1893 Veiled Head Sovereign - PCGS MS66

Great Britain, 1893 Veiled Head Sovereign -

The market for third-party graded coins in the United States is mature and well-developed. Collectors there have had decades to work out the values their PCGS or NGC-graded coins, such that today the market is so liquid and coin prices are so transparent that some auction houses have dispensed with pre-auction estimates and dealers trade the more generic coins on margins as little as 3%. Another market phenomenon common to the US coin market is the extremely high valuations for otherwise common dates in very high grade; indeed, “top pop” coins (coins that are amongst the finest of their date or type) trade at multiples of the same coin in lesser grade. Although this phenomenon has not yet spread to generic British coins, key British rarities in extremely high grade began trading at higher multiples since around 2015, in a trend that has not abated since. The 1893 veiled head sovereign is considered by collectors to be a “generic coin”, not rare enough to deserve a full page advertisement in a magazine, but not common enough to treat as scrap when in Mint State, at least. However, there is nothing generic about this coin in extremely high grade, and just as British rarities are now worth multiples in the highest grades, this date is also worth multiples in the highest grades, MS66 and MS65. The coin photographed above is the single-finest example graded by PCGS (and has been for a number of years) and the equal-finest veiled head sovereign graded by PCGS (6/20). It is on par with other key rarities, and deserves a place in the collection of the most discerning collector, even if a common date generally. RARE in this grade.