Half Sovereign Madness at the ANA, Grading Issues Also

7Jaguars

I took note of the recent Heritage Sale at the ANA and was concerned about a couple of coins for the following reasons (and neither a buyer or seller in these):

1839 1/2 sov proof, ex-Law 64+ - this coin, which admittedly I did not see in person - but saw photos which I played with and video as well simply did not deserve the grade. Far too many issues, I'd have gone 62 on the grade. It was clearly inferior to the "ordinary" 64 that followed. Graded ATS, this coin IMO got a push for provenance.

Another tidbit: in the 19th Century, the RM would occasionally gently file down the edges of proofs to get rid of the finning. I can not recall the source of this, but have seen it on many gold and silver coins. The 1839 1/2 sov is one of them. Steve Hill at Sov. Rarities would likely back this information up.

1937 1/2 sov. matte proof - I can not see this as a definite matte. FYI, all mattes were sandblasted post-minting. If similar treatment is rendered to an ordinary piece, the unscrupulous could make their own. None were known until a four coin gold set turned up at Goldbergs some 10-12 years ago; it could be the real thing but this can not be proven and therefore I can not see how this can be certified. 13k is what I believe it fetched.

I can cite some other instances of this provenance bit in grading, but am mentioning it because it is a factor that potential buyers might want to keep in mind. Sometimes the same coin when not trumpeted up (pun intended - LOL) can be a better buy when not encumbered by the trappings of previous ownership labelling burdens.

Exbrit

Good observation. I haven't looked at the 1/2 Sovs, but will take a gander.

Timbuk3

Interesting, thanks for sharing !!!

brg5658

Isn't it funny how coins we own are always undergraded by 2 points, and coins we don't own are overgraded by 2 points.

7Jaguars

Yes that certainly is a tendency. However, I was talking about not just these coins and certainly not any I own, but rather coins like the Millennium Collection or the recently [hyper-graded] 1839 proof set where IMO many got a push of 3 points, etc.