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Did I overpay for this half sovereign?


Norwhals

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5 minutes ago, Norwhals said:

I purchased it for 105 pounds which at the moment is around spot. I know the gold-silver ratio is heavily favoured in silver but I saw the price and jumped on it.

 

9e1b5bff59152b019c383400048d8cff.png5b69c31cf75b16208bdc5bc6191b67ea.png

You paid £105, a genuine nominal weight half sov is 0.1177 T oz, I make that £115. I've never managed to buy a half sov for less than spot.

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2 minutes ago, Sovsaver said:

You paid £105, a genuine nominal weight half sov is 0.1177 T oz, I make that £115. I've never managed to buy a half sov for less than spot.

I've purchased tons of silver from him in the past, has 1000+ feedback on a variety of coin sales. Its weight matches up approximately. It was sold at a discount because of the bad scratchings on the face.

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Was it from: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Sovereign-Exact-Size-Handmade/332559539455?hash=item4d6e17dcff:g:~HYAAOSw38BaiaR6

Gold is gold. Scratched, bent, damaged, it's never less than spot

Technically, alcohol is a solution..

'It [socialism] poses a growing threat, however unintentional, to the freedom of this country, for there is no freedom where the State totally controls the economy. Personal freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t lose one without losing the other.'

"There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers' money"

Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.

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You must be lucky. Please forward any more deals my way please ?

He probably won't be in business much longer.

Technically, alcohol is a solution..

'It [socialism] poses a growing threat, however unintentional, to the freedom of this country, for there is no freedom where the State totally controls the economy. Personal freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t lose one without losing the other.'

"There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers' money"

Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.

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16 minutes ago, OlliesSilverBars said:

Something just doesn't look right about the coin. I'd measure the diameter, and thickness using a calliper. 

 Diameter - 19.30 mm,

 Thickness of ~0.99 mm,

 weight of 3.99 g

Is there something specific that looks wrong? Don't have calipers at the moment, will have a look.

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5 minutes ago, Cornishfarmer said:

Don’t know much about halves, but looks wrong.   Head worn but ear ok,    Head seems big. BP very bold.    But like I said I don’t know much about so leave to experts

Hmm, do you know anybody here you can tag that would be able to tell me definitively?

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1 hour ago, Norwhals said:

Met up with the guy and paid with cash. He has real feedback with an actual history of selling coinage

Why are you worried?

Technically, alcohol is a solution..

'It [socialism] poses a growing threat, however unintentional, to the freedom of this country, for there is no freedom where the State totally controls the economy. Personal freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t lose one without losing the other.'

"There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers' money"

Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.

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if you sold a HS to HGM today they would pay £109 but you have to factor the £6 or so SD so maybe you would receive £103 in your bank account so that's the going rate.

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55 minutes ago, OlliesSilverBars said:

@sovereignsteve what'd you think? 

 

Nothing obvious in the design other than the "BP" looks incorrect but I've seen these artifacts in photos before. The reverse does look "strange" but that could be just the extensive wear and finish seen on both sides. It could have had a hard life and been seriously mistreated or it could be a fake. Can't be sure without the coin in hand but I'm leaning towards fake, which isn't necessarily bad as you paid below spot and it's likely to be gold. If it isn't, it will be obvious in the size and/or weight.

Do you have other half sovereigns or have handled them before?

I wouldn't recommend anyone buy sovs from other than fully trusted sources without a means to weigh and measure the size.

Profile picture with thanks to Carl Vernon

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I have Marsh's book on the half sovereign, I'll dig it out once I'm a bit more awake and have a look for you.

In the meantime, looking into callipers and a scale (and how to do a specific gravity test) are all worth considering for the future ?

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7 hours ago, sovereignsteve said:

I wouldn't recommend anyone buy sovs from other than fully trusted sources without a means to weigh and measure the size.

Couldn't agree more

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10 hours ago, Norwhals said:

Is there something specific that looks wrong? Don't have calipers at the moment, will have a look.

