My first gold purchase. Did I do ok? (Half Sovereign)

[ArgentumPica]

Hey guys, 

I'm pretty new to both silver and gold. And with a limited budget I'm always looking for a bargain. I spend a fair bit of time on eBay looking for a good deal. A week ago I came across this half sovereign. And because the price was so low I decided to go for it. It was an auction, not buy it now. 

I paid £71 for it, which by my calculations is an excellent deal, and well below spot. 
Does everything look ok to you pros?

It weighs in at exactly 3.99g and came with a Spinks ref (i think thats an auction reference?)

Anyway, let me know what you think.

 

 

[sovereignsteve]

Excellent deal well done. Bullion coin and £71 is well below spot.

The Spink number refers to the type of coin listed in the Spink catalogue, which gives retail values for all British coins in various grades.

Yours would be classed as good VF and Spink 3974 bullion value only.

[ArgentumPica]

Ok that's great. I bought it purely for gold value

Yes, that was the same Spinks reference, makes sense now.
Looks like I made off quite well.

[HawkHybrid]

at that price, I would do a specific gravity test on it

for peace of mind. what's that black bit on the tail?

 

HH

[ArgentumPica]

I will do one a bit later and report back. 
Not really sure what it is, it doesn't seem to wipe off and seems to be on the surface. 
I'll get it under a loupe in a bit. 

[HawkHybrid]

could also check the dragons back claws with a known

example, looks a bit different to the 1910 full sov. pics.

 

HH 

[ArgentumPica]

Honestly, I look at several 1910 images on ebay and I see slight differences in all of them haha.
I need to try get some fishing line or similar for the specific gravity test. 
What numbers should I be looking for?

[4Nines7Hills]

silver 10.5

22ct gold 17.7-17.8

999 gold 19.3

[HawkHybrid]

maybe ~0.2g submerged weight.

 

HH 

[ArgentumPica]

I'm starting to get concerned haha, mainly because I know so little about these. 

I've uploaded some hi-res scans of the coins. Take a look when you get a moment. 

Image 1

Image 2
 

[HawkHybrid]

what's that bit on georges cheek?

the black bit on the tail doesn't look right?

(looks a bit like there's black underneath the gold)

maybe get it checked out at one of those gold buying

places.

 

HH

[ArgentumPica]

Well I took your advice and went to my LCS. 

I explained my concerns, he looked at it under a loupe, and weighed it etc and was happy enough with it to make me an offer. 

I accepted the offer for a couple of reasons. 

I was intending on sitting on this, but I don't want to have to deal with the questions asked today when selling it. I still made a handsome £30 profit on a quick flip. 

I rather take slightly less than the coins full value, whilst not having to deal with any potential issues upon resale at a later date. 

[Guest]

A quick profit is a good profit

[Kman]

54 minutes ago, ArgentumPica said:

I was intending on sitting on this, but I don't want to have to deal with the questions asked today when selling it. I still made a handsome £30 profit on a quick flip.

Honestly, you can't upload a picture of a sovereign on here without someone saying it looks dodgy lol

If @sovereignsteve didn't say it looked dodgy you didn't need to have worried 

[ArgentumPica]

haha fair enough. 
I'm still happy with my 40% profit for zero work. 

Lesson learnt I guess

[HawkHybrid]

4 minutes ago, Kman said:

Honestly, you can't upload a picture of a sovereign on here without someone saying it looks dodgy lol

If @sovereignsteve didn't say it looked dodgy you didn't need to have worried 

 

I think I'm in the lead for making the most fake sovereign

accusations. you can never be too sure. I guess it checked

out good, nice flip.

 

HH

[Cointreau]

The numbers in the year1910 look a bit on the thick side to me.

[HighlandTiger]

1 hour ago, Kman said:

Honestly, you can't upload a picture of a sovereign on here without someone saying it looks dodgy lol

If @sovereignsteve didn't say it looked dodgy you didn't need to have worried 

SovSteve is our resident expert, I have to agree with Kman here, if SS says its good, you can bet it will absolutely fine. 

[MCJ]

1 hour ago, ArgentumPica said:

haha fair enough. 
I'm still happy with my 40% profit for zero work. 

Lesson learnt I guess

Minus income tax?

[HighlandTiger]

4 minutes ago, MCJ said:

Minus income tax?

No tax to pay on Sovs

[Paul]

or you lost your sales receipt from cash-for-gold in a boating accident and suffered momentary amnesia filling your self assessment

[MCJ]

13 minutes ago, HighlandTiger said:

No tax to pay on Sovs

Doh, of course not. I was looking at another post about a monkey and. ....

I'll get me coat.

[sovereignsteve]

4 hours ago, HighlandTiger said:

SovSteve is our resident expert, I have to agree with Kman here, if SS says its good, you can bet it will absolutely fine. 

Shucks guys, you're too kind. (insert embarrassed/bashful emoticon here)

I didn't actually say I thought it was fine. I only gave the photos a cursory glance but that is usually enough; a dodgy coin usually just looks wrong. There was nothing about this one that grabbed my attention. However I've never seen or heard of a fake Edward half.

The weight was stated as exactly 3.99g which suggests an attention to detail and therefore probably accurately weighed; fakes are usually slightly out.

If the OP had measured the diameter and thickness, I'm sure that would have been enough to confirm authenticity.

[ArgentumPica]

Thanks. 
I'm going to grab some callipers soon for future measurements. In any case, the coin has gone now

Thanks for your replies.  

[JB3]

It's never too early to take profits.