watchesandwhisky

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The BU matte finish Sovereigns started from 2018.
Prior to that, they had BU Sovereigns, but the difference wasn’t always clear or consistent.
For example, the 2017 BU was petty much like a Proof; and the RM even issued incorrect COAs, which led to NGC and PCGS incorrectly labeling some of the early submitted BUs as Proofs.
Prior to 2017, the BUs were issued typically as SotD Sovereigns, but you’d have to closely compare a BU with a Bullion to really see the difference - it wasn’t immediately obvious like the matte BUs from 2018 onwards.

Decided to sell this coin, price is firm I'm afraid no reductions will be considered. 
SD postage included.
 

Decided to sell this coin, price is firm I'm afraid no reductions will be considered. 
SD postage included.
 

Decided to sell this coin, price is firm I'm afraid no reductions will be considered. 
SD postage included.
 

Decided to sell this coin, price is firm I'm afraid no reductions will be considered. 
SD postage included.
 

In March 2023 there were 870 new trade topics in this month alone, listed in the United Kingdom (Ungraded) trade section of the forum.

 

Looking to up your photography game by moving from a mobile phone to a 'real' camera?  Or do you already have a camera, but need a macro lens to take close-up photographs of your coins?
Let’s explain what a macro lens is and what to look for when choosing one for coin photography.  I will go into a lot of detail, but I am assuming that if you are thinking of buying a macro lens for a camera, you are OK with that.
Out of scope: I am not going to cover the type of macro lens that you clip onto a mobile phone, although many of the principles are the same.  I am also not going to cover adapter lenses that you fit to the front of normal lenses to make them focus closer.
What is a macro lens?
A macro lens is designed to focus on things very close; much closer than normal lenses can.  Macro lenses have the same ‘magnification’ as normal lenses, e.g. a 100mm macro lens will be the same amount of ‘zoomed in’ as a 100mm non-macro lens.  The difference is that the macro lens will be able to focus on something about 20cm away, whereas the non-macro lens will need to be much further away, probably 1-2 metres minimum.
Things to look for
In decreasing order of importance, these are factors or specifications you should look for when choosing a macro lens.  The first ones are highly relevant to making a good macro lens, and some things that are less so.
Reproduction ratio
The most important statistic.  Most ‘proper’ macro lenses will allow you to get close enough to a subject that the image of that subject projected through the lens and onto the camera’s sensor is the same size as the subject.  This is called a reproduction ratio of 1:1.
For example, with a 1:1 lens a 22mm sovereign, at closest distance, will appear as 22mm on the sensor.  Since a full-frame camera sensor is just 24x36mm, that's a perfect fit and a big image when viewed on a monitor.
To make the image smaller, you just move away from the subject.  But you can’t make it bigger, because moving closer would move within the minimum distance the lens will focus.
With lenses that have a lower ratio, e.g. 1:2, it just means they can’t focus as close to the subject, making the resultant image smaller and the photography more cumbersome.  You definitely would not want to use a 150mm lens with a 1:3 ratio, as you would need to be over a metre away from the coin.  Some manufacturers still call these ‘macro lenses’ despite not reaching 1:1 ratio.
At the other end of the scale, there are specialist ‘super macro’ lenses that have a ratio of 2:1 or even higher.  They achieve this by allowing an even closer minimum distance.  These are probably not to be recommended to anyone other than professional photographers, as they come with their own set of limitations and peculiarities.
Considering that, to take a photo of a 1oz coin, you will already need to be further away than minimum distance for a 1:1 lens just to fit it on the sensor, going even higher is just unnecessary.
Sharpness
Obviously you want a lens that is sharp.  This is especially true for macro photography, where you are attempting to reproduce tiny details.  It is also especially true if your camera’s sensor has a lot of pixels, say more than about 10 million.
Sharpness is a factor of the design and build quality of the lens.  This is very much a “get what you pay for” factor.  There is information online where sharpness has been scientifically measured.  You can also read reviews that will tell you if a lens is sharp, and at what aperture it is sharpest.  Typically, the optimum aperture is around twice the widest aperture.
Focal length
As the lens gets longer, the minimum distance extends.  So a longer focal length does not lead to a large image - what you gain in ‘zoom’ you lose in distance.
The main consideration here is convenience.  If you have a longer macro lens, e.g. 150mm, your distance to the coin will need to be about 30cm or more.  That can start to get awkward if you want to photograph downwards onto a table or desk.
However, the focal length will probably not make a significant difference to the appearance of coin photographs.  Just the convenience of taking them.
Longer focal length macro lenses, >100mm, are useful for nature photography, where you don’t want to get too close to the subject because it might fly away (or attack you).  This is unlikely to be a concern with coins.
But you can go too short.  Macro lenses <60mm are light and cheaper, but you start to have other practical problems.  You need to be so close to the subject that you can block the light, and you may not be able to use axial lighting because there isn't room.
Personally, I think the sweet spot for coin photography would be 60-100mm.
