GreyBeardUK

RM don't seem to mind appearing ridiculous as long as they can make money.

Thanks for the replies, really useful. Appreciated.

I'm what Londoners call "a provincial" (when they're being polite), and I'm thinking of coming down to London for a day sometime in the next couple of months. Which coin/bullion dealers would you recommend I try to visit? They need to be in short walking distance of a tube station. Which ones can I walk in off the street, and which would need an appointment (difficult to set up for a day trip)? Thanks.

I know the doings of the RM are usually totally opaque, but I wondered if anyone knew why they removed the streamer from St George's helmet (from 2009 I think)? It surely can't be for aesthetic reasons after 200 years. And it seems unlikely to be problems with striking, as they appear to have left it on the half, 2 and 5. Any ideas?

I am very, very new to all this, but should there be that crack in his sword? And shouldn't there be more detail on his torso, as there is so little wear? Very interested to hear what the experts say.

So that's why the RM pollutes it's sovereigns with too much copper - to make them look rosey! Boom boom!

On Youtube, including the esteemed Mr Chard's videos, everyone seems to hate the post-1999 sovereigns because of their rose-gold appearance. No-one seems to have metioned that in the comments above (unless I missed one). Should that be a consideration, especially for eventual re-sale?

Thanks very much for that reference! So they didn't attempt to use fractions, but whole thousandths of an inch.

Thanks for the heads up. Still a bit rich for my blood, though.

Thanks for the reply, but 7/8 of an inch is 22.225 mm. I'm pretty sure the spec isn't that far off. But that's what I mean - I would have expected 7/8", or something equally simple...

I have tried to find the answer to this question on the internet to no avail, so I wondered if any of you experts know. The diameter of the Sovereign is universally defined today as 22.05mm. But when the present Sovereign was first produced in 1816, the Mint would not have used the metric system. We had only just defeated Napoleon, and then, and for decades afterwards, the Metric system was seen as "French". So the diameter must have been defined in Imperial units. But 22.05mm does not appear to convert to any sensible fraction of an inch (either thousandths or e.g. n/32). I did wonder if the size of the blank might have been what was defined, with the finished size being a "bit" larger to allow for the milling. But I can't find a solution there either. All the sources I can find only talk about weight and fineness. Do any of you know where the diameter came from?

Pity. It makes the 2024 Sovereign less collectible, because that is not going to be the first uncrowned head with a St George reverse.

The normal bullion and proof 2023 Sovereigns have the king's crowned head to comemmorate the coronation. However, the 75th birthday Struck on the Day sovereign has the uncrowned head, plain rim and frosted surface. This same format has now appeared in the "Variations of The Sovereign" Set (based on the picture of the BU 2023 coin). But it is not described as SotD (and it doesn't actually say that it has a plain rim and frosted surface). Are there any other appearances of this format of 2023 coin? Do you think more examples of this coin may be struck not on the day and appear elsewhere?

Thanks. I'll have to get the Spinks book when it comes out.

Yeah, I was afraid of that!