These coins, from the smallest silver on through to the 5 Pounds Gold, suffer from the mint preparation and very hard to find WITHOUT hairlines. Rarely do they make it past TPG graded 63, and when they do the grade numbers IMO quite controversial. It is said that workers at the Royal Mint were unaccustomed to the matte finish first used on a wider scale on the proofs of 1902, and so took a swipe of the apron or two on the surfaces. Rightfully on a technical basis it does limit the TPG grading generally to the 63 level but occasionally the Crown or larger gold 2 and 5 pounds are seen with higher grades 64 and above. These absolutely must be seen in hand because the odd coin may have gotten past the perusal and treatment of the mint workers and their aprons, generally those that I have seen have just as many "micro" wipe stigmata of the lesser graded 62 and 63 (and even 61) pieces. Unfortunately when the higher graded pieces appear at a venue like Heritage they fetch prices better based on the holder number than the actual coin itself. This by the way is quite true of later dated mattes of years like 1927, 1937, 1951 and 1953 - caveat emptor! So it is quite difficult for the collector to get true higher grade pieces and it takes a good deal of research and looking to find decently priced coins. Pictures and grade numbers can be very deceiving... I enclose some pictures of my own 2 pound coin, but sadly it suffers from the usual maladies. Feel free to post more matte pictures and GTG if you wish, ego not at stake:
My 2 pound. One of my all time favorites. I would posit that high grade (for real, not just on the slab) and decently priced is not a combination one is likely to find.
I acquired a partial set of these late last year - just the larger Silver coins, not gold and no Maundy - in the "Long" original box. (Ie for the 4 gold rather 2 gold coin sets.) Here are the pictures, illustrating many of the points @7Jags makes: The sixpence in particular seems to have been rubbed with something greasy (a finger or a leather glove?) early in its existence, which has cause the brown staining now so evident.
