Unfinished collection.

[Roy]

Golden tip: If you are going to start a multi-coin collection, always buy the rarest coin in the set first.

Try 1917!

There is nothing more frustrating than an unfinished collection! 😒

 

[Elements]

I don’t think there’s many people that would have the financial ability to finish that collection!

[motorbikez]

@Roy  Good advice, providing you can find the rarest of the set 1st.

[Arganto]

My sovereign knowledge is scant but I'm enjoying learning. Seems mad that the London 1917 is rare compared to the Aussie versions, it would seem intuitive that the Royal Mint would be the most common but obviously not. The Canadian version had half the mintage, how come it's easier to source? Or have I got my info wrong?

[HawkHybrid]

7 minutes ago, Liam84 said:

My sovereign knowledge is scant but I'm enjoying learning. Seems mad that the London 1917 is rare compared to the Aussie versions, it would seem intuitive that the Royal Mint would be the most common but obviously not. The Canadian version had half the mintage, how come it's easier to source? Or have I got my info wrong?

 

as the story goes, there was minted many millions of 1917 sovereigns by

the royal mint. almost all were sent to america to settle debt. there they

were all melted down. so only a handful of 1917 london sovereigns

survive to this day. for some coins it's not about mintage but about history.

 

HH

[Arganto]

Ah, that rings a bell from something I read somewhere! Didn't they supposedly keep one or two? Maybe some Indiana Jones-esque investigation with a bullwhip over the pond is required.

Excellent collection, I really hope @Roy comes across a London '17 to finish it off some day.

[BleyerBullion]

A good point, well made and applies to all collections new and old since the oldest or rarest become more expensive and harder to source as time moves on.

[Arganto]

https://mjhughescoins.com/product/1917-london-sovereign-pcgs-ms62/

I'm starting to appreciate the issue here. 

[BullionBuyer]

If you are a newbie then I would always suggest that you start a collection that you can finish. Nothing more frustrating then starting off with all that enthusiasm and then it all disappearing because you couldn't get that one coin to finish the collection.

[dicker]

On the face of it, the Canadian mint Sovereign looks like the tricky one to find and expensive to purchase....until you try and find the London mint Sov!

Not obvious at all and I feel for you @Roy

I am attempting to collect all 33 Sovs from the years they were produced by the Perth Mint (in decent grades).  Whilst I know the mintages of each year, I do not know if there are any 'elephant traps'....I will be slightly nervous of this until I complete the set

All the best and take care

Dicker

 

[Roy]

Interesting choice of collection @dicker, they must be nearly all George?

I bet there will be some tricky ones, perhaps @CoinStruck can advise/assist?

 

[Elements]

1 hour ago, dicker said:

On the face of it, the Canadian mint Sovereign looks like the tricky one to find and expensive to purchase....until you try and find the London mint Sov!

Not obvious at all and I feel for you @Roy

I am attempting to collect all 33 Sovs from the years they were produced by the Perth Mint (in decent grades).  Whilst I know the mintages of each year, I do not know if there are any 'elephant traps'....I will be slightly nervous of this until I complete the set

All the best and take care

Dicker

 

Unlikely I’ll ever finish the set. @SVcollector has an incredibility nice series of these. Just like @Roy ‘s series, some of the years are nigh on unobtainable for the average guy. 

[dicker]

Thanks @Roy

Yes, we are spoiled for choice with Sovereigns, to the extent that (for me at least) I have to be conservative in what I try and collect otherwise it would be impossible with the varieties produced to try and assemble a meaningful collection.

Interestingly the first 3 years of Perth Mint Sovs were from the end of Victorias reign. Then Edward VII and George V.

In total, I think there are 33 different years to collect spanning 1899 - 1932, ending in 'Small Head' varieties.

Thanks for the offer - I am very interested - from memory, I think the mintage was in the 2 million range.

Take care

Dicker

[dicker]

@Roy

I have seen a couple of counterfeits of the 1917 London on eBay a while back.  More probably go through, bit I don’t check all the time.  
 

One was excellent, and only one or two details gave it away, so I think it was minted rather than cast.  
 

The other appeared to have been a Canada / Ottawa mint genuine coin that had its mint mark removed - well that was my guess looking at it!

