1872 Half Sovereign Fake or Rare?

[Silverpenguin]

Hello, new to this Sovereign collection malarkey…

Just picked up this 1872 half for £20 over spot (not too fussed as it’s a shield back), but was doing some research and cannot seem to find the matching die mark ‘103’ for the 1872 year….

its 3.90g (with some wear) so happy with the weight but thrown by the 103….

Any advice most appreciated!

[Spyder]

There are a lot of die numbers for this year and there will be many not seen yet. Are you sure your one is not 105?

@dicker is compiling a list of all known half sovereign die numbers so he will likely know

Edited November 23, 2023 by Spyder

[Norskgeld]

Hard to tell if it's 103 or 105.

I'm sure I hear now and again of a die number that doesn't seem to be documented.

 

[Petra]

That looks like a 5, however, if there’s a 105, you would assume there was a 103🤔?

[Silverpenguin]

Hmmmm…. If I had to say I think it’s a 3 but could be a 5. As long as it’s a genuine coin then at this stage I’m not too fussed. Thank you for everyone’s comments. 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Silverpenguin

[Skyfiller]

Looks like a 5 to me 🤔

Edited November 24, 2023 by Skyfiller

[Sovhead]

9 hours ago, Skyfiller said:

Looks like a 5 to me 🤔

Agreed

[Ashtonian]

Sorry for not posting sooner. What you have  is a normal legend 1872 half sovereign with a die number of 103, this means the nose of Victoria points to letter O in Victoria and the reverse has 147 denticles which was the norm from 1872 to 1880. There also exists a quite different 1872  half sovereign with the repositioned legend which also bears the same die number 103 but comes from completely different dies,  this has an obverse where the nose of Victoria points to T,  and a reverse that has far fewer denticles 122. One of the RL coins was recently sold at Canterbury Auction Galleries. but yours is the first NL coin I have seen so far with the 103. With the 105 die number, again there are two versions of the same coin, RL and NL versions. which use the same die number but are come from different dies. 

The Royal Mint report for 1872 shows that 402 reverse dies where used, as of today I have only recorded approximately just over half  this number.

Ashtonian 

[dicker]

20 hours ago, Ashtonian said:

Sorry for not posting sooner. What you have  is a normal legend 1872 half sovereign with a die number of 103, this means the nose of Victoria points to letter O in Victoria and the reverse has 147 denticles which was the norm from 1872 to 1880. There also exists a quite different 1872  half sovereign with the repositioned legend which also bears the same die number 103 but comes from completely different dies,  this has an obverse where the nose of Victoria points to T,  and a reverse that has far fewer denticles 122. One of the RL coins was recently sold at Canterbury Auction Galleries. but yours is the first NL coin I have seen so far with the 103. With the 105 die number, again there are two versions of the same coin, RL and NL versions. which use the same die number but are come from different dies. 

The Royal Mint report for 1872 shows that 402 reverse dies where used, as of today I have only recorded approximately just over half  this number.

Ashtonian 

You know your onions.  Bravo.