Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3041 Sess. 1-3 13 August 2015
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George V gold Sovereign 1916-C MS66 PCGS, Ottawa mint, KM20. Ex. Australian Mint Archives. Fully brilliant, with gleaming gold luster. The strike is bold and the surfaces free of all but a few minute marks, none of which deserve singular mention and most are not visible without magnification. The amazing thing about this issue is the listed mintage of 6,111 pieces, this is almost twice as many as the 1913-C (3,715). The only difference in these two dates is that less than 50 pieces are known of the 1916-C and the 1913-C, even though quite rare, has a few hundred known. No one seems to know exactly what happened to all of the 1916-C Sovereigns, although there are theories. One is, of course, that they were all melted, but a very few pieces. This remains unconfirmed. The other is that the majority of the mintage was lost at sea, during World War I, on the way to England as an international payment between Canada and England. This, also, remains unconfirmed. This second theory seems quite unlikely, as the gold could have just been transferred to the account of Great Britain with the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and no sea voyage would have been required. No one really knows what happened to the remaining coins. All we know is, the issue is exceedingly rare, and this example is the single finest known certified by either PCGS or NGC.From The Eric Beckman Collection of Canadian Coins
Estimate: 125000-150000 USD
George V gold Sovereign 1916-C MS66 PCGS, Ottawa mint, KM20. Ex. Australian Mint Archives. Fully brilliant, with gleaming gold luster. The strike is bold and the surfaces free of all but a few minute marks, none of which deserve singular mention and most are not visible without magnification. The amazing thing about this issue is the listed mintage of 6,111 pieces, this is almost twice as many as the 1913-C (3,715). The only difference in these two dates is that less than 50 pieces are known of the 1916-C and the 1913-C, even though quite rare, has a few hundred known. No one seems to know exactly what happened to all of the 1916-C Sovereigns, although there are theories. One is, of course, that they were all melted, but a very few pieces. This remains unconfirmed. The other is that the majority of the mintage was lost at sea, during World War I, on the way to England as an international payment between Canada and England. This, also, remains unconfirmed. This second theory seems quite unlikely, as the gold could have just been transferred to the account of Great Britain with the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and no sea voyage would have been required. No one really knows what happened to the remaining coins. All we know is, the issue is exceedingly rare, and this example is the single finest known certified by either PCGS or NGC.From The Eric Beckman Collection of Canadian Coins
Estimate: 125000-150000 USD