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Today I bought.....


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Ladies and Gents...I'm super excited to share with you my most recent acquisition and easily one of the rarest coins in my young collection...the 1866 Sydney Half Sovereign.

1866SHalfSov.jpg.4baf4e9cdd9b26bde0a6dbd544a91b3d.jpg

TLDR: I got a rare coin cheap.

Per the updated Marsh Sovereign guide, this coin is rated R2 - Very Rare.  I was initially put off by the grade but additional research revealed that there are around 1,000 specimens of this coin surviving and it is most often found below VF.  Downies, an Australian dealer, has one in aUNC and they're asking £7650 and one in VF asking £590.  Drake Sterling has a specimen in PCGS F15 condition asking £265.  The best part is I picked this one up for £243.

Here's a bit more information I found while researching the coin...

"Royal Mint reports indicate that no half sovereigns were minted in 1866 but 62,000 were minted in 1867 and a further 154,000 in 1869. As it is known that there are no 1867 or 1869 dated coins, it is presumed that they were struck with 1866 dies, indicating a total mintage of 216,000* which would seem consistent with the relative survival rate of the date. The date is one of the easier pieces to source with an estimated survival rate just shy of 1,000 and examples do turn up around XF from time to time, though finding examples at AU and beyond can be quite a challenge. The date is often found with a bold obverse rim paired with an undetailed central reverse strike. These examples came off the recycled proof dies of the year as during the year the Sydney mint struck two proof half sovereigns for the Inter-colonial Exhibition in 1866 and the International Exposition in 1867 as products of New South Wales."

*The Marsh Sovereign guide places the total original mintage around 154,000.  

The pieces of information I didn't find that I'd be very interested in learning is, if over 150,000 were minted, how are there only around 1,000 surviving today?  Were they melted down (this appears to be the case..."as the gold coins became worn, they were withdrawn and melted down")?  And why is the avg condition of the coin so low (was it truly a circulation coin)?  A census search of both NGC and PCGS has just 28 coins in better condition with AU58 and MS64 being the best examples between NGC and PCGS respectively.

Edited by Jester
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Aussie sovereigns (and presumably halves) were used extensively at the time for circulation but mainly for trade payments especially with India, China and the Far East. Is it not inconceivable that most were melted at some point to use the gold for other things and that the few that survived will show their age. Wear was exacerbated by the composition of the alloy which contained mainly silver not copper. It was a feature of the early Aussie sovs that they wore out very quickly and needed relacing.

Profile picture with thanks to Carl Vernon

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6 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

Aussie sovereigns (and presumably halves) were used extensively at the time for circulation but mainly for trade payments especially with India, China and the Far East. Is it not inconceivable that most were melted at some point to use the gold for other things and that the few that survived will show their age. Wear was exacerbated by the composition of the alloy which contained mainly silver not copper. It was a feature of the early Aussie sovs that they wore out very quickly and needed relacing.

Your surname is Hill isn't it?  When I received the Gold Sovereign guide from Token this weekend and noticed it had been enhanced from the original text by Steve Hill, my first thought was..."I think I know that guy!"  Thanks for the additional information Steve.  Certainly makes sense.

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On Sunday I sold a few items on eBay in order to fun this eBay purchase that ended tonight. The grades are not the very best but these are very rare.

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IMG_6638.PNGIMG_6639.PNGIMG_6640.PNG

In 1923 there were 655 proofs minted and a smaller number of business strikes. The business strikes were made to order from local gold bought to the mint.

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