I brought a nice set of digital vernier calipers from Amazon for about £20, well worth the money.

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Ok, so with reference to aspects others have highlighted, Marsh, your photos and my own (limited) experience I don't think this looks particularly suspect:

The prominent ear is partially an aspect of the portrait, some portraits (Edward VII, George V) tend to be a bit more forgiving with wear and in the case of old Eddy, the mutton chops and balding head mean that the ear seems to be if anything slightly incuse. See below a photo in Marsh's book and a (not v good quality) snap of my 1903 half both of which show the same prominent ear:

IMG_20180601_085248632.thumb.jpg.6e9d58bf10d9c7175bc195fde252c3d5.jpg

IMG_20180601_092723855.thumb.jpg.d4df90d2a951ad4784a51256b83e18de.jpg

Re the BP on the reverse, I was initially a little suspect because mine doesn't have that, but it looks like there's two different reverses and your 1908 matches the B type:

IMG_20180601_085316772.thumb.jpg.d3bbe4862db9cc07887623c3fe3accc7.jpg

So, in my humble opinion, I wouldn't worry unduly. Probably worth picking up some calipers and a scale as useful tools to have as a collector in any case. Hope that helps

You got the coin for a bit less than spot, which is a great deal but also cause for caution, but what you paid is less worrying than if you picked it up for £50, for example ☺️

 

IMG_20180601_085310868.jpg

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50 minutes ago, PansPurse said:

IMG_20180601_092723855.thumb.jpg.d4df90d2a951ad4784a51256b83e18de.jpg

PansPurse, your coin still has lustre in the protected areas (inscription).

14 hours ago, Norwhals said:

9e1b5bff59152b019c383400048d8cff.png

Norwhals, your coin is lacking any lustre; even on a worn coin this remains present around the letters. 

IMG_7843.thumb.JPG.69dcde19a58585fec9f06a6b2a126d81.JPG

You can see this nicely on this example (with additional but not as intense lustre on the fields)

Damn @sg86,  my iPhone with cheap macrolens and some tweaking in the phone takes better pictures than my DSLR setup. Now I really have to deal with my lighting setup, too before I preach again ? 

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36 minutes ago, augur said:

damn @sg86,  my iPhone with cheap macrolens and some tweaking in the phone takes better pictures than my DSLR setup. Now I really have to deal with my lighting setup, too before I preach again ? 

Very frustrating isn't it, I've been playing with metering a little more and looking into creating a custom base curve based on multiple JPGs from camera (a tool/script I found) which tries to replicate Sony's algorithms.

I'm getting there with the post processing now I think, I've got a look that I like. The issue I still face is capturing the cartwheeling that many of my higher grade coins have, I'm just not doing them justice, and this is definitely an issue with angle of lens to coin I believe. 

If you look at a coin parallel with your eyes it just doesn't look nice, regardless of where the light source is

The Gold Sovereign

The Gold Sovereign aims to provide the most complete online resource to collectors of the world's most popular gold coin - the Sovereign.

www.thegoldsovereign.com    |    contact@thegoldsovereign.com

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7 minutes ago, sg86 said:

The issue I still face is capturing the cartwheeling that many of my higher grade coins have, I'm just not doing them justice, and this is definitely an issue with angle of lens to coin I believe. 

If you look at a coin parallel with your eyes it just doesn't look nice, regardless of where the light source is

I am not sure if cartwheeling can be captured to the full extent in a photograph; probably only a video will be able to show it off. 

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1 hour ago, augur said:

I am not sure if cartwheeling can be captured to the full extent in a photograph; probably only a video will be able to show it off. 

Yea I just meant a still of that lustre if you know what I mean, the reflectiveness of such an area, in my current photos this is black and I think that is because of the angle of lens

The Gold Sovereign

The Gold Sovereign aims to provide the most complete online resource to collectors of the world's most popular gold coin - the Sovereign.

www.thegoldsovereign.com    |    contact@thegoldsovereign.com

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