Best

Dicker

[Roy]

3 minutes ago, dicker said:

The other appeared to have been a Canada / Ottawa mint genuine coin that had its mint mark removed - well that was my guess looking at it!

Yes, I think this would be the easiest way to fool someone.

I can't afford a 1917(L) but if I could, it would have to be graded and with some form of provenance.

I nearly got caught out once. I'll try to remember the story.

[HawkHybrid]

2 hours ago, dicker said:

I am attempting to collect all 33 Sovs from the years they were produced by the Perth Mint (in decent grades).  Whilst I know the mintages of each year, I do not know if there are any 'elephant traps'....I will be slightly nervous of this until I complete the set

 

I think the key dates are 1899p, 1924p, 1925p, 1926p, 1927p for that set.

 

HH

[CoinStruck]

1 hour ago, Elements said:

Unlikely I’ll ever finish the set. @SVcollector has an incredibility nice series of these. Just like @Roy ‘s series, some of the years are nigh on unobtainable for the average guy. 

I have a few Canadian sovereigns but the relatively less scare ones (1911, 1917, 1918 and 1919). I saw a 1908 SP Ottawa sovereign on the DrakeSterling site a few weeks ago graded by PCGS at SP63, it sold within 2 hours and if my memory serves me correctly was about the equivalent of £9,000. So yes very costly to get all ten of the Ottawa coins. 

[CoinStruck]

2 hours ago, Roy said:

Interesting choice of collection @dicker, they must be nearly all George?

I bet there will be some tricky ones, perhaps @CoinStruck can advise/assist?

I have a 1923P in reasonable grade that could be for sale after the ECQ. I don't think it's scarce.

 

The Perth mint began in 1899 and the first year coin is noted as “R” for rare in the Marsh guide even though the mintage was 690,992.  I do see them from time to time and bought one a few months ago at a local coin fair. It’s gone into PCGS for grading.

All the Edward VII coins are listed as “C” for common in Marsh. The key dates are listed as being the George V 1926 and the 1930. There are a few scarce dates.

As usual the coins with the better grades are the ones that are the real premium / scarce coins. I usually refer to the websites of a few dealers as reference points, DrakeSterling and Sterling Currency. 
 

 

[Roy]

On 19/04/2020 at 20:08, Roy said:

Yes, I think this would be the easiest way to fool someone.

I can't afford a 1917(L) but if I could, it would have to be graded and with some form of provenance.

I nearly got caught out once. I'll try to remember the story.

It was a 1917M or S

[dicker]

Nice bit of detective work. 
 

I saw a programme about a master painting forger.  He used to ask an auction / art buying company to his house to buy a set of paintings he inherited, he would present them with a box of 10-15 paintings one of which would be a forged old master worth a few million of genuine. 
 

The buyer would invariably say something along the lines of “we can take these off of your hands, nothing too special here”.  Forger would say that his dad said they were worth 15k (or whatever it was).  The cheque was rapidly written....

Clever way to try and pass of a counterfeit.  
 

Best

Dicker

---

Added 0 minutes later...

Just remembered the documentary I saw this technique was about a forger called Eric Hebborn.  
 

Best

Dicker

[Pipers]

I don't want to push in here just to say, I thought Id bought a 1899 Perth only to realise it was a fake. 

[dicker]

3 hours ago, Pipers said:

I don't want to push in here just to say, I thought Id bought a 1899 Perth only to realise it was a fake. 

No, very welcome!

Was it a good quality fake?

Best

Dicker

[Pipers]

3 hours ago, dicker said:

No, very welcome!

Was it a good quality fake?

Best

Dicke

Well I thought so at the time, when I realised it was a fake.  Though a few months later It dawned on me I had got excited thought I had found a good un and i had been done over.  Imo speaking for myself and others I have observed anyway it's easy to get over excited and carried away when one believes you are on to a good thing.  The fake coin was an average fake so off it went the be melted.  

[Tape]

On 14/04/2020 at 03:55, Elements said:

I don’t think there’s many people that would have the financial ability to finish that collection!

They're not that expensive

[dicker]

I have not looked to buy one, but I would expect a good MS example would be north of GBP20k?

Happy to be wrong, but saw one for sale quite a few years back for GBP14k and it wasn’t in the best state. 
 

Best

Dicker