Owner Comments:
S-3857, Marsh 102, Long Tail
Acquired from: Heritage
Means: Auction 61306, Lot 24011
Date: 23 January 2023
Critique: Nice looking example of this early Sydney sov. A relatively large number of these coins have been graded, but as of Jan 2023 only one graded higher by NGC. PCGS similarly shows only one graded higher than MS63+. Three million of these coins were minted, but for some reason(s) they just didn't survive very well. Maybe times were tough in Oz in the 1880's, and coins got beat up quickly.
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. This particular one is of the supposedly more common "Long Tail" variety, with the designer's initials partially "buried" in the field. However, based on a quick check of auction records, it seems to me that this Long Tail variety is actually about five times rarer than the Medium tail variety, so I expect that to be corrected in the next edition of Marsh.
This coin was offered in a special auction of Top and near-Top Pop sovereigns, which seemed to attract quite a number of bidders. But they were mostly spending their money on the Top Pop examples, while ignoring coins like this one that were second tier. The fact that very few coins are graded higher didn't seem to matter. Almost a half dozen of this date/mint were sold at auction in the past two months, so obviously some dealer found a small hoard and dumped them all at once. Just one week prior, the sole Top Pop coin sold, but I decided to wait for this second tier example to see if I could save some $$. As hoped, I ended up paying less than half of what the Top Pop coin sold for, which I count as a good deal. I got quite a few bargains at this auction -- for once I was at the right place at the right time!!