United Kingdom Gold Sovereigns -- Date Set
1898

Owner Comments:

S-3877, Marsh 167

Acquired from: Heritage
Means: Auction 232214, Lot 61407
Date: 6 April 2022

Critique: Another Top Pop Veiled Head sov, but not quite so nice as the others. Very interesting story here... As of March 2022, there was only ONE 1898-S sov graded MS63 by NGC, with none finer. So I was very excited when I saw this second coin was coming to auction, and I bought it for a very cheap price. Seemed kind of strange for such a rare item. Then I looked ahead to the auction calendar and found that FOUR MORE of these were being offered in the next three weeks! Seemed impossible. How can there be just one of them available for the past 30 years, and suddenly five more show up? Have to be counterfeit. So, I wrote to the auction company for an explanation. They told me that the coins had been submitted to NGC by a European dealer who found them in an old bank roll of this date. Five graded MS63, and the others lower. Rather than sell all five at once, the auction company decided to string them out a bit. However, they still flooded the market and crushed the price. Seeing an interesting opportunity, I purchased half of the remaining four coins offered (two did not meet my standards for MS63 -- shame on you NGC!). So now there are six of these in Top Pop, and I own the better looking half of them! Gotta remember not to sell all three at once!

P.S.-- I feel so sorry for the fellow who probably paid dearly for the original sole highest graded coin. There's a good lesson there. Be careful how you value things, because a future hoard discovery may wreck your plans.