Hello, I write for the first time, if anyone can help me with some coins that I inherited from my parents, this is a gold sovereign of George V of 1917, the question is that the mintmark is I am told that it could belong to london since there appears no letter seems a notch and that if this could be very rare, could someone help me know if the coinage is in London or elsewhere, a greeting, excuse my English.
Welcome to the forum, beautiful gold piece and I hope you don't have to sell it. I will leave you with a link of information on the subject. I think during that time period the sovereigns were minted in Sydney but I could be wrong. The only thing I can be right about on those is that the year 1918 was minted in Bombay, India and that was the only year for India. Check out the link for more info, oh yeah the fact that the mint is worn off is of no surprise as that is the first thing to wear off. :hail: http://www.cointalk.com/t63170/
thanks for the info, but from what I've read what I make clear is that London would be extremely rare coin, but what I like to know is if my money is in London or not.
I think the translator fails to correctly translate from Spanish into English and maybe my words are not correct. I'd like to know if my sovereign is minted in London or elsewhere, thanks a greeting
Yes, your coin was minted in London. That is indicated by no mint mark. Yes, the 1917 London sovereign is quite valuable, among the most valuable of the series because most of them were melted. Given the apparent condition of the coin based on your pics I would say it is worth in excess of 5000 pounds. Now, the question that remains - is the coin genuine. That is a very important question for sovereigns have been heavily counterfeited over the years. Some of the fakes were even good enough to fool the Royal Mint. You now need to have the coin authenticated. How you go about doing that depends on where you live - what part of the world. So if you tell me where that is, I may be able to steer you towards someone who could authenticate the coin.
First of all thanks for your reply, my place of residence is Spain, I would appreciate someone telling me much confidence that I could authenticate the currency, since in these matters I am a rookie, anyway I wonder if sending more photos of the coin you could give me your opinions on its authenticity, this coin is part of a small collection which I inherited from my parents among them also found two gold sovereign, one of George V mintmark of London 1925 and another of Elizabeth II 1957 I I would like your opinion on them. Finally tell him I'm very happy with his response but I hope your answer on who can authenticate the sovereign of Spain in 1917 and wanted to send more pictures of this coin to give me his private opinion, thank you very much.
sovereign pictures These are the other two sovereign of my collection, I would like to give me your opinions on them, thanks.
Actually per wikipedia the minting years and places minted overlap, so I don't know the answer to your question. It certainly could be minted in London and most probably was but there could be other factors to consider. As far as the other gold sovereigns you just posted, all I can say is very nice collection. Do you have any half sovereigns?? Sovereigns were produced as follows: * London: 1817–1917, 1925, 1957 onwards * Melbourne: 1872–1931 * Sydney: 1855–1926 * Perth: 1899–1931 * Bombay: 1918 only * Ottawa: 1908–1919 * Pretoria: 1923–1932 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_(British_coin) http://www.australianstamp.com/coin-web/history/sovhist.htm
detailed photos of the sovereign, 1917 these are some more detailed photos of the sovereign, 1917, that I could give his particular opinion on its authenticity.
On the question of if I have sovereign, the answer is no, I only have these three. I have in my little collection other gold coins of France, Helvetia, Swiss, Netherland.
joserra - There is no way that your coin can be authenticated based on pictures alone. As I said earlier, even the British Royal Mint has been fooled by counterfeits of these coins. It must be uthenticated in hand. Give me some time and I will see if I can come up with someone as close as I can to authenticate it for you. Of course if you wish, you could always send the coin to the USA to one of the grading companies. They can certainly do it.
George V Sovereign From 1917 issued at the Royal Mint, London (No Mint Mark) The question is if someone has removed the coins Mintmark (C M P or S) or if it is a counterfeit coin.The weight is only 7.94 grams (SHOULD be Weight: 7.9881 grams. Alloy: 22 Carat Gold). VF costs around 2100 GBP and XF ~3900 GBP (2009 Standard Catalog of World Coins) http://www.antikviteter.net/antikprat/messages/177/282932.html?1250548933
You are right that Bombay ('I' mintmark) only exists for the year 1918, however, Melbourne, Ottowa, Sydney and Perth also minted sovereigns for that year. As has previously been said, London Mint 1917 sovereigns are extremely rare because the vast majority were melted down in America when they were sent as payment for war materials. Because of this rarity, forgeries exist in high numbers, either in the form of a completely forged coin or as an altered genuine sovereign from one of the colonial branch mints where an attempt has been made to eliminate the mintmark to make it appear to be a London mint specimen. For this reason, 1917 London mint specimens should be treated with extreme caution unless properly authenticated and/or slabbed....
joserra - about the only place I can find in Europe that I know could help you would be the Fitzwilliam Museum. Here is the contact info - Contact Or, as I said, you could ship the coin to one of the grading companies in the USA like NGC or PCGS. Any of those 3 options would allow you to get the coin authenticated.
You could also send it to the Coin and Medal Department at the British Museum for authentication (they would only authenticate it for your own piece of mind, so it wouldn't be a guarantee that would be particularly useful if you wanted to sell it). Apart from the cost of return postage, they don't charge for this service, although it might be polite to give them a small donation for their help...:smile
Thank you very much for the answer, I will send an email and pictures and I'll tell you what to respond, thanks
hello, after sending several emails with photos both museums as members of the BNTA, every time I'm more confused, the response of the British Museum invites me to send the money to the royal mint, which I did via email and have not received response and for the members of the BNTA have answers about sovereign of George V of 1917 mintmark london for all tastes, some tell me if it is genuine, others not, others would have to see it in reality, other first I say no and when I answer by saying that the BNTA his fellow told me that if it is authentic, then answer me again saying they might be, but need to send you money, I think that ultimately bear the currency to a house Prestigious auction here in Spain that belongs to IAPN I replied that the coin was authenticated to the authentication and my conclusion is that if you are a small collector and have no one to trust in this world of coin collecting, you can cheat very easily and find that your currency, you said it was not genuine, after a few days if it is but you no longer have it because you sell it cheaply even a greeting.
They are trying to tell you that it is impossible to authenticate a coin based on pictures. It simply cannot be done. The coin has to be seen in person to be authenticated. So send it to them and let them examine it.
