Chris started collecting in the late 90’s. He became more and more passionate about coin collecting and gained a great amount of knowledge over the years as he was never afraid to talk to dealers and graders and learn from their experience. Initially he saw it as an investment but as time went on he became more and more interested in the history and the mintages of the coins. Chris mostly focused on Victorian sovereigns with the intention of getting one of each of the sovereigns minted in each year, he later extended his interest to later sovereigns and also other gold such as the 1oz Australian Kangaroo nuggets, where again he tried to collect one from each year (he had 2007 to 2022 before he died).
Chris used to buy from eBay and dealers, but had a particular affection for London Coins and their grading company CGS and had many of the more valuable and rare coins graded with the Coin Grading Service. He became very good at being able to grade coins himself and constantly was upgrading the quality of each of his coins trying to get as close to extremely fine as possible, he also knew the mintages of each of his coins. Chris was a regular at the Midland Coin Fair at the motorcycle museum near Birmingham and became very familiar with many of the dealers and became quite well known there, it was at the MSCF he met Stephen and Semra of London Coins. Chris would also buy remotely though places such as eBay, but also various dealers he had built relationships with here and overseas.
His remote buying was not free from frustration, sometimes when a coin arrived it was not of the quality the seller had indicated, Chris like most advanced collectors was very fussy about the quality of the coins he bought. He was also frustrated by the fact that he was being charged VAT and Duties on coins he bought and had many battles when he bought coins remotely. Chris was keen to get his estimation if the grading confirmed by experts and travelled to London Coins where he met Paul Redford who attributed and graded all CGS coins (50,000) as well as London Coins auction consignments. During the era where CGS published league tables (Set Registry) Chris’s collection was one of the finest recorded Sovereign collections by CGS.
Numismatic Cover 1998 comprising Gold Sovereign 1981 UNC and set of 7x stamps, with 2x Royal Wedding issues 14p and 25p, with 5x 26p issues Memorial portraits of Diana, Princess of Wales, on the commemorative envelope of issue
Sovereign 1839 Marsh 23, S.3852, VF/GVF in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 40, an extremely rare date and always highly sought after, most example of this date occur in grades Fine and below, this a bold example the reverse in particular with good eye appeal
Sovereign 1841 Marsh 24A, S.3852, Unbarred A's in GRATIA, Fine, in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 25, Extremely rare and seldom offered, a date missing from many advanced Sovereign collections
Sovereign 1843 Broken Second I in BRITANNIARUM the I missing it's top left serif and resembles a reversed 1, type as Marsh 26, S.3852, GVF in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 55
Sovereign 1844 Broken Second I in BRITANNIARUM, the I missing it's top left serif and resembles a reversed 1, type as Marsh 27B, S.3852, VF in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 50
Sovereign 1853 WW Raised on truncation, G of GRATIA tilts to the left, type as Marsh 36, S.3852C, LCGS Variety 06, EF and lustrous with some scratches to the reverse, in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 65
Sovereign 1858 U over N in BRITANNIARUM, a most unusual overstrike with the diagonal bar and both lower serifs of the underlying N visible at the lower curve of the U, unlisted by Marsh/Hill or Spink, also there was no example in the Bentley Collection, type as Marsh 41, S.3852D, NVF/VF in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 40, and worthy of further study for the Sovereign variety specialist
Sovereign 1861 Roman 1 in date struck over another Roman 1, the underlying figure bold, and so low that the base is within the border beads, with the top faint but visible around two-third of the way up the overpunched 1, variant on Marsh 44A, variant on S.3852D, LCGS Variety 07, a more dramatic overstrike than the example in the Bentley Collection, an eye-catching example of this rare type, EF in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 60
Sovereign 1863 Roman 1 in date, No Die Number, Marsh 46B (listed as 1 over inverted 1), LCGS variety 04, S.3852D, VF the reverse slightly better, in an LCGS holder and graded LCGS 45, Rare, rated R2 by Marsh/Hill
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