George V 1924 SA Sovereign Pretoria Mint MS61

George V (1910-36), gold Sovereign, 1924 SA, Pretoria Mint, South Africa, first bare head left, B.M. on truncation, GEORGIVS V D.G. BRITT: OMN: REX F.D. IND: IMP:, rev. struck en médaille, St George slaying dragon with sword, WWP under lance, Mint letters SA at centre of ground-line, date in exergue, B.P. to upper right of exergue (Bentley 921; Kaplan 101 RRR; Marsh 288 R2; S.4004). Toned, has been graded and slabbed by NGC as MS61, rare with a very low mintage.

NGC certification 6318074-007.

Calendar year mintage only 2,660.

The Latin legends translates on obverse as "George the Fifth by the Grace of God, King of all the Britains, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India."

Always a natural rarity based solely on the mintage, the rarity rating for the 1924 South Africa Sovereign has recently been adjusted in the Marsh publication, as over the last few years more examples have been submitted and recorded by the third-party grading companies. We note currently PCGS have recorded 33 examples on their database of which nineteen are finer than this piece. By way of comparison NGC have records of 45 examples as of June 2021 of which 29 are graded finer than this piece. There may well be some duplicate coins recorded across both services, but despite the number of surviving coins the demand for the rarest sovereigns with low mintages like this remains insatiable, with very few coins actually available for sale in the market place.

Provenance:

Ex St James Auction 2, 11th May 2005, lot 711.