Simonz

This is a link to the auction https://www.spink.com/auction/22096?page=1
I would not be surprised  that spink are trying to save face especially if a "raw" coin has already been though their auctions and graded by their experts only for the NGC to grade them AU details cleaned....I would think spink would be a little embarrassed if that was the case.  Spink are not even constant with their own descriptions they are happy to take the NGC grade if the grade pushed the coin into the highest population but the second it drops the grade of the coin and especially if its already been though their auction and their  "experts"  they are having a dig at the NGC they can't have it both ways, take the grade if it makes them more money, or slate the grade when their "experts" have got it wrong in previous auctions......This is so funny! 
 
# 33 - The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC MS63* | GEM EYE... »  (g) The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC MS63* | GEM EYE APPEAL | George IV (1820-1830), Sovereign, 1821, Type 1, laureate head left, rev. St George and Dragon, edge milled, 8.01g, 7h (Marsh 5; MCE 471; Bentley 13; Stratos 119-120; Spink 3800), a scuff on neck and wisps of handling in otherwise brilliant obverse fields, the obverse evidently struck with a repurposed Proof die, the reverse lustrous, a pleasingly bold extremely fine, the reverse much as struck, with NGC 'St Albans' Certification, graded MS63 STAR          # 37 - The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC UNC Details | Wi... »  (g) The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC UNC Details | William IV (1830-1837), Sovereign, 1833, second bare head right, rev. crowned shield in mantle, edge milled, 7.98g, 6h (Marsh 18; MCE 491; Spink 3829B), scuffing and pecking to shield in second quarter, and a nick to rim in first, the reverse a touch untidy, otherwise with much residual lustre, struck details approaching extremely fine, with NGC 'St Albans' Certification, carelessly graded UNC Details ~ Cleaned (#6295553-049)Provenance'A Distinguished Collection', purchased en bloc via Spink, August 2018Spink, by private t...  🤣🤣🤣   Can you see whats going on here yet?    # 38 - The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC UNC Details | Vi... »  (g) The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC UNC Details | Victoria (1837-1901), Sovereign, 1846, 'Arabic' 1, first young head left, WW in relief on truncation, rev. crowned shield in wreath, edge milled, 7.99g, 6h (Marsh 29; MCE 507; Spink 3852), softer strike on high points, and with light cabinet friction across otherwise lustrous surfaces, near extremely fine / the reverse displaying full mint bloom and much as struck, with NGC 'St Albans' Certification, preposterously graded UNC Details ~ Obverse Cleaned (#6295553-050)Provenance 'A Distinguished Collection', purchased en bloc via Spink, August 2018 🤣🤣🤣         Not mush of a provenance  is it?    
 
 
 

That makes sense, also got this response from Spink;
 

Quoted directly from Spink auction 22096 "St Albans" collection, I have not made any of these up! 24 of 53 Lots have Spink grading as below, unclear what order they should go in... why do they send any coins to NGC? This is clearly a serious attempt to undermine the grading systems. Are they trying to help punters, or themselves?
Rightfully graded – UNC Details
Fairly graded – AU Details
Helpfully graded – AU58
Generously graded – XF40
Harshly graded – UNC Details
Exceptionally harshly graded – PF62 Ultra Cameo
Nonsensically graded – UNC Details
Strictly graded – AU53
Very strictly graded – MS61
Ridiculously graded – UNC Details
Conservatively graded – MS63
Carelessly graded – UNC Details
Preposterously graded – UNC Details
Clumsily graded – AU Details

I've taken these with my light setup which are available here:
 
the principle (if you don't already know) is that light enters from the diffuser end and reflects down onto your coin via the angled glass. With your mobile camera, or DSLR shooting perpendicular (ie, straight down) to the light source, the glass prevents any reflections from outside of the rig. 
So in short, the coin is lit from above which is ideal, and there are no reflections of the camera which is an issue on shiny coins, jewellery etc
Quick and easy to use. The coin images were taken with an iphone and are unedited.
 
 

The shiny new sovs are a nightmare.  Now I have my technique reasonably polished, I will try again.
As for the lightbox, I have a "Neewer Photo Studio", currently under £50 on Amazon.  It's 50cm cube, which is easily big enough, probably too big for normal coins but means you can use it for other things.  I don't usually use the built-in lights, as I have the light panel, but it comes with backgrounds and diffusion cloth.  And it packs up flat.  There are many others, of all shapes and sizes.

Finally delivered this week 😍😍
Some really unusual not easy to get coins in this lot. Loving  the V thaler 

Another recent slurp from my new favourite shop (the trade board):

Received this today, thought I'd take a picture.
1885 Melbourne Full Sovereign

Just shows that you can never trust "experts".
Nothing changes.

