GoodAsGold

Great coin choice!  Good question... 
You seem pretty set on owning this coin - so perhaps buy and grade your own. The thrill of the chase.... 
  
Or save hard £7k maybe and go to auction.  You might grab a bargain... crux is - do not spend more than you are comfortable with. 

Good luck whatever you decide! 

As people have said you can't guarantee getting a 70 grade if you do that.  Someone had a 4 coin set for sale on here earlier this year.  They had had it graded and only one of the four coins came back as a 70 (the others including the £5 were 69s.
So if you must have a 70 get one that has already been graded.  You could try putting a wanted ad in the Trade section on here and see who bites.
You have picked one of the more expensive coins to want.  For this year of 1989 the desirable coins are the £5 and the sovereign.  Have you thought about the £2 version - halfway between the £5 and the Sovereign but for 1989s you can pick them up for about the same as or perhaps even less than the price of a sovereign.

Hi, @JJH,
In my opinion it is not relevant to have an very expensive graded 70 coin. You can buy a lot of different 1989 gold coins with the same money and to start a collection using this specific year. That number 70 is not magic. After you will work hard one year to buy one, for sure you will hate it. That coin will be in a white plastic case, too impersonal and intangible. 
If this specific year 1989 is special for you, this meant you are not buying to flip or sale soon. It is not investment, is only for your soul.
Enjoy, my friend, have fun with a tangible gold collection, if you have fancy you can wear some of them as pendant, charm or ring, feel the gold!
It is only my personal opinion, but I prefer to touch, taste, smell, feel. I had before only one graded coin, but I will never buy another one.
Kindest regards and good luck!
Stefan.

I will only consider to slab the coin if I decide to sell it. 
If the coin is for my own enjoyment, I will opt for a raw one as it use to cost less than a graded one.  Also, I can buy few more coins with the save of money, which means more enjoyment.😉

I think a lot of us are guilty of chasing the magical “pf/pr70” grades. These grading companies have collectors by the balls in many respects.
Easier said than done, but if price is an issue perhaps buy the raw coin you like for a decent price and forget the idea of grading it all together. 
Save the disappointment of it not coming back as a 70 and enjoy the coin for what it is.
The grading process is subjective and many people will tell you they’ve had 70s come back as 69s and lesser coins come back as 70s. Sometimes it seems it depends on which way the wind is blowing as to what grade a coin achieves. It’s a gamble. If you must have a 70 I personally would just suck it up and pay for an already graded 70.
(full disclosure: I can’t practice what I preach and I’m as guilty as any for chasing 70s).
 

I think that it’s simply a case of the Mint being ignorant about such things. It’s just their job to sell their products and nothing to do with employees personal interests so who cares?
I (and probably others) recently contacted the RM about an incorrect “fact” on their website wherein an article stated that King George VI died in 1951 and Elizabeth became Queen.  As he died in 1952, it tells me that nobody proof reads their website content or they lack knowledge and assume if they read that he died in 1951 then the content provider must know that for sure. It was corrected the following day.
Well spotted re the SOTD sovs @westminstrel. I hope you weren’t affected by the bad flooding in NSW.

I think that it’s simply a case of the Mint being ignorant about such things. It’s just their job to sell their products and nothing to do with employees personal interests so who cares?
I (and probably others) recently contacted the RM about an incorrect “fact” on their website wherein an article stated that King George VI died in 1951 and Elizabeth became Queen.  As he died in 1952, it tells me that nobody proof reads their website content or they lack knowledge and assume if they read that he died in 1951 then the content provider must know that for sure. It was corrected the following day.
Well spotted re the SOTD sovs @westminstrel. I hope you weren’t affected by the bad flooding in NSW.

https://britanniacoincompany.com/buy-coins/proof-sets/2020-alderney-three-graces-five-pound-silver-matt-proof/
 
In case you are not following the other Three Graces Thread ⬆️
 
They (BCC) managed to get 90 of the total mintage of 250. Today they only have 56 left.
So will collectors of the first 1,000 “Normal” proof coins be chasing this “twin” sister on a 4:1 ratio?🤔 I guess most collectors won’t even know about it, hence why I put the link on here. Could be a good safe bet for someone this coin.
I don’t think it’s ridiculous for a PF70 coin, pre-graded when RM’s un-graded are £2,000+ Then the PF70s coming home in 2 months will be what £?
Still early days on all Three Graces 🪙 
Still a worthwhile punt for anyone who didn’t manage to get a Three Graces coin IMHO. This could do very well whether you feel it is being “milked” or not.

I got into a discussion with them yesterday - they made clear that they did noy buy direct from the Mint and had sourced from the secondary market. They were very keen to avoid the notion that they were driving the price, but rather, they were responding to it.
Personally, I feel what they did yesterday was the very definition of driving the price. They used their extensive resources to acquire a signfiicant number of coins and then used their profile to dictate the secondary market price.

