Owner Comments:
S-3867A, Marsh 132 (R4 - Ultra Rare), DISH-M9
First legend, G: far from crown.
Acquired from: The Coin Cabinet, London
Means: Auction 61, Lot 188
Date: 3 May 2022
Critique: Extraordinarily rare variety, but very little interest at the auction. Apparently the various varieties of the Jubilee Head sovereigns are not widely collected, since I've been able to pick up several coins recently listed as rarity R5 by Marsh for relatively little money. Reminds me very much of a series I used to collect long ago, the US Seated Liberty half dollars. The dates 1879 to 1890 had mintages of only a few thousand coins each, and only a few hundred of each are thought to have survived. However, none were very expensive since the series was never widely collected. I still enjoy scavenging for very rare coins that are low-priced. It's sad that NGC doesn't care about rare varieties either, since they get the same point value as the common analogs of the same year. Doesn't make sense for coins that are hundreds of times rarer.
This particular variety is so unpopular that NGC will not even allow it to be used in the competitive sets for Victoria in Australia. I suppose it's simply too rare to be considered, since Marsh estimates that less than 20 examples still exist. Only 1% of the total mintage for this year in Melbourne was of the First Legend variety, so there were not very many to begin with. I saw an interesting video from the auction company with a plausible explanation about why these coins were produced at all. The vast majority of obverse dies from 1887 were of the First Legend variety, and apparently a few were left over when 1888 began. Not wanting to waste precious dies, and since the obverse side was unaffected by the change of date, the mint decided to keep using the remaining dies from 1887 until they wore out. They then switched over to the newly made 1888 obverse dies which were all of the Second Legend variety.