Quite a while has passed since I added a coin to my collection - there are plenty to choose from out there but the prices being acheived at auction are now getting really silly, particularly for quality examples of almost anything.

Despite this situation it will come as no surprise that the coin in question was Napoleonic  - a 1808 10 centimes from the Paris mint. Why would I do this when, it is the most common issue, and I already have a couple of high grade examples?? (details on my Registry set).

This mintage is actually made up of two varieities - the normal one and the 'upside down' one. The latter is struck en medaille rather than the usual coin alignment and is by far the much rarer of the two - maybe a few% of the production at best. For years I have been looking at all the 1808A's that have appeared at auction in the hope of finding a good one, I had identified just a few but these had seen extensive circulation and would only grade as Fine at best, so not great and I let them go.

Recently a quality example appeared and it was already graded. Such a variety is often missed, and it wasn't recognised on the label either - unfortunately the auction house realised what it was and so I decided to just pay up

Would NGC now recognise this well established variety? There are also clear varieties for some of the other 10 centime issues and I also check for all of those.