Owner Comments:
S-3997, Marsh 225
Acquired from: Heritage
Means: Auction 232247, Lot 64340
Date: 24 November 2022
Critique: Decent looking example of this Ottawa mint sovereign, with only one graded higher as of 11/2022. The obverse appears to me to be a bit over-graded, however the reverse is very clean.
Only 48,000 of these coins were struck, and yet it lists in all standard catalogues as very common. This is really hard to believe, and the best explanation is that the coins were simply not popular for use in commerce at the time during WWI, and the majority of them just sat in bank vaults for the next 80 or 90 years.
This particular coin was offered in an auction with about a dozen other Canadian sovereigns, with another two dozen or so coming up within the next few weeks. Obviously, some dealer came across a hoard, got them all graded en masse, and then decided to just dump them all in the same month rather than release them just a few at a time over the course of a year. As would be expected, prices realized on the bulk of these coins have been extremely low. However, this particular coin came in at the high end of the range since it was slightly higher in grade and significantly better in eye appeal.