How rare does a coin have to be a "major auction only to determine the value"

I recently bought a coin that I think is reasonable defined as Ultra Rare (one that you might not have a chance at in years of watching auctions) a 1909-C specimen Sov

I paid a high price for it but one that I think was influenced a bit my a higher grade exsample being oddly offer about 3 weeks later (Mine is the low ball of certified exsample)

Now this coin isn't something that will trade daily or perhaps even yearly (PCGS as just other (so 7 total) dating back to 2013).

So I am just wondering when is a coin a major auction only coin v set price ?

And of course coin tax

 

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What is it's grade? It's hard to get pricing on any of that era's sovereigns. I'd like to get my small sack appraised one day. Nobody in the southeast really knows much about them nor cares. I checked Britain's Bullion By Post and they don't have any in stock nor want inquiries about this one. Those mint marks are a bear to see with the naked eye, you really need 10X magnification. Nice find.

 

It's a SP61 one of ten certified from that year in Specimen. The important thing here is mine is a specimen rather then a currency strike.

I honestly just wanted an early specimen sovereigns from Ottawa so I bid what I thought was fair on this. A gold standard era Proof or specimen was always on my list

in terms of rarity the date is overall is listed by Drake Sterling as the second rarest of the Edward VII series and they States

"I have omitted the ultra-rare 1902 proof sovereigns from Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the 1909 specimen coin from Canada. The average collector would be forgiven for excluding these coins from his or her set"

https://www.drakesterling.com/news/post/sovereign-rarities-from-edward-vii-ranked-from-top-to-bottom

Over all Drake's site has a lot of good information of Sovereigns

It is currently impossible to know how many of these are in private hands. again currently 10 are certified and 1 is impounded in the Bank of Canada collection. These do sell somewhat regularly with 7 auction in since 2013 including one tomorrow

I also won a relatively common(The relatively does a lot of work since only 636 were struck) 1908-C Lets just say those are my major buys for a bit lol barring an affordable 1916-C since I would like to be able to have a full date set of Ottawa Sovereigns.

I suspect I may have gotten a great deal as there are some high end exsamples (65 for both year plus two 1911-C in SP 67) crossing the block in the next couple of weeks