Shall I conserve?

[Touvex]

Bought this lovely coin recently, been looking it over and I think this could do with conservation - has anyone seen similar marks? I assume this hasn’t been conserved.

Also, I’m starting to think the portrait has been frosted?? Or am I going crazy

[dicker]

Sorry if I am being thick, but I can’t identify which marks.  Photos through slabs often seem a bit tricky so I cannot quite see the quality of your coin but from what I can see it looks very nice. 

Conservation is a personal choice, I enjoy seeing my coins in their original state, unconserved.  But appreciate that others may want to see their coins in the best possible shape!

Best

Dicker

[Richym99]

The first six coins I sent to NGC for grading, four were modern (EIi sovereigns and two older (a Vic and a GV)

I marked all six for conservation as well as grading. The conserved the four modern sovs, but declined and didn't charge for conserving the two oldest.   

[Simmoleon]

I recently graded 8 Victoria sovereigns and a half guinea - the only coin they conserved was one with a small orange spot on it. The rest which looked similar to yours didn’t have any conservation 

[pricha]

I'd leave it alone. It looks fine.  Not worth the trouble i'd say . 

[LawrenceChard]

11 hours ago, Touvex said:

Bought this lovely coin recently, been looking it over and I think this could do with conservation - has anyone seen similar marks? I assume this hasn’t been conserved.

Also, I’m starting to think the portrait has been frosted?? Or am I going crazy

 

 

7 hours ago, dicker said:

Sorry if I am being thick, but I can’t identify which marks.  Photos through slabs often seem a bit tricky so I cannot quite see the quality of your coin but from what I can see it looks very nice. 

Conservation is a personal choice, I enjoy seeing my coins in their original state, unconserved.  But appreciate that others may want to see their coins in the best possible shape!

Best

Dicker

Exactly how are you thinking of conserving it?

If this entails using a third party, what exactly do they propose to do?, or is it a "secret" process.

As @dicker says what / which marks?

The portrait does have a nice matt contrast compared with the rather polished looking field, but some of this may be the lighting or the photography.

On a side note, I notice that NGC call it an Australian sovereign, which it is not. Krause does the same, and I suspect PCGS, It is clearly a British or UK sovereign, which happens to have an "S" mintmark from the Sydney Mint in Australia.

I seem to be the only person in the world who has ever noticed or commented on this strange American quirk.

[Touvex]

THansk everyone for the comments.

Maybe it's hard to see on the photos, but as @LawrenceChard said, the field seems really nicely polished with frosting on the portrait, which I've never seen on a bullion sovereign. But the obverse field also has a lot of marks (seems like dirty and not scratches when under a loupe) around the lettering at the edge and in patches. There also seems to a copper spot at the back around the harp.

[Simmoleon]

The other point you need to consider is if they conserve it I believe it will be regraded and you may lose the *; I may be wrong but pretty sure that is the case. If you go ahead with conservation it may be worth asking this first just to confirm it one way or the other 

[sovereignsteve]

I can't see what "conservation" would achieve. It looks pretty bright as it is and has probably been cleaned, by that I mean washed in some way not wiped.

IMHO it's current grade is top end and you may not get that repeated.