If you are going to use the lens for something other than macro photography, then obviously the focal length may factor more  into your decision.  Shorter lenses will be better for street, architecture and landscapes.  Longer lenses for sport, wildlife and portrait.
If all other things are equal, typically the longer the lens, the more expensive it is.
Smallest aperture
Lenses often have an aperture that will go down to f/20 or f/24.  Macro lenses often will go to f/32 or more.  This increases the depth of field, keeping more things in focus.  The issue though is that when you go beyond about f/16, you will begin to get noticeable softening of the image because the laws of physics take over and diffraction happens.
Diaphragm
The element inside the lens that varies the aperture to let more or less light through, is called the diaphragm.  The number of leaves in the diaphragm can be relevant.  If the diaphragm has a large number of leaves or elements (say above 8), the hole it makes will be more circular.  This leads to smoother out-of-focus backgrounds (and foregrounds) called bokeh.  It’s a subjective thing that sometimes matters, but is largely irrelevant for coins.
Image stabilisation
A very useful feature in any lens, to reduce handheld blur.  But for a setup that will spend its life clamped down on a tripod, it is irrelevant.  Of course, if you might use your lens for other things, it could be very handy.
Auto-focus
An area where some of the biggest advances in both lenses and cameras have been made over the last decade or so, is in the speed and accuracy of auto-focus systems.
Fortunately for us, it doesn’t matter, because we will be manually focusing with macro photography, with the possible exception of an automatic focus-stacking process.  Either way, the speed and accuracy of auto-focus is irrelevant.  In fact some macro lenses are manual focus only, in order to reduce cost and give a very smooth feel to the focusing ring, for fine adjustments.
Consider that your depth of field is often less than 1mm.  That is not something a camera’s auto-focus system can reliably handle.
Widest aperture
The main factor that determines how much a lens costs, is its widest aperture.  People spend a lot of money getting very wide aperture lenses, with f/1.2 or greater.  Fortunately for us, this is almost completely irrelevant, since we will be taking macro photos with a fairly narrow aperture probably between f/8 and f/16.
Zoom (variable focal length)
Most lenses for general-purpose use are ‘zoom lenses’.  They allow you to zoom in and out of a subject.  A typical example would be a 24-70mm lens.  The ability to zoom is not useful for macro photography, since as discussed earlier, increasing the focal length simply increases the minimum distance, so the net effect would be the same.  It also adds cost to the lens and reduces the quality (e.g. sharpness).
A true macro lens will normally be a fixed focal length, or ‘prime’, lens.
How much to spend?
The lens is more important than the camera body.  <= Remember this!
This is something that people who are not familiar with interchangeable-lens cameras may not be used to.  Put it another way.  A camera body will last you somewhere between 3 and 10 years.  The more features and technology you want, and the more you use it, the shorter its lifespan.  A lens can easily last 20+ years, if you don’t abuse it.  Where do you think your money should go?
Personal experience:  I have owned and replaced 4 camera bodies in 18 years; that's pretty slow.  I am still using the first lens I ever bought, and have never replaced any.
Lenses are physical, mechanical things.  Their quality is determined by optics and the craftsmanship that went into them.  Sure, new features occasionally pop up, like image stabilisation and faster auto-focus.  But the basic operation of a lens hardly changes between generations.  That is definitely not true for camera bodies, which are basically akin to computers or mobile phones; electronics that constantly evolve.
First-party lenses will cost you a lot more.  For example, Canon lenses for Canon cameras.  Nikon lenses for Nikon cameras.  Third-party lenses, e.g. Sigma, Tamron and Tokina, are much better bang-for-the-buck, and are usually close to if not identical in quality.
Rule of thumb.  If you are starting out buying a camera and lens, consider the total price.  If you are just buying one lens, spend ⅓ to ½ of your budget on the lens.  If you are buying 2 lenses, then spend at least ½ of your budget on lenses.

Lot 7 - £52

Possibly will be some downtime later today (sometime after 2 hours from now) to update some stuff on the server side and to update to the latest forum software.

Before this happens TSF will be put into offline mode and a message will show to this effect. We do not expect the forum to be down for that long. 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

Without wanting to be a downer in this exciting time for many, a few observations...
When doing some early morning shopping on my day of today I heard three builders walking round Tesco's talking about buying gold bullion, when I'm at work I regularly hear a radio ad saying "golds gone galactic" and offering to buy your gold.. When delivering the mail I recently saw a leaflet drop to over 800 houses offering to buy any gold and silver or old watches and medals.. When I was delivering mail at a residential park home two blokes were going door to door trying to buy gold. 
This is precisely what I saw happen back in 2012 before a rather large price reversal of 35% ish over the next two years. 
A lot has happened since 2012, past performance is not indicative of future performance ect - Just an observation. 
 

We just sold an item on etsy today, will update if no payment received. 

We just sold an item on etsy today, will update if no payment received. 

We just sold an item on etsy today, will update if no payment received.