kimchi

I suspect one of the £2 coins will be the JRR Tolkien monogram coin commemorating 50 years of his death in 1973.
It was announced in the Gazette a while back.

All three of my replacement premium proof sets are going back again. They are absolutely shocking - various dents, foggy smears, tiny hairs and other small objects struck into the coins, and this... 
I can't even built a single full set of good coins between them.

I have 2 of these but when I took out to list they had a lot of frosting missing and didn’t look fit enough to list so didn’t.       If I ended up with 2 like it I expect a lot of others were the same. Could be only 150 or so in perfect condition 

The last time I looked the Mint said that BUs are struck 3 times, and Proofs are struck up to 6 (and of course you would expect more attention to the dies, and to QC although we know that can be hit and miss to say the least). Whether that's actually the case or not I've no idea. With the 2017 I agree it's indistinguishable in quality (and the 'error' CoA didn't help! 🤣 ). So I think we can put that down to the Mint making them just like a Proof - the error Cert certainly suggests some serious internal confusion!
My 2018 Sapphire Coronations are a bit different, definitely almost proof, but a lighter strike. Slightly more subtle (less contrast) than a full proof, very elegant in a way, and that's why it's one of the favourite modern Sovs I have (most eye appeal for me)
I only have the 2017 and 2018 so can't really comment on any others, except that I just personally wasn't attracted to the Mattes.

The 2018 Sapphire Coronation (Marsh and others - I assume they use those figures - say 323, which is a very definite number, I'd love to know where that figure comes from @GoldDiggerDave!) was a strange case. It 'sold out' fairly quickly at the Mint, but not by the crazy standards we've seen since 2019. It wasn't that hard to get them from certain dealers that are not so commonly mentioned on here. The problem was the caps, all came off in transit, in some cases causing damage. Because there was no problem getting replacements from the aforementioned sources I returned a handful before I got ones I was 100% happy with, but in hindsight I was being super picky because of the capsule problem, and wish I'd kept one or two more, as I now believe this one is a 'name your price' coin (or soon will be, within reason of course - personally I'm holding long-term).
No idea what happened to all the returns, or why the stated mintage is so low. Maybe the company I dealt with sold them at discount to their employees (they were pretty clueless) and the actual mintage is higher than Marsh thinks (?).

@kimchi any sovereign with a tiny mintage will be worth a fortune at some point in history, just hope it happens with these SOTD’s in my lifetime.
 
 

The 2018 Sapphire Coronation (Marsh and others - I assume they use those figures - say 323, which is a very definite number, I'd love to know where that figure comes from @GoldDiggerDave!) was a strange case. It 'sold out' fairly quickly at the Mint, but not by the crazy standards we've seen since 2019. It wasn't that hard to get them from certain dealers that are not so commonly mentioned on here. The problem was the caps, all came off in transit, in some cases causing damage. Because there was no problem getting replacements from the aforementioned sources I returned a handful before I got ones I was 100% happy with, but in hindsight I was being super picky because of the capsule problem, and wish I'd kept one or two more, as I now believe this one is a 'name your price' coin (or soon will be, within reason of course - personally I'm holding long-term).
No idea what happened to all the returns, or why the stated mintage is so low. Maybe the company I dealt with sold them at discount to their employees (they were pretty clueless) and the actual mintage is higher than Marsh thinks (?).

Until 2017, all the SotDs were BU strikes.
The 2017 200th Anniversary of the Sovereign SotD was also classed as a BU, but it was quite obviously a proof strike. They just couldn’t call it that because customers would be mad that another, more limited proof 2017 Sovereign got released.

Oh no, so sorry and very sad to hear this buddy, wishing you all power, strength and very best wishes to you and your son at this most difficult of times ❤️
We will try to find you something special 🙏

Oh no, so sorry and very sad to hear this buddy, wishing you all power, strength and very best wishes to you and your son at this most difficult of times ❤️
We will try to find you something special 🙏

That's why religion should be left out of politics. Although I am a self confessed luke-warm royalist, I'm more in the thinking of the founding fathers of the US when it comes to religion and politics.
I've nothing against religion in and of itself (or faith) but it should be a private thing. As Elizabeth I once said at the 1558 religious settlement, "I won't make windows into men's souls". Great sentiment, unfortunately she'd be arrested now for misgendering.
Blessed are the cheese makers.

Thanks James - really appreciate that. I’d purchased one for my son and I but just didn’t realise the Mint didn’t produce sovereigns in certain years. No Brits either as they didn’t Mint until 1987. She was French so maybe some French coins. 🙏

Sorry to read this @lst65  will keep an eye out for anything special from 1970 and give you a shout if something crops up 👍🏼

Thanks buddy. Basically my wife died in January. Her birth year…1970. No worries, thanks for the sensible response and not laughing. 

I'd imagine if there's one to be found for you... this may just be the place. 
Good luck. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Thanks so much buddy. It appears the Mint didn’t do any that year! I’d hoped to get one for her, my son and I. New plan me thinks. 

Royal Mint had the audacity to increase the prices on unsold stock. Hilarious.   P.T. Barnum often quoted "there's a sucker born every minute." Whether he said it or not, it appears the Royal Mint thinks there's enough of them out there.
Now £750 for the 1/4oz proof.

on the theme of Kings... cheese & whey    https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/prince-charles-aston-martin-db6-runs-wine-and-cheese   

That made me truckle.

This is the whey

This is the whey

Quite a long piece basically saying that, no matter the way it's presented, the Coronation is deeply Anglican:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65031625

This is the whey

This is the whey