Most Expensive British Coin

Most Expensive British coin. EDWARD VIII SOVEREIGN £516,000
No British coins went into circulation but some proof sets were made
I bought the 1937 Sovereign as it is the key date for any collector of sovereigns. Six were minted, four sets are in British museums, the Queen has a set, one full set is held privately and this beautiful coin is the only one available on its own. It tells the story of love over title, Edward abdicated and gave up the highest office in the world for his true love.
Rarity History and love story makes this one of the key coins in the entire British series.
It's part of Viceroy Coins collection edited and I'm proud to hold the world record. It was a fantastic experience to buy it during a fiercely contested auction. Jordan Lott

 

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So this is your story so to say? http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...n-of-edward-viii/story-fni6uo1m-1226914502275 Wow, amazing ... And welcome to Coin Talk!

Christian

 

Hi Christian
Yes it was my first major coin purchase and it certainly raised eyebrows when a total stranger in the room set the world record. I've fallen for coin collecting and now understand people's love of such beautiful objects.
Although I'm new to collecting trading in coins it's fascinating and I'm learning everyday.
I do very much believe in the investment side of major rarities and the protection they afford in these uncertain times. I truly believe that these will protect my families wealth.

 

You win welcome to CT!

 

I consider all Edward VIII significant coins. At the same time, you should be aware that the prices of "investment" coins are substantially a function of the credit bubble and related asset manias. The credit bubble has inflated the prices of mainstream financial assets (stocks and bonds), real estate and yes, collectibles such as art and coins.

 

As someone who markets rare coins, I bet you do, it's called talking your own book.

We have these discussion all the time, so I'll stick with my standard answer. Coins are a horrible investment. They have no productive capacity, they generate no income, they have a very large bid/ask spread, are non-fungible, trade in a generally illiquid market, and have high carrying costs. I'm not an investment adviser, but those are all generally things I try to avoid when I look for safe investments to protect my wealth...

 

I truly believe that these will protect my families wealth.

I think a lot depends on how many families you have and if they find out about each other.

 

I try to keep my sister wives away of one the another, makes for domestic harmony - don't need the hormonal ones trashing the tranquility.

All candor aside, my most dear coin is British, albeit not the wee 'un in my avatar but e'en scarcer an' larger.

 

Wow, I need to find a better paying job!

 

Well the seller was very happy as he only paid £40,00 for it!

 

£40,000

 

And i can show auction records of coins losing 400,000 between sales...

 

I do very much believe in the investment side of major rarities and the protection they afford in these uncertain times.

In uncertain times, the flight of money is away from speculative purchses with market prices set by the whim of a couple of buyers and towards perceived safe assets like gold bars. At present we are living in comparatively certain times.

I( do not see any coin collecting in this purchase, as a coin collector I would have bought 1000 £500 coins, all of which would be historic, beautiful, reasonably rare and could cover the entire 2000 year plus history of coinage. Your underbidder may be the only other person on the planet willing to pay nearly that much and next year they may have lost interest.

I would have 1000 underbidders to support the market price of may collection.

 

If the argument is that uncertainty and slow economic times threaten the resale value of his purchase you actually have it backwards what coins would be threatened. Buyers for his coin never have to work another day in their life, whether or not times are great or there is a depression they are rich and short of horrible decision making will always be rich.

Those 500 pound coins you would buy would be the coins whose resale is threatened and impacted by the economy. The average person is the person most impacted by the times and they are the buyer base for mid three figure coins generally speaking. When their spending money dries up or is threatened the market dies or only supports large discounts on coins the middle class collects. Trying to move a 1000 of those in tough times will result in pennies on the dollar for many of them.

While there is no guarantee he will make money or even break even whenever he decides to sell his buyer base is completely unaffected by any economic conditions short of a world war breaking out. He just needs more than one person to be interested and can certainly afford to wait anything out to pick the right time to sell.

 

I'm only extracting this part of your post, but my reply is to all of it.

Can't speak for this particular buyer but I don't completely agree with you. There are a lot of (supposedly) very affluent people whose financial position is dependent upon the current asset, credit and debt mania. Their wealth has been inflated by artificially cheap money and unsustainably low credit standards.

Under actually adverse circumstances, many of them can and will become forced sellers, just like anyone else. The only reason this was not noticeable in 2008-2009 is because the financial stress was temporary. Even if they aren't, as other prior sales show, they may sell anyway either because they have little interest in collecting or think prices might fall further.

In general, the only reason I can see why anyone would hold the opinion of the OP is because of the credit bubble. This is the actual reason assets have increased in value across the board for so long; particularly since the 1970's for coins. It isn't because coins are a hedge against "uncertainty", inflation or anything else.

I agree with you that it only takes one other buyer but the same could be said about many equally scarce but much cheaper coins who have a lot more potential buyers who can afford it, as opposed to the common US coins selling in the price range cited here. From what I can see, they are susceptible to losing more value because they are less liquid and I believe the same applies to this coin though maybe to a lesser degree.

With this coin, its one I'd consider highly compelling, maybe in the top four from 20th century coinage, depending upon criteria.

At the same time, high quality preferred British coins have ALREADY increased a lot over the last 10 years, to my knowledge. As one example, I recall Goldberg selling an 1839 Una and the Lion for about $25 in 2005 or near it. Today, the same or similar coin is worth $150k. I believe other proof gold and crowns (such as the Gothic) have also increased, a lot. Same applies to choice "lowly" 1953 proof singles and proof sets.

So if this anecdotal data is fairly representative of the recent performance of British coins, is a current buyer likely buying them prior to another (major) run up? Or closer to or at a market top? I think you know my answer.

 

Well, I don't know much about investing in coins, or operating in that rarified budget range... but that's a gorgeous and historic coin. Congrats on purchasing it, and welcome to CoinTalk! I look forward to seeing more rarities from you

As for the "record price" - was that a record price just for that coin (obviously, it was), or was it a record price for any English coin? Have no British coins crossed a million dollars?

 

Some yes, but not so much for buyers at the level of this coin unless they're more reckless than normal. Most people probably won't put more than what 1-2% of their net worth into a coin, maybe 5% is they're more aggressive but I don't see many people worth about a 100k buying 10k plus coins. If that holds remotely similar numbers at the upper end when talking about 500k plus coins you're looking at people that really just don't need credit period. Of course they'll still use it with the rewards you get for it ect but anyone for that one is very likely looking at 10 mil plus in assets where they will be just fine

 

Your missing the point. He is arguing that the macro credit conditions in this environment are artificially inflating that 10 million asset valuation, and if/when those credit conditions return to a more normal level those assets will be worth a much smaller fraction of their current value. Or to give an example, say I have assets of 10 million dollars and liabilities of 4 million for a net worth of 6 million, so I put 300,000k into coins. Four years later those assets are only worth 3 million with 3.75 million in liability, and now I really need to sell those coins either in bankruptcy court or for cash flow reasons. Selling non-fungible, illiquid assets quickly to cover cash flow is how discounts are made. But the OP is a pawn broker, so I assume he's familiar with that scenario...

 

I got all that and agree there are areas where that could influence the market, I just don't believe that applies to this type of coin at all. The price point on that coin is the territory where people spend that on cars because they can, or a boat for the weekend house ect. Generally speaking that level of buyer has wealth that even if half evaporated over night they would still be filthy rich. It's true someone could over expose themselves for it and nothing says it will sell for the same or close to the same next time around but if it doesn't it won't be because people don't have the money for it