Owner Comments:
S-3868. Marsh 140 (R3, Extremely Rare), DISH-S11
First legend, G: far from crown.
Acquired from: Heritage
Means: Auction 61390, Lot 22042
Date: 16 June 2024
Critique: Very pretty example of this extremely rare Jubilee Head gold sovereign. The holder makes no mention of the variety, making it appear to be just a common 1889-S coin. However, the auction company did point out the true variety in their listing. Eventually I will send it in to NGC to have it labeled correctly,
Those familiar with the Jubilee Head series know that there are two recognized varieties for 1889-S sovereigns. One has the First Legend produced from leftover dies created in 1887, where the G: is somewhat far from the crown, whilst the other variety (Second Legend) has the G: close to the crown. It's estimated that only 98000 of the First Legend coins were produced, compared to 3.2 million of the Second Legend. The current coin is the extremely rare First Legend variety DISH-S11.
Currently the NGC census shows that three examples of DISH-S11 have been certified, with the best one being in MS63. Since only three unspecified coins have been graded higher, and this is such an enormously rare variety, it's quite probable that my coin is tied for top as of Nov 2024.
Separating the Jubilee Head coins by variety has only become practical in the last few years, with the publication of Steve Hill's revised version of Michael Marsh's classic book "The Gold Sovereign Series." Before that, I don't think many collectors bothered to try to distinguish them, and neither did the grading companies when coins were submitted for certification. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if more collectors, like me, start sending in their various Jubilee Head sovs to have the correct variety listed out. When that happens, perhaps some additional examples of 1889-S DISH-S11 will appear.