A Pobjoy Mint Advertisement from 1995, With A Mistake

“… my agent there has sent me this advertisement from a local paper.”

– The Adventure of The Three Garridebs (3GAR)

Several months back, we published a post about the Pobjoy Mint’s 1994 press release announcing the Return of Sherlock Holmes series of coins for Gibraltar. Recently, we came across the above Pobjoy Mint advertisement from April 1995. The text of the ad relating to the Gibraltar Sherlock Holmes coins can be read below.

This advertisement is listing the Gibraltar 1994 Sherlock Holmes as a 6-coin set, in all three compositions (Cupronickel, silver and gold). HOWEVER, there were 8 coins in the series, per the initial press release and as seen in my set of the silver proofs.

The text of the ad lists 6 different designs — profile of Sherlock Holmes, Hound of the Baskervilles, Mary Celeste, The Three Garridebs, The Final Problem and The Empty House. Left out of the text is the coin that has Holmes playing the violin in front of the fireplace and the coin that has three characters standing outside of 221B Baker Street.  However, the last missing coin from the text is pictured at the top of the advertisement (along with HOUN, FINA and the Holmes profile coins.

This seems like a huge advertising blunder to me, and the advertisement ran for many months without being changed. Or is it? Are there six coin sets out their in the Pobjoy Mint cases, as advertised?