If anyone is letting go of these at these prices (although tempting) then you’re mugging yourself. If you can’t make the rent next month fair enough, sell it; but think about this long term for just a minute.
This is just the 2nd coin in the series, so imagine what the prices for the early coins are going to be like in 3-5 years!
Knowledge of this series, coins, prices achieved at auction etc.
@Paul your Una 2oz gold is now worth minimum £35,000 raw, more like £45,000 (smaller mintage wasn’t it?). Maybe get it graded?? PF70 £90k???
Royal Mint increased this year’s mintage a little and next year they’ll do it a little more. By the time you get to year 5 you’ll have lots of people looking for an Una or a Grace because they started late etc.
Sit on these like a Dragon’s egg on a pile of gold coins 🤫 
The fewer selling the better prices you can command in 12 months.
Do as you please of course but have a good think on this 😉 

She managed that well for you! 😖

I really wish a representative from the Mint would actively participate on the Forum. Chards do, Bairds do. The Mint should.
I mentioned this recently to an account manager and said that not all folk on here are critical and the environment can often be consumed with misinformation and misunderstanding. Having a dedicated rep to be clear about things would go a long way to ease anxiety.
I am pretty sure that everyone would be welcoming and make their quality control comments constructive.....
@ChrisSilver May I suggest that you write to Anne Jessopp and make the offer of forum sponsorship. Set out that it would be much appreciated and perhaps they could have a rota among their account managers to feed in and provide actual information rather than speculation? I’m sure you could work something out.....

Fair play. One time a women did phone me trying to sell me a raw 1989 proof for £2,500. I must have failed my induction.

I know, I was being facetious - but fair point, some may not realise.

I totally agree, i have no problems with companies queueing with the rest of us for allocation and then trying to sell for whatever price they want, but if they had their allocation confirmed last week and just sit back and hoard them and ask these prices it begs the question why do the royal mint even bother allocating to these companies.
From a royal mint customer perspective they would be better off not allocating, they know they will get 100% sales either way with the general public.

I was with you until I saw the Britannia Coin Company pricing.
I don't think any credit can be given when selling a sizable allocation to a Company that immediately asks 10 x RRP. It's wrong on any and every level.
Not just saying that because I didn't get anything today. I don't understand how it can be justified. It's basically the Mint lining somebody's pockets - it's criminal.

Tbh I’ve always wondered how you can trust a third party to not simply keep your higher graded coin and send you back their lower graded coin.
Not saying I’ve experienced this (I’ve never graded anything) nor have I heard of any third party doing this (some posts above are the first time I’m reading that something like this may have happened).
If it were me, I would just pay a bit more and put some extra effort to grade my coins myself, especially if they were middle-to-high-end coins and I knew the return on investment would outweigh all the fees and grading costs.

I scratched my initials on mine.

Just for clarity, as coins are submitted with grading services like PCGS and NGC, they are listed on forms. If the person you instruct to grade for you confirms the relevant submission number, then you know this before the coin is graded and so switching is difficult. If the service provider is reluctant to share this information and the coin is not rare or from a large recent mintage, then consider this an issue.
This is going off topic now. Apologies.
We should start a new topic for grading results for the Three Graces....I can do this once the coins are received if no one else does. I can share the updates as the coins go through the process.
Back to the Three Graces!! (sorry!) 

Cheers. I think to be clear, most third party grading services will be very careful and if you have a rare coin, then I would not worry too much. Where it becomes an issue is with the wider releases like Elton John, Bowie, Three Graces etc. I will always self grade the coins that fall into that latter category. For the rarer coins, I would absolutely use the service offered by Coins of the Realm. Trustworthy and honest. I would even use them for the Three Graces if it wasn't for me wanting to totally geek out on the process myself........there is something really cool about receiving update emails and being able to log in and see what is happening.......

Just go to the NGC website and join as a member. You will of course need to be mindful of the fees - 25$ joining fee to get direct submission rights and then grading and processing fees. The whole point of going through a third party is to reduce these fees, but then you lose control of the process and risk your coins being mixed up with others etc. 
You have a processing fee for each form - so better, if you are going to self grade, to wait until you can fill the form - that will save some money. Have a look at the site and review the costs. It is not difficult. 
Also, if you live in London, the NGC office is in central around the corner from the British Museum. That way you avoid postage fees too.
https://www.ngccoin.uk/join/
Cheers.

If anyone has some time, take a look at this - interesting and about the original Crown from 1817: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/211378
Also this sculpture, which Wyon may have seen given the time line: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-three-graces

It is frustrating to say the least for many, my Dad who is a collector really wanted one but had the same payment issues as everyone else, I was lucky to get one so I think I'm going to split the cost of mine with him. Money is just a number .

Very sad for the genuine collector who missed out during the melee this morning and there will be many. A very elderly collector friend i have just called me in despair asking about buying one secondary market and i told him to forget about it, in fact i felt that sorry for him for one moment i thought of selling him mine but then reality kicked in.

If anyone receives any brochure / mailer form the Royal Mint about this release and plans to junk it, could you please message me? As some of you know, I like this sort of (junk) paraphernalia, envelope ad all, but don’t receive it here in Australia. Thanks!