Mintmark Collections
We offer for sale complete mintmark collections of British sovereigns. A detailed account of the 7 mints including the 6 branch mints can be found on our Mints & Mintmark page.
The "Three Monarchs Sovereign Mintmark Set" contains:-

1. Victoria Old Head, London Mint
2. Victoria Old Head, Melbourne Mint
3. Victoria Old Head, Perth Mint
4. Victoria Old Head, Sydney Mint
5. Edward VII, London Mint
6. Edward VII, Melbourne Mint
7. Edward VII, Perth Mint
8. Edward VII, Sydney Mint
9. George V, London Mint
10. George V, Melbourne Mint
11. George V, Perth Mint
12. George V, Sydney Mint

More is Less
It seems to us that a total of four coins could have sufficed to show an example of each of the three monarch's head, and each of the four mintmarks, so by including duplication, one each of the four mints for each of the three heads, the Royal Mint have managed to sell twelve coins instead of four, hardly kind to the budget of their customers.
What's worse is what has been left out. There are no Victoria sovereigns with the Jubilee or Young Head portraits, or any Shield reverses, all of which were made by more than one mint. There is no mention of two different portraits for George V, one used from 1911 to 1928 inclusive, the other from 1929 to 1932. There are no Elizabeth II sovereigns, although it could be argued for their omission as they bear no mintmarks, all having been struck by the Royal Mint, either in London or later at Llantrisant. There are no sovereigns included from the Mints in Ottawa Canada, Bombay India, or Pretoria South Africa. In fact, "Three Monarchs The Sovereign Mintmark Set" is a bit of a hodge-podge, and is neither one thing nor the other. It is not a complete collection of portraits from the three reigns, and it is not a complete collection of mintmarks from all seven mints.
Our conclusion is that it was invented by a marketing person whose main aim was to find a way to package something to create a story and title around, so that it could be marketed at relatively and blissfully ignorant collectors.

Price & Availability
All prices include the original Royal Mint box, certificate, and booklet.
Although we do not yet know the Mint's original price for these sets, judging by other similar offerings, it would currently be in the region of £2,500 per set, or over £200 per coin.

Description	Qty	Grade	Availability	Our Price £	Price $	Price €
Victoria (Old Head), Edward VII, George V (First Head) One each from London, Melbourne, Perth, & Sydney	12	VF to Unc	Yes	£2,495	$3,792	€3,567

Key to Table
Qty = Number of coins in set.

Save Over £800!
The Royal Mint, not content with its monopoly in producing new sovereigns, has for some years now been buying mintmark sets of sovereigns from the numismatic trade, and marketing them to its "Coin Club" members (customers) at poor value* prices. Sadly because most of its customers are not coin collectors, but ordinary members of the public who, for some reason, appear to trust the Royal Mint.
As we wrote this, the Royal Mint's latest price on its George V Mintmark Collection was £1,245! We should point out, in mitigation, that the Mint's collection does come in a quite impressive wooden box, with each coin in its own capsule, and with an informative booklet / certificate. At a pinch, the presentation might be worth as much as £50, but on the negative side, the quality of some of their coins is rather variable. We have the advantage of having seen a number of the Royal Mint's sets, so we know their typical grades. Some of their coins would not even make it into our lowest grade / price. Otherwise their sets are closest to our lowest graded set.
Even our most expensive Mintmark Collection is much less than the Royal Mint's offering. Perhaps we should have increased our prices, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to charging poor value prices.

*Relevant Dates & Other Information
This page was first created in or around 2004. As it is no longer a simple matter for us to determine our original publication date of text on this page, in order to ensure our comments are considered in their historical context, we note the following, and will add any more data as it becomes available:

• All price comparisons were correct at the time of writing. For this set they were extrapolated from other price data as stated.
• Our mintmark sets are all of George V sovereigns, so they are directly comparable with the Royal Mint's sets.
• The certificate bears a copyright date of 2004.
• The Royal Mint may not be offering any similar sovereigns or sets currently.
• We have a copy of our photograph dated 5th June 2007.

Government Wealth Warning
We wonder if some of the Royal Mint's offerings should come with a "Government Wealth Warning".