Gold Sovereign

I had a 1918-I on my wantlist for quite some time. At the coin show that was here in Brisbane in May, I asked every dealer that dealt in foreign gold coins (there were over a dozen of them) if they had one. They all agreed it was a fairly common coin with not much of a premium, but nobody actually had one for sale there and then.

I finally found one for sale while on holiday in Sydney back in October. The dealer was asking a hefty price (AU$500!) but I figured if they really were as hard to find as my experience to date had proved, I'd better grab it, so I did.

Two days later I was in Canberra, and the coin dealer there (Canberra only has one B&M coin shop) was selling off unsold lots from a big auction they'd just had. There was a 1918-I sovereign, same condition as far as I could tell, for sale at the reserve price of AU$330.

Arrrrrgh!

I would conclude that a "fair" price for an Unc example would be somewhere between those two extremes - maybe $100 over bullion value?

I'm woefully inexperienced at grading gold, especially higher grade stuff, but I'm pretty sure mine isn't Unc - there's a few too many dints and scuffs on the high points for it to qualify, in my books. I've called it AU-53.