Simmoleon

The other point you need to consider is if they conserve it I believe it will be regraded and you may lose the *; I may be wrong but pretty sure that is the case. If you go ahead with conservation it may be worth asking this first just to confirm it one way or the other

I recently graded 8 Victoria sovereigns and a half guinea - the only coin they conserved was one with a small orange spot on it. The rest which looked similar to yours didn’t have any conservation

Yep, I never fully grasp how they have survived over 2000 years in this condition. Was it in the ground for most of it or has it passed from hand to hand and is one of the lucky survivors.

Received this coin, again couldn’t resist adding this to the collection. Grade XF* Anonymous. Circa 225-214 BC. AR Didrachm. Laureate head of Janus; curved truncation / Jupiter, hurling thunderbolt and holding scepter, in galloping quadriga right driven by Victory

The most painful part of grading is historic coins which end up as details grades because it has slight scratches or cleaned at some time in the past (and before grading was a thing). I have a few coins in details which are fantastic coins but the premium is non-existent because of their grades. I agree that the purpose of grading has to a degree become distorted in recent years and now many people are being the slabs and not buying the coins. I have a few graded sovereigns and eye appeal and grade are in some cases miles apart - I have a coin in 62 which is far more appealing than many of my higher grade coins. Also telling the difference between a 69 and 70 can be challenging but it’s the same with AU58 to MS63 sovereigns in my experience; some grades and examples completely baffle me.

Welcome to the world of modern graded coins - all logic is out the window

Ha, nothing exciting unfortunately - just the submission number and barcode; not sure why I blank them out but I generally do

2022 sovereign and Great Engravers designs are going to cause chaos

Here are some other coins which are returning from grading

Not received this back yet but had this coin (as previously shown on this thread) and a number of other coins graded and just got the results - will post a couple more coins tonight

They are called Hobo Dollars and involve a person re-working one side of a coin to create a unique artwork. There are lots of these that are hand crafted and can be worth a decent amount but there are also numerous cast versions of these coins.

Or includes more RM dust, I mean they can’t keep giving away free dust with every proof.

May start my own grading company which grades the crispness and ping intensity of sovereigns - imagine the premium if your sovereign looks and sounds nice * I cannot be held responsible for any damage that happens to coins during the ping grading process

Would they do a Gothic version of Elizabeth II - just can’t picture how they would recreate this with QEII on it; unless they did 2 coins 🤷‍♂️

Can’t say I am surprised, I have always assumed there is shill bidding in most online auctions. That’s why I always set my limit and once it’s reached, I leave the lot alone. Fully agree, this practise is just wrong but not sure this will change anytime soon unfortunately