Owner Comments:
S-3857, Marsh 99
Intermediate tail
Acquired from: Heritage
Means: Auction 61369, Lot 21032
Date: 7 April 2024
Critique: Extremely pretty example of this very common Melbourne sov. A relatively large number of these coins have been certified, but as of August 2024 only one graded higher by NGC. PCGS similarly shows just one graded higher than MS63. 1.5 million of these coins were minted, but for some reason(s) they just didn't survive very well.
There are several varieties of St. George sovereigns, based on the positioning of the designer's initials W.W. on the obverse, and the length of the horse's tail on the reverse. Both Spink and Marsh 2021 indicate that there is supposedly only one variety for 1877-M, having a "long tail" with the designer's initials partially "buried" in the field. However, close examination of this coin shows that it is very close to an intermediate length tail. It does seem just a bit longer, but not nearly so much as on true "long tail" coins. Also, none of the other 1877-M examples I've seen show the normally characteristic single hair spur in the left indent of the horse's tail. What's interesting is that the PCGS census shows 75% of the coins are long tail, and 25% medium tail. But if the images shown along with the descriptions are carefully examined, it's another case of the PCGS graders mostly misidentifying varieties. Only one of the images looks like a true long tail variety, the remainder being medium. So it seems to me that there are indeed two different varieties for this date/mint, however all of the current catalogs are wrong since the long tail would appear to be extremely rare, not the usual case. I've reported this error to the editor of the Marsh reference book, and I believe it will be corrected in the upcoming revised edition, along with several other St George sovs from the 1870's and 1880's which I also alerted him to.
Surprisingly, a review of the top 50 sets registered in the Aussie Victoria category shows that just four other collections include one of these coins, only two of them in mint state. The NGC pop census indicates that over 70 examples have been certified in mint state, and all of those except the sole MS64 coin are quite modestly priced. Every year, a few of these are offered in auctions around the world, so it's by no means a rarity. When something is cheap and abundant in nice condition, but practically no one has it, the conclusion is obvious -- nobody wants this coin! As usual, I seem to be out of touch with mainstream numismatic thinking.
Since this example is nearly Top Pop, with extreme eye appeal, I assumed that it would sell for a premium at auction, but this turned out not to be correct. I ended up paying just 60% of the max I was willing to bid, so I feel it was a good deal. This was offered in a special auction held in Hong Kong, which seemed to attract quite a number of bidders for Chinese coins. But this was the only Australian coin in the entire catalog, and thus there was very little interest. If I'd been the owner of this impressive piece, I would never have placed it in an Asian auction, but instead would have consigned it to one of the premier US or English auctions. I'm sure it would have sold for a much higher price if more serious collectors had been aware of it.