Yes, I also read it in today's Telegraph print edition, but prefer to quote the BBC as its factual reporting, grammar and syntax is usually better. In addition, the Telegraph online often blocks access unless you pay.
I can usually get by in France, Germany, Italy, and even the USA, but Glaswegian usually defeats me, although we did until recently have a staff member from Northern Ireland, and I had problems understanding or even following what he was saying.
The story is interesting in that it underlines that coins provide hard and persistent evidence for much of world history over the past 2000+ years. 
True numismatics!
😎

Gold Coin Proves 'Fake' Roman Emperor was Real - Ancient News
Until today, I had never heard of a Roman Emperor called Sponsian, so was surprised to read "news" about him.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63636641

The face of Sponsian the first, who was purged from history by experts in the nineteenth century. Researchers have now established that he was a lost Roman emperor.
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent
An ancient gold coin proves that a third century Roman emperor written out of history as a fictional character really did exist, scientists say.
The coin bearing the name of Sponsian and his portrait was found more than 300 years ago in Transylvania, once a far-flung outpost of the Roman empire.
Believed to be a fake, it had been locked away in a museum cupboard.
Now scientists say scratch marks visible under a microscope prove that it was in circulation 2,000 years ago.
Prof Paul Pearson University College London, who led the research, told BBC News that he was astonished by the discovery.
"What we have found is an emperor. He was a figure thought to have been a fake and written off by the experts.
"But we think he was real and that he had a role in history."
The ruins of the Roman fort which was headquarters of the Roman military in Transylvania from where Sponsian ruled. The coin at the centre of the story was among a small hoard discovered in 1713. It was thought to have been a genuine Roman coin until the mid-19th century, when experts suspected that they might have been produced by forgers of the time, because of their crude design.
The final blow came in 1863 when Henry Cohen, the leading coin expert of the time at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, considered the problem for his great catalogue of Roman coins. He said that they were not only 'modern' fakes, but poorly made and "ridiculously imagined". Other specialists agreed and to this day Sponsian has been dismissed in scholarly catalogues.
But Prof Pearson suspected otherwise when he saw photographs of the coin while researching for a book about the history of the Roman empire. He could make out scratches on its surface that he thought might have been produced by the coin being in circulation.
He contacted the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University where the coin had been kept locked away in a cupboard along with three others from the original hoard, and asked if he could work with the researchers there.
They examined all four coins under a powerful microscope and confirmed in the journal, PLOS 1, that there really were scratches, and the patterns were consistent with them being jingled around in purses.
A chemical analysis also showed that the coins had been buried in soil for hundreds of years, according to Jesper Ericsson, who is the museum's curator of coins and worked with Prof Pearson on the project.   Under a powerful microscope, researchers saw scratch marks caused by the coins being in circulation
The researchers now have to answer the question, who was Sponsian?
The researchers believe that he was a military commander who was forced to crown himself as emperor of the most distant and difficult to defend province of the Roman empire, called Dacia.
Archaeological studies have established that Dacia was cut off from the rest of the Roman empire in around 260 AD. There was a pandemic, civil war and the empire was fragmenting.
Surrounded by enemies and cut off from Rome, Sponsian likely assumed supreme command during a period of chaos and civil war, protecting the military and civilian population of Dacia until order was restored, and the province evacuated between 271 AD and 275 AD, according to Jesper Ericsson.
"Our interpretation is that he was in charge to maintain control of the military and of the civilian population because they were surrounded and completely cut off," he said. "In order to create a functioning economy in the province they decided to mint their own coins."
This theory would explain why the coins are unlike those from Rome.
"They may not have known who the actual emperor was because there was civil war," says Prof Pearson.
"But what they needed was a supreme military commander in the absence of real power from Rome. He took command at a period when command was needed."
Once the researchers had established that the coins were authentic, and that they had discovered what they believed to be a lost Roman emperor, they alerted researchers at the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu in Transylvania, which also has a Sponsian coin. It was part of the bequest of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, the Habsburg Governor of Transylvania. The Baron was studying the coin at the time of his death and the story goes that the last thing he did was to write a note saying "genuine".
The coin was locked away in a cupboard at the Hunterian Museum because it was thought to have been a fake
The specialists at the Brukenthal museum had classified their coin as an historic fake, as had everyone else. But they changed their minds when they saw the UK research.
The discovery is of particular interest for the history of Transylvania and Romania, according to the interim manager of the Brukenthal National Museum, Alexandru Constantin Chituță.
"For the history of Transylvania and Romania in particular, but also for the history of Europe in general, if these results are accepted by the scientific community, they will mean the addition of another important historical figure in our history," he said.
The coins are on display at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.
I was thinking I need to undertake a trip to Transylvania, which left me wondering about the language barrier, now it seems like a rather more mundane trip to Glasgow, which may or may not make much difference to the language problem.
😎
   

I don’t want to cause chaos on a Friday so I am going to be relatively diplomatic about modern designs but what I would give for a return to steam presses, The Wyons/Benedetto Pistrucci (to name a few) and iconic design days. I don’t want to say any of the current RM designers/engravers are the problem because I don’t believe that is the case. I believe it’s a number of factors but mainly it’s the business model and the UK is not alone in this.
 
