Booky586

The streamer on St.George’s helmet has been on and off since 1817.

A double strike would be seen across the full coin, all of the details would be repeated. Because it's occurred across several characters having the same offset I would think it's a die fault, probably some type of hub doubling. There's not much info on die production for Sovereigns of this period so there's a bit of speculation involved based on more modern coin production.
https://www.error-ref.com/doubled-dies/
Obverse and reverse dies wear at different rates and the obverse dies weren't numbered. It's possible that other 1872 die 90 reverse coins will have been produced with different obverse dies.

Thanks for this info Booky 🙂!

A double strike would be seen across the full coin, all of the details would be repeated. Because it's occurred across several characters having the same offset I would think it's a die fault, probably some type of hub doubling. There's not much info on die production for Sovereigns of this period so there's a bit of speculation involved based on more modern coin production.
https://www.error-ref.com/doubled-dies/
Obverse and reverse dies wear at different rates and the obverse dies weren't numbered. It's possible that other 1872 die 90 reverse coins will have been produced with different obverse dies.

Hi @gazer I’ve PM’d you this is a recent red spot removal 

Choo choo ! all aboard the gold train
 

Agreed but we're talking about timescales of decades and centuries. What do you think of this?
It surprises many professional investors that gold has been the leading major asset class in the 21st century. It has beaten the US treasuries, US equities, developed market equities and emerging markets, even after accounting for dividends. $100 invested at the turn of the century has turned into $591

Dominic Frisby talking to Ross Norman (albeit before the Iran attack)
Interesting reading

 
At least, I didn’t think that the price action was particularly abnormal until I spoke to my mate Ross Norman of Metals Daily yesterday. We had a long chat, and he is very concerned about what is going on. He thinks something big is afoot. I have to say, when it comes to gold price action, I bow to Ross. He has been at the coalface all his life. Current prices are a long way from traditional buyers, he says.
 
In the 1970s, the Hunt Brothers accumulated extraordinary amounts of silver so that by 1979 they had nearly cornered the market. The silver price famously rose from $11/oz in September 1979 to $50 in January 1980. It then collapsed all the way back to $11 and below. The Hunt brothers were charged with manipulating the market and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
Obviously, the gold market is many times bigger than silver was, but Ross thinks that this price action is not normal and that there is a huge - perhaps even Hunt-Brother-huge - options trade somewhere behind it. I’ve spoken to others at the LBMA and the World Gold Council and they think the same. 
 
A normal gold market would have corrected after this week’s "strong inflation data prompted the dollar and 10-year Treasury yields to rally, casting strong doubts about a June Fed rate cut,” he told me. Gold ignored it.
The buying is not coming from physical demand in the West. That has "absolutely cratered." "US Mint sales of gold eagles in March 2024,” for example, “are down 96% year on year." ETFs have been seeing net outflows, especially with the listing of the bitcoin ETFs, and "shed 15% of their total holdings." Chinese demand is hot, but that is offset by weaker than usual Indian demand. "Flow of gold to Asia is currently 'good but not exceptional' ... and therefore not sufficient to propel gold to current levels." Global Central Bank purchases have also eased. In any case, central bank buying tends to be much more measured, unless a bank is buying in a hurry.
He discounts the idea that a sovereign state is behind the move, maybe a BRICs nation along the ongoing 'de-dollarization story'. "They tend to buy on the benchmark (or fix), and these purchases are not. For a move of this scale, we would have expected physical transfer amounting to several hundred tonnes - and there is no evidence of that." London physical gold holdings are actually up a little.
A lot of people are scratching their heads about this.
What about the options market? While there have been some large trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with high strike prices, they are "not really sufficient to drive the market much higher." So that just leaves the murky world of Over-the-Counter (OTC) Markets, which "seems to have been corroborated today by the LBMA data. Someone has evidently made a monumental bet on the gold market via the OTC options market."
Golden bean counters at the LBMA are crunching the data, as I write, also trying to figure out what is going on. As this is the OTC market, we don't know "precise volumes, strike prices, or expiry dates ... all we know is it appears to be extremely significant in size. A well-known hedge fund did precisely this back in the early 2000s with enormous success." I'm hearing numbers as big as 50-100 million ounces. That would be 1,500 - 2,500 tonnes. China's entire official holdings, to put those figures in context, and many times the UK's. Huge, if true. 
Here's the thing, when those calls expire, the gold market, as Ross says, "will quickly discover gravity." We just don't know when
       
 

Would you be happy to send me a PM of the name? Be interesting to see if it's the same establishment... and have a browse!

PM just sent!

Nice one, I didn't really expect you to count them all up but it's proof of a match.
I've bought from a coin dealer in Cambridge and picked up a couple of rare coins that were listed at the price of a "normal" coin, I guess it's probably the same shop. It might be worth your while checking out his stock, you might find some bargains in there.

Thanks ever so much! I've got a copy of the latest (2021) Marsh book turning up later today in the post. I also did a little searching online where there were other examples sold, which had their shaft of 'I' in REGINA pointing between two of the rim teeth (this occurs on mine too).  https://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&searchterm=Marsh+445a&searchtype=1
I picked this one up on the dreaded 'bay-of-E several years or so ago and it was my first 'shield' (of either full or half sovereigns) when I was new to collecting.
Last year, I was told by a coin dealer in Cambridge (who I won't name and shame here), that this coin was "nothing unusual" after they took it away into a room for a couple of minutes. They also offered me about a significant amount less than spot to 'take it off my hands' (from memory, around £30 less).
So on the face of it, it seems to be 445A, and I was fortunate to keep hold of it!
Thanks again @Booky586 , greatly appreciate your help😁!

Here's a scan of the relevant page from "The Gold Sovereign", I hope this helps. I think your coins is no 445A, which Marsh lists as quite rare. There's a little note at the foot of the page regarding course beading/denticles, it's time you started counting 😃

Here's a scan of the relevant page from "The Gold Sovereign", I hope this helps. I think your coins is no 445A, which Marsh lists as quite rare. There's a little note at the foot of the page regarding course beading/denticles, it's time you started counting 😃

Got a couple of coins the same it’s die cracks.

Morning all,

I knew it was going to rise on the open... but boy oh boy, this is quite something isn't it! 
I go to bed for 7 hours and we're 6 pages deep in the Gold Monitoring Thread. This is NBS territory page action  

Happy Friday, I hope you're all strapped in ready for the wild ride ahead. I feel this is going to get crypto level volatile over the next few months. 

You are the nun in the stuff on my hard drive. I got it all from Father Ted  

Speaking of @LawrenceChard @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer - congratulations are in order, I believe 
 
 

Gold suite was a little OTT though!

Absolutely stunning. RM got this one right thats for sure. The 2 Oz and 5oz St George at  only a few percent over release price..😉 couldn't be happier with these 

Arrived this morning in splendid form, the 2024 Proof Sovereign, graded. 
 

5 shields…..going on a partial date run as some will be far too expensive for me 👍🏻

Who says you can not find good deals on the bay of pigs. Got this 1918c Sovereign for only £30 over spot posted
 

Just some sterling silver (I think) for me today. I like the design on this, now just need to learn to take better pictures.

The Auction coins are now available to view along with a downloadable PDF copy. I've extracted the frontispiece, a very nice introduction from Aydin Izen:

The auction link: https://coins.ha.com/c/auction-home.zx?saleNo=3115
Catalogue and download link: https://coins.ha.com/c/ecatalog.zx?saleNo=3115