Simmoleon

Is Chards theoretically having a coin sale on the same day the RM theoretically announce a new sovereign?

Yep, I have seen Dave’s conservation work and his YouTube vids and his results are fantastic but I am sending this for grading so may get it conserved via NCS. I’ll have some thinking time as not planning to submit much this side of Christmas tbf.

Pulled the trigger on this 1818 LVIII crown - the horse is frosted so needs to be conserved to remove some grime and make it cleaner

Try RIC 237 Marcus Aurelius, AR denarius, AD 161-180, struck AD 170-171, Rome. 16mm, 3.41 g. M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXV, laureate head right. / IMP VI COS III, Victory walking left, holding wreath and palm branch. RIC 237; RSC 265a.

They used some artistic licence with this design

Do you have the cert number?

Did mention in a previous post that I would show a comparison of why you buy the coin and not the slab. These 2 1911 proof florin coins are nearly the same grade but the eye appeal imo isn’t even close. It makes you think do we need a CAC equivalent in the UK. Just for the record the toned one is 65+ and the one with a cameo (but not graded cameo) is a 66.

It may just be me but that coin has been set wonky in that slab; if I had a spare £5k and bought it, I’d have to get it reslabbed

As far as I know, no conservation service shares their techniques but in their own videos they show it’s a mix of chemicals (in the background)

I’ve had a few gold coins conserved but as mentioned by Lawrence above, the majority have been because previous owners have mishandled them and touched the proof fields etc. I bought a whole lot of mishandled moderns proofs and the collector in me made me get them all conserved because it was annoying to see them marked up but it definitely cost me money rather than offered any further premium. The vast majority of historic gold even the graders are unlikely to conserve as there is little point, the one memorable conservation was on a young head which had a tiny orange spot on the hair of Victoria which conservation did remove. From what I’ve seen, graders do share the odd video showing conservation and the results of it but I don’t remember seeing anything outlining their actual techniques or chemicals - my guess is most of its chemical based.

Over 2000 years old and still has a cameo. The Greeks just created works of art for coins IMG_3197.MOV

About a year ago, I bought a number of proofs off a dealer which had been taken out of their capsules and stored in all sorts of flips etc. My brain said leave them and the collector in me said get them conserved. The mis-handled coins which hurt the most were a couple of 2013 proof sovereigns and half sovereigns. After conservation they looked undoubtedly better but the grades weren’t great regardless - PF64 and PF66. Many of the other coins came back looking fantastic with a 1992, 2005 and 2012 half sovereigns all getting 70s. Looking at this coin, conservation may help it but not sure it would get a grade that would offset the cost of the process.

I may bid on the 2oz silver Three Graces and Gothics at these current price. I sold my graces and instantly regretted it as it’s a beautiful coin in hand

With older Morgan’s for example, at least you have some level of toning and marks to validate against if you have an image of the original. Other coins without these characteristics could easily be missed especially in the world of modern coins? Was reading recently an article about how the fake Gothic Crowns became more and more precise to the originals and very difficult even for experts to validate especially without the coin in hand. I believe even the grading companies struggled validating these at one point. So now we are starting to see very high quality (in some cases) copies of coins and now the same with the slabs. Your post is probably a timely reminded for all of us about checking authenticity including that of the slab itself

Looks like valid PCGS numbers but the entries have no pictures so you can’t validate them visually against the coin that was graded originally? I generally stay away from slabbed coins if there is no image on the registry despite many may just be older slabs. I have just bought one without a picture but could trace it back to an auction in 2012 and it’s pictured there to offer enough provenance for me to take the dive.

Also for the 5oz silver NGC census so far there is definitely something with the quality of these coins: 67: 1 68: 0 69: 5 70: 8

Came in a loose cap but thankfully seems to have not been damaged. Not a great photo but I do like these 5oz versions

I’m not convinced it is but I guess we’ll never know how long RM have stored it after minting but for me I’ve never seen a coin coming from a new release with milk spots Obviously I didn’t want to try and remove it so was hoping NCS would try but now they are saying milk spots they will not touch it either.

Just a further update to this coin, it was received a couple of days after release and sent for conservation and received a PF69 but on the NGC invoice it was declined for conservation and it was confirmed that NCS considered it milk spots.

Yep that is strange, I assumed they were offering continuity to all buyers of the first coin. I know when my 5oz silver had issues they said they wouldn’t be minting any further coins so a replacement or re-strike wasn’t an option. So I naturally concluded that all the 5oz coins had already been struck at that point - that was the week of the first release

Surely the issue is RM picked a coin which couldn’t be minted as a single coin as both sides are iconic. So they produced two coins and then instead of selling them all as a pair decided they would be released separately. It was then anticipated that the portrait would be a general sale as per the first but if that occurred there would be multiple buyers upset that they either had one or the other of a two coin series hence, wouldn’t be happy with the mint. So they decided to offer continuity which then alienates all the buyers who had to purchase off the secondary market as they are now not going to be able to purchase a RRP and cost, pain and frustration of sorting it. I put this down to a lack of foresight and communication issue from RM; a single coin depicted over two coins needs to be sold in continuity or you are going to create a number of future issues but the expectation either changed or wasn’t set and now we have this current scenario. If in December the mint sold all of them as a two coin set, then yes people would still be fuming they missed out but they would understand what options they had.

To be fair they could have still had a queue but we all miss out - seems only right to me

After hours of indecision I decided conservation was the best option. It’s been conserved and graded at a PF69 First Release. Appreciate all the input from other members about whether to send this back or risk conservation. I knew it wouldn’t be a 70 but made up with what it got Steve

My guess is you may regret it as the portrait should be spectacular; it’s always a gamble what the market will do but I can see you losing money on it