Owner Comments:
S-3997, Marsh 223
Acquired from: The Coin Cabinet, London
Means: Auction 75, Lot 99
Date: 10 January 2023
Critique: Very nice-looking example of this Ottawa mint sovereign, only marred by a few minor nicks on the reverse. Just one coin graded higher by NGC as of 01/2023.
Only 14,900 of these coins were struck, and yet it lists in Marsh/Hill 2021 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.
Careful examination of the coin seems to show evidence of slight doubling on both the obverse (DDO) and reverse (DDR). This particular pattern of minor obverse doubling is somewhat common on Geoge V sovereigns of many dates from several different mints, but I'm not sure why. Will have to make a detailed investigation some day.