1887 - 2002 Royal Mint Golden Jubilee Gold Set - Old and New

[LawrenceChard]

At a well-known local dealer, I recently viewed not one, but two, composite / hybrid coin sets I had not seen before. To be clearer, there were two sets, both near identical.

Each set was the bastard progeny of some Royal Mint marketing department personnel, and comprised a 2002 Golden Jubilee 4 Coin set, £5 to half sovereign, plus its 1887 Queen Victoria Jubilee set.

While there is nothing much wrong with this, what frustrates me from more than one point of view is the fact the buyer will have paid about double the price that most dealers would ask, mainly because they bought from the Royal Mint.

The 2002 coins are all proofs, while the 1887 are all non-proof versions.

The 1887 coins are high grade, as would be expected. Here are photos:

£5 Quintuple Sovereign - Reverse

£5 Quintuple Sovereign - Obverse

£2 Double Sovereign - Reverse

£2 Double Sovereign - Obverse

£1 Sovereign - Reverse

£1 Sovereign - Obverse

£0.50 Half Sovereign - Reverse

£0.50 Half Sovereign - Obverse

We checked them using our Niton XRF machine, mainly to see the exact alloy constituents, not to check whether the RM had supplied genuine coins, of course!

£5 Quintuple Sovereign - Niton XRF Analysis

£2 Double Sovereign - Niton XRF Analysis

£1 Sovereign - Niton XRF Analysis

£0.50 Half Sovereign - Niton XRF Analysis

I am waiting for Doug to process photos of the boxed set(s), and certificates.

I noticed one dealer asking £13,995* for one of these 8 coin mash-ups. I am wondering whether that is more or less than the RM charged in 2002.

* Correction:  £13,995.95 (but it does include free shipping!)

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by LawrenceChard
correction

[sovereignsteve]

2 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

not to check whether the RM had supplied genuine coins, of course!

That was going to be my first question😁

[LawrenceChard]

3 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

That was going to be my first question😁

What, you doubt the RM's integrity professionalism, and expertise? 😎

[sovereignsteve]

Do you usually see results like that with 1887 £5 and £2?

[Booky586]

The percentage of gold per coin should be 22ct (91.66%) but the £5 (93.3%) and £2 (94.3%) coins are well above that.  After a quick calculation the £5 coin contains approximately £5.09 worth of gold and the £2 coin contains £2.05. That's a lot of excess gold for the Royal Mint to give away.

4 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

I noticed one dealer asking £13,995* for one of these 8 coin mash-ups. I am wondering whether that is more or less than the RM charged in 2002.

I have most copies of the Royal Mint Coin Club Bulletin for the years 1985 to 1989 and then 1994 to 1997 which have the prices of coins sold at the time, unfortunately I don't have 2002.  I've been considering scanning the copies I hold and making them freely available on TSF but I'm ignorant of copyright law and have held back listing them.

Lovely photos too!

[LawrenceChard]

3 hours ago, Booky586 said:

The percentage of gold per coin should be 22ct (91.66%) but the £5 (93.3%) and £2 (94.3%) coins are well above that.  After a quick calculation the £5 coin contains approximately £5.09 worth of gold and the £2 coin contains £2.05. That's a lot of excess gold for the Royal Mint to give away.

I have most copies of the Royal Mint Coin Club Bulletin for the years 1985 to 1989 and then 1994 to 1997 which have the prices of coins sold at the time, unfortunately I don't have 2002.  I've been considering scanning the copies I hold and making them freely available on TSF but I'm ignorant of copyright law and have held back listing them.

Lovely photos too!

On a strict legal basis, the RM could object, but there is a perfectly good defence of "fair use", and in context, I would not expect any problem.

 

[LawrenceChard]

5 hours ago, sovereignsteve said:

Do you usually see results like that with 1887 £5 and £2?

Yes, all 4 coins are in the expected ball park, 1887 London JH always have a higher cilver content, perhaps it will be repeated for the Platinum Jubilee.

We also photographed ans tested all 4 x 1887s in the second set.

[LawrenceChard]

On 09/10/2021 at 13:23, LawrenceChard said:

At a well-known local dealer, I recently viewed not one, but two, composite / hybrid coin sets I had not seen before. To be clearer, there were two sets, both near identical.

Each set was the bastard progeny of some Royal Mint marketing department personnel, and comprised a 2002 Golden Jubilee 4 Coin set, £5 to half sovereign, plus its 1887 Queen Victoria Jubilee set.

While there is nothing much wrong with this, what frustrates me from more than one point of view is the fact the buyer will have paid about double the price that most dealers would ask, mainly because they bought from the Royal Mint.

The 2002 coins are all proofs, while the 1887 are all non-proof versions.

The 1887 coins are high grade, as would be expected. 

 

Here are more photos:

Complete set in case.

Outer Box.

Certificate and Specifications

2002 Obverses

1887 Reverses

1887 Reverses