Owner Comments:
Owner Comments:
S-3972, Marsh 196
Acquired from: The Coin Cabinet, London
Means: Auction 102, Lot 239
Date: 13 February 2024
Critique: A bit scratchy example of this early Perth Mint Edward VII gold sovereign, but rather nice luster overall. Although quite a large number were originally minted in 1903, relatively few have been certified by NGC. As of April 2024 only two graded higher. This is one of the very few date/mint combinations from the nine years of Australian production during Edward's reign for which it's extremely difficult to find examples graded higher than MS62.
As I've pointed out on many other coins, my favorite situation in an auction is to find a second-tier coin, with just a small number graded one step higher. This coin is a perfect example, so I expected to get it for a reasonable price. I was not disappointed, since the final bid including the comparatively low buyer's premium was only about US$250 over melt. This and several other Edwardian sovs I bought at this auction would have sold for about 15% less if not for one other bidder who drove up the price a bit. I'm sure this was a dealer, looking to pad his inventory with some cheap mint state sovs. It was somewhat annoying to have this fellow interfering, however I was willing to pay about 50% more for most, so overall I'm quite pleased with the result.