TheMadKing

Probably the random person opened it up and took them out of the caps for a closer look by now

Not trying to rub any salt into anyone’s wounds… but honestly… what does FIRST RELEASE have to do with anything?
All Proof coins, whether struck first or last, are meant to be the same quality; and there is no guarantee a “first release” (a very random contrivance by the grading companies!) is any different from a later release.
This is another reason I’m not into grading. Third party companies creating a business model for a need that they’ve fabricated - and cashing in at the expense of collectors. It makes no sense to me at all.
I can see a need for third party companies (i.e., besides the official Mints) to provide an authentication service for verifying coins as genuine, because fakes exist; but anything beyond that is a classic case of “creating a market”.

Hurray!  A 2022 Queen Elizabeth II memorial proof sovereign……..looks good at first inspection the tiniest bit of flake next to the I in FID but I can easily sort it. Will have a closer look at it when n better light……. Gorgeous looking sovereign, can’t wait to get my hands on the £5 sov’s. 

Ok the negatives, the capsule wasn’t closed properly and there is dust on the coin. It’s also a nightmare to photograph but here are a couple from my phone. No idea why Charles head looks do grainy - in real life it looks ok

Not sure this counts as a precious metal but fancied something different as an investment so thought I would share 
Fancy yellow 1ct brilliant cut pear diamond GIA certified 
Anyone else into Gia certified stones ? 
Interesting fact for every 1ct of yellow diamonds, 16,000ct of white diamonds are mined 
rare in this size and grade 

Gold we don’t hold

i quite dont get this cancellation rush guys...
what changed now compared to the day you placed your orders? mintage was clearly stated, dispatch time was clearly stated, price-s were stated, the reverse was shown...

Dear Sucker (whose money we have taken),
Thank you for your order with The Royal Mint.  As a valued customer I wanted to personally contact you with an update regarding your outstanding order(s).  
Over recent months we have experienced an incredibly busy period and as such, we are now experiencing delays to a number of our products. We are sorry that you may be affected by this, but there are several internal and external factors that have contributed to the situation.
I would like to personally reassure you that we are working hard to address these operational challenges and deliver the best possible service to all of our customers.  All orders are being processed as efficiently as possible and will be with you in due course.
I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding during this time and take the opportunity to wish you the best for the festive season from all at The Royal Mint.
Best Wishes,
Anne Jessopp

Well there goes quality control. 
You honestly think any of us would be in high performance mode on the 23rd December?
The Royal mint staff with either be focused on polishing Charlie's earlobes or thinking about opening the same fooking LYNX set they got last year.

Now that I think about it more, it's probably impossible, because the royal mint would release a Charles memorial sovereign to commemorate his passing, because they love milk 
 

Everyone but me will cancel, a ton will be melted down, leaving a very small mintage. Then, in 6 months time, Charles will suffer a fatal heart attack, after watching the newest season of the Crown. Pandemonium ensues, collectors everywhere flock to fleabay to try and secure Charles only sovereign. I wake up to 50 PMs on TSF, offering me thousands for my half sov 😎
 

The proclamation in the Gazette has already stated the 2023 Sovereign will be "a depiction of Our Royal Arms".
 
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4170186

Apologies if this has been covered in this thread already but I haven't read every post!
I just spoke with my account manager at the Royal Mint who has confirmed that these coins will be sold up to 31st December 2022 and then any unsold items will be melted down (or just not minted if they hadn't been made) and the total mintages for each category will then subsequently be published in 2023. 
So this means the single sovereign could well have a mintage 3000 or so less than originally thought. 

And, here's another attempt at the 1963 Gillick.  This time, with the camera at a slight 10-15 degree tilt and just using the diffusers on the lights.  I tried underexposing the photos a bit and bringing them up in Photoshop again.
This time a tad flat, losing the detail of the hair a bit, but I got Liz's face quite well.  The reverse came out pretty clearly.  I did a bit of detail enhancement and noise reduction on the photos as well, through the pre-filter for raw images that comes with CS6.


 
And for this one we pulled the lights back a bit.  This got us more contrast at the expense of a bit of the background reflecting off the coin.  Also, the shape of the portrait tends to produce reflections that make Liz look like she's got vitiligo if lit from some angles, and it can be a faff to get rid of that.  Not sure if it's just this coin, as I've got another Gillick that shows a similar effect.


 
And here's one holding one light above the other, and getting a consistent reflection from the coin.  I feel as though I've actually solved one of the problems tonight.  Still scope for better contrast in the detail on the obverse - maybe the exposure is a little to high.  But, we can see the detail and the lustre of the coin.


I feel sovs are actually quite tricky to photograph - very small, but just reflective enough to cause trouble with glare.  OTOH, the intervention in the last two was quite a bit lighter than the previous ones - I think I made some progress tonight after a few weeks of on-and-off frigging.
 
And here's the previous photo with the exposure pulled down a bit, getting rid of the worst of the glare and showing the lustre and the detail of the coin a bit better.


Not perfect, but I think a lot of the original 'how-do-we-do-this questions are starting to get answers.
 

The reverse must be outstanding.

I'm hoping it doesn't sell out lol. The lower the mintage the better. This will always be a significant coin regardless of what some might try to make you think. It's a great design and a first with the Kings effigy. Everyone stop buying these please lmao!!!

I found it, was from @paulmerton
 
 

The function (Fn) key is on your keyboard, but that is not the one to use.
On Firefox it's the same instruction, right click> select 'view page source' from the drop down menu. Then hold down control (Ctrl) and press the F key on your keyboard to open up a little search box on screen, type 'available' into that.
A control +F search is very useful on any web page or document you have open on your computer

I'm still not sure how a new sovereign coin, with the new sovereign's portrait and a new reverse can be considered a 'memorial'. Surely the fact of the matter is that it is the first Charles III sovereign coin. End of.

Thanks again to @richatthecroft.  A 5oz silver coin celebrating the Platinum Jubilee, with dates a little more poignant than perhaps they anticipated.

I do wonder whether the Memorial reverse design is a rejected Platinum Jubilee suggested design. This would explain how the Mint could come up with this design so quickly.  And as you say, there is no reference to it being a Memorial issue on the coin itself.

I’m in, Silver 2018 1 oz Brit

I’m in, Silver 2018 1 oz Brit