more than I did.
This particular overdate is quite newly discovered, and not yet listed in Marsh/Hill (2021 edn), I've seen one other specimen of this variety, a raw coin that looks to me to be in splendid AU58 condition, which sold at a British auction in Feb 2022.
After some time, the more I examined this coin, the less likely it seemed to be a true overdate. Looked more like just a die break that merged the top of the 5 with the curling section directly underneath. Things just didn't seem to line up properly to be a 5 on top of a 3. So I sent images directly to the acknowledged expert on gold sovs Steve Hill, and he gave me the bad news that he also doesn't think it's the 5/3 overdate. In fact, of all the other examples claimed to be 5/3 he doesn't believe any of them! I guess that's why it's not listed as a true variety in his book.
Well, just another reminder that labels on holders should never be trusted, nor should opinions of auctioneers. I hope this is the last costly mistake like this I make, but I seriously doubt it. :(