This coin gotten a couple years ago in slab. This from eBay - I have searched for better examples of 20th century pre-decimal GB crowns, and these quite difficult to find despite higher mintages as they were somewhat rudely treated virtually from the time of being minted, or even BEFORE minting. I will explain but post pictures of this crown here: It is darkly toned and photos don’t do it justice, however in hand and closeup the surfaces appear original and do not see signs of friction under this toning. At the moment I do not have the option of better photos sadly.
Additional commentary: first I apologise for the quality of iPhone pictures & think my 11S is getting a bit long in the tooth. Some of what appear to be marks like that on the truncation of the bust are not basically seen in hand. Back to the topic in hand - the currency crowns would include the following: 1902 E VII "Coronation" 1928-1936 Wreaths 1935 Jubilee 1937 G VI "Coronation" Surprisingly, the "mega-common" 1965 Churchill crown I started collecting these over 30 years ago and have basically a very nice set that includes Record proofs, patterns, etc. No Edward VIII however, other than the pattern reverse... So my observations: Areas of apparent contact are not always so, with an example being the cheek, top of ear, and brow margin to right & truncation of bust (many other examples could be cited and will respond if there is interest) on G V Wreaths. What appears to be contact many times are areas where the roughness of the host planchet was not all the way struck through. This is tricky because these are high points that can can ALSO show friction or contact & so this has to be carefully examined. IMHO, the TPGs will often miss this bit when it comes to grading. These are basically pre-strike issues. The strikes were often rather soft to ensure longer die life so details are not always well struck up. Examples would be the cross surmounting the orb on the reverse of wreath crowns, mustache and hair details (etc.) on obverse of these or the Jubilee 1935 crowns.... I have seen videos of RM coining operations (unable to cite them at the moment) that essentially show the coins being struck and then tumbling down the chute post-strike & then poured into bags. These bags not necessarily treated with the utmost respect over the years as they were tossed about and moved about. So these coins are replete with bag marks. Raw specimens then show many of these inadequacies, but they are seen on slabbed examples as well. So finding specimens where these are not issues is a challenge for many of these crowns & I like to point to the Jubilee 1935 issue and the George VI 1937 crown. Coins of quality up through "63" at the TPGs are not especially rare and not IMHO worth slabbing. It is at the 64 and greater levels, both graded and (if you are competent at it) raw coins become much scarcer. It took me years to find a currency Jubilee that eventually graded 65+, and appears quite scarce at this level. The 1937 may possibly be even more challenging. The graded coins that I have seen in hand and pictures of, even in "66" often have challenges in terms of strike and/or contact at the surfaces. I want to see more of them. The "65"s are often not really up to the labelled grade in my opinion. There are 64s that appear in hand and after careful observation to be superior to the 65s. So it is entertaining to try to collect superb specimens on the one hand, but on the other to caution buyer awareness in buying the plastic and not the coin. I truly wish I could show a better picture of the OP coin but is an example of picking the coin over the slab (even with the dark toning which put me off at first as I was concerned with hidden issues). This appears in all likelihood to be superior to the 1937 currency specimens in the PCGS set registry...
Let's see those. Have you a link to them? In addition to that, what grade did they give this one? I'm seeing wear all over this one, just start left of ear, lest terminal toning is obscuring it.
Don’t see the wear you speak off, this at considerable blow up: Look up registry sets on PCGS site. The best shown seem to be all 64s..
Here's a raw piece from a 1937 Coronation Set. I think part of your problem is that these coins were 50% silver and 50% copper when made for circulation. This one is Sterling silver which is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.
John did you do an XRF on that coin as I've not found any 1937 crowns in sterling? In my experience both the proofs and uncirculated are 0.500 fine. I have a proof 66 Cameo (and a 65Cam and 64Cam) and all are the 0.500. I do almost all 1935 proof coins are sterling whilst the uncirculated and specimen are 0.500. Also, most consider that the 0.500 coins are "harder" alloy than the 0.925 coins....
