elliesbuynsell Selling Non-Existent Sovereign on eBay
eBay seller elliesbuynsell of wareham, Dorset, United Kingdom, offered a 1938 George V gold sovereign for sale on eBay. There was no photograph, and the date does not exist.

Wrong Head
It sounds like the seller has got the wrong head on.
George V died in 1936, and was succeeded in the same year by the uncrowned Edward VIII, then by George VI. The last date of George V's coins was 1936, and the first year of George VI's coins was 1937, so a 1938 sovereign would feature the portrait of George VI on its obverse, if it existed.

What's She Really Got?
There are a number of possibilities:

1. It's actually 1928, and the seller can't type, and doesn't proof read her listings, or has bad eyesight.
2. It could be 1930, 1931, or 1932, see above.
3. It could be some other random date, 1918?
4. It might not be a sovereign. For example, it might be a gold-plated farthing or halfpenny.
5. It could be a fake made by a forger who was either stupid, or clever enough to be trying to create a get-out-of-jail-free card.
6. It could be a pseudo coin made for jewellery.
7. It could be a fraudster trying to sell a sovereign she does not own, and does not exist, and she is too stupid, ignorant or lazy to check details such what a real sovereign looks like, and what dates were issued.
8. It could be a genuine, real, coin, but somebody at the Mint must have made it as a joke of some kind. This is about as likely as another planet colliding with Earth in the next ten minutes.
9. eBay listings are created by an infinite number of monkeys sitting at an infinite number of keyboards. This is much more probable than the last possibility.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
In cases like this, a photograph of the coin itself would save a lot of time and confusion. This seller couldn't be bothered to provide a photograph; even a scan would have helped. At least she didn't steal one of our photographs, up to now.

Mint Condition?
About 99% of coins listed on eBay are in "mint condition" according to their sellers. Funnily enough only about 1% of coins we see are in mint condition. Is this self-delusion or dishonesty?

More Evidence
The seller has typed the date three times, one in the title, once in the description, and once in the "item specifics". Making the same typo' three times sounds improbable. Our money would go on bad eyesight, and perhaps this would explain the difference in monarchs.
Interestingly, the "item specifics" includes the era as "George V (1910-1936)", so if she had read this, she may have realised that 1938 was wrong.

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
elliesbuynsell	230379076235	18th Sep 2009	king george V 1938 gold sovereign (loose mount)	£190 / £395

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 313; with 99.6% positive according to eBay.

Sample Listing

king george V 1938 gold sovereign (loose mount)
king george V~
1938 gold sovereign
loose mount
*mint condition*

What's Wrong?
Who knows!

Belated Information
Better late than never?

On 22-Sep-09 at 18:33:50 BST, seller added the following information:
1925 king george V gold
full sovereign, held in loose mount.
*please note, this is a 1925 coin,
not 1938 as stated in title (typing error)*

Wrong!
Our guess number 3 above was right, although 1925 would have been well down our list of possible dates, but we were only partially right (i.e. wrong) about a picture being worth a thousand words. We had not counted on abstract art. To be fair, it is possible to tell that the monarch is George V, although it could be a half sovereign (or a gold plated farthing). It would be difficult to imagine a photograph as bad as the obverse (head side) of this coin, until you spot the photo of the reverse, which is even worse, to the point where it is impossible to see the date let alone read it. It's likely that the seller photographed this with a mobile phone without a macro (close-up) facility. It's still possible the seller has bad eyesight, as perhaps she could not see it was out of focus. We remain slightly envious of phones with built in cameras. Our camera cost much more than any mobile phone, and we can't even get dial tone on it.

Typing Error
We must admit to being intrigued by the explanation about this being a typing error. How is it possible to mis-type 1938 for 1925?. On most numeric keypads, the 3 is to the right of the 2, but the 8 is above the 5.
Perhaps we should add two more possible explanations to the 9 in our list:
10. The seller was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at all material times.
11. The seller typed her listing using her mobile phone.

Dead Parrot?
"Typing error" reminds us of John Cleese in the dead parrot sketch.

Mint Condition
In our experience, most coins removed from jewellery, even from "loose mounts" become damaged or scuffed in the process of mounting, de-mounting, or simply wearing them. "Mint condition" is probably wishful thinking, or perhaps pining for the fjords.

Consistent & Inconsistent
elliesbuynsell's story about typing error creates an interesting paradox. It is extremely consistent to make the identical typing error three times. This stretches belief so much that we conclude her excuse is inconsistent with the truth.

Price
The seller was originally asking a starting price of �190 for her coin, and a BIN (Buy It Now) price of �395. She was unlikely to sell it, but at some time she changed the starting price to a more sensible �120, and it sold for �155.
She would have got more by selling to us when eBay's 10% selling fees are taken into account Even ignoring PayPal fees, she got less than �140 for the coin and mount. We would have paid him more for the coin alone,

eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.

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