north east regional extra | January 27 - February 2, 2021
nemedia.com.au
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January 27 - February 2, 2021
Eureka! Eureka! By BELINDA HARRISON IN October 2019, when we last spoke to Paul Camilleri about his love of detecting, he told us that the ‘Holy Grail’ for he and fellow detectors, Mick Stanton and Troy Tobias, was to find gold Sovereigns . and in a year like no other that was 2020, Paul and Mick did just that.
The Australian gold Sovereign is the rarest and most sought after Sovereign in the world and the first one was struck at the Sydney Mint in 1855. The closest the trio came to finding a Sovereign was a few years ago when Troy found a gold Sovereign holder. Unfortunately, it was full of
dirt rather than Sovereigns, but it spurred the three men to keep on searching. In a paddock in the North East that they had detected plenty of times before (the exact location Paul, Mick and Troy are keeping mum on) Mick’s Sovereign set their machines ‘pinging’ on a warm early-October day. “It was a Sydney mint Half
◆ GOLD RUSH: Paul Camilleri (left) and Mick Stanton found the first of their two rare Sovereigns in October 2020.
Sovereign from 1862 which weighed 3.98 grams,” Paul said. “We were pretty excited because we’ve wanted to find something like this for years.” Two short months later it was Paul’s turn to ‘find gold’. “I scored my very first Sovereign in December 2020,” he said. “It was in another paddock
in the North East that we had detected before and the coin I found is a 22 carat, 1843 English Sovereign weighing in at 7.98 grams. “Both coins contain approximately 90 percent pure gold.” The pair plan on keeping their Sovereigns, but are they sitting on a gold mine? A quick online search
showed that the 1843 English gold Sovereigns are worth anywhere between £300 for a NVF (Nearly Extremely Fine) Marsh 26 rating coin with some contact marks and rim nicks and £6,200 for a Marsh 26A (GF) Good Fine coin with some surface marks and edge nicks.
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