Owner Comments:
S-4125, Marsh 303
Acquired from: Stacks & Bowers
Means: Dec 2022 Collectors Choice, Lot 90041
Date: 13 December 2022
Ex: T. Boone Pickens, Jr.
Critique: Nice example of one of the later dates in the pre-decimal series of sovereigns bearing a lovely portrait of young Queen Elizabeth II.
I actually bought this coin raw, ungraded, just based on the look of the picture in the auction listing. Normally, I won't do something like that, since pictures sometimes mask hidden flaws which the NGC graders pick up immediately. But in this case it worked out nicely, and the coin graded exactly what I expected it to.
But the real reason I bought this coin, as part of a parcel of four different dates, was because of the very unusual and rare provenance. When I first started collecting gold sovereigns, I decided that one goal would be to assemble as many different provenances as I could, just to add interest to my collection. So when I saw that a small group of coins once owned by the very famous billionaire oilman, investor, and extremely generous philanthropist T. Boone Pickens was available I couldn't resist. Mr. Pickens was well-known during his 91-year lifetime for many things such as corporate raiding, political interest, multi-million-dollar donations to various public institutions, and being divorced five times! But it's never been reported anywhere that he was an amateur coin collector. He passed away in 2019, and it wasn't until 2022 that his estate liquidated his personal collection, which contained coins from all over the world. Most of the coins were ungraded, and could possibly have been items he picked up in change while traveling. This particular coin, however, was still in an original plastic holder showing that it was purchased from "The Gold Department" of Scotia Bank in Canada. So apparently Mr. Pickens did make some effort to improve his collection with purchases from time to time.
Although Thomas Boone Pickens, Jr., was not a famous coin collector, since he was a well-known personality in America NGC was kind enough to list his name in the provenance when I sent the coins in to be graded. I'm very pleased with the result, and happy that his name will now be linked with a hobby that he must have privately enjoyed.