Graded Gold

Every so often somebody asks whether our historic sovereigns are graded. They are not, and that is deliberate.

What grading is

A grading service — PCGS and NGC are the two that matter — examines a coin, assigns it a number on a seventy-point scale, and seals it in a tamper-evident plastic holder. The holder is what people mean by a slab. For a coin bought as a collectable, the grade is most of the price: two sovereigns of the same year and mint can differ several times over in value on the strength of a few points.

Why we do not price on it

This house sells gold. A Victoria sovereign here is priced on the seven and a third grams of fine gold inside it, plus a modest premium for the fact that it is a hundred and forty years old and no longer being struck. You are buying metal with history attached, not a graded rarity, and you are paying accordingly.

The moment a coin is priced on its grade it stops being bullion. The spread widens, the buyer pool narrows, and selling it depends on finding somebody who agrees with the grade rather than somebody who simply wants gold. That is a legitimate market. It is not this one.

What this means for you

Our pre-1933 coins are sold raw, as they come, in the condition described. They carry the same Capital Gains Tax exemption as any other UK legal tender coin, and we buy them back on the same terms as everything else — at the market, on the day you ask.

If you want graded and slabbed coins, buy them from a numismatic dealer who specialises in them. You will pay more, and for the right coin you may well be right to.

Having a coin graded yourself

Nothing stops you. Coins bought here can be submitted to either service in the ordinary way. Be aware that grading costs money, takes time, and on a common-date sovereign will usually cost more than it adds.