From the first coins minted, they served as a store of value but also allowed a state to send messages (or propaganda) to its citizens or other foreign states. For example the Attica Owls with Athena on the back commemorating her place in establishing the city and then the owl and olive twig finished with a message saying this coin is of the people of Athens. Julius Caesar, in one coin he’s showing is family origins with the founders of Rome and also his families link to a God. Let’s not forget, Brutus and the Ides of March or even the connection between Queen Victoria and Una and the Lion. My belief is iconic coin designs tells a story with fantastic workmanship but most states who created iconic designs did not have a new release every Monday. It’s like the whole proof sovereign debate, proof sovereigns use to be a very special release not an annual thing.
My view is mints are largely businesses now and have to make some money. They make money by releasing a lot of coins and then charging a premium but I do truly believe the market is utterly saturated with new releases, it’s none stop and you login and some mint as released another must have coin. I do believe this is one of the major factors impacting the current market along with a number of other factors. I also think the Una release demonstrated one point, if a mint releases an iconic coin which is a piece of art it will rightly find its way to the top as it’s better than all other modern releases but again when you then saturate the marked with the next releases with too many coins the iconic design counts for little.
This is why I like this new sovereign, the mint have put some effort in and released something very different. That’s not a bad thing in my opinion
 

Sod that, get those puppy’s on camera! (Not the first time I have said that)

I joked years ago that we'd have that many commemoratives that we'd end up having commemorative coins about previously issued commemorative coins. It seems they heard me.
Just look at the Kew Gardens re-release.

Every 2 or 3 weeks there is a rm release of something for some obscure anniversary.
2025 will be the 25th anniversary of the new millennium celibrate this remarkable event with the royal mint with it's SOTD limited edition sovereigns. Only  2025 of these lovely proof coins will be released at only £2025. 

I'm still waiting for the £2 coin commemorating the sky being blue... No wait, actually come to think of it, in Britain that would be quite a memorable event.

Wow, another commemorative coin series! When does 'new coin fatigue' set in?
How does this year compare to other years for commemorative coin launches? There's obviously going to be a few extra with the 'changing of the guard' but it seems never ending!
Also wonder what might cause bottle necks for the mint? Making dies? machine set up time between short runs? materials? despatch? Hope they can deliver in reasonable timeframe...

RM mintage stats, number of commemorative sets each year looks ROUGHLY like...
2022 x 25
2021-2019 no info?
2018 x 18
2017 x 13
2016 x 13
Reporting categories get less consistent as you go further back, and nothing for 2019-21, but 2022 looks like a bumper year.
Disclaimer: this is a quick and dirty count as there are all sorts of different things going on, SOTD bullion, Normal proof sovs, etc.
Interested to know if there's a more accurate resource out there?

Making me nervous having just ordered my first coin from them! Charles sov, hope it doesn't take 25 years! Although it's got a long way to come and NZ Customs are extremely random! There's no VAT on 9999 gold but there is on 22K so they take ages trying to work it out! Thank God I'm not a flipper!

Is their record that bad?

Wow, another commemorative coin series! When does 'new coin fatigue' set in?
How does this year compare to other years for commemorative coin launches? There's obviously going to be a few extra with the 'changing of the guard' but it seems never ending!
Also wonder what might cause bottle necks for the mint? Making dies? machine set up time between short runs? materials? despatch? Hope they can deliver in reasonable timeframe...

Epic pics, appreciate all the info on your method. I've failed to come up with a consistent technique that works with older flat guineas and the shiny new stuff. Might have to make/get a black light box, assume it doesn't need to be too big? Would be great to see a pic of your setup?
 

A deeper description of photographing proof sovereigns.
Equipment: Nikon D850, 150mm macro, tripod with macro head, remote trigger, LED light panel 5600K with diffusion paper, light box with black lining.
Settings: f/16, ISO 100, -1 stop exposure comp, shutterless, focus peaking, RAW at max resolution.
Image 1

This was a single exposure, straight on.  Because the coin was parallel to the image plane, I could take a single shot and have it all in focus.  f/16 is the smallest aperture I would use; anything higher and diffraction starts to soften the image.  Use of a tripod, remote and shutterless exposure means that I can let the exposure time go as high as it wants, and still keep a small aperture and low ISO.
Image 2

My favourite.  The coin was angled up about 20 degrees, capturing the depth and giving a soft light across the fields.  The coin is pointing almost directly at the light, and this is where the diffusion paper is essential, not only to stop harsh reflections but simply to increase the area of the light source.
Much more difficult to capture, the coin is no longer parallel to the sensor, so I need to focus stack 7 images to get the whole coin in focus.