a few weeks back i emailed the Royal mint museum in regards to the 1953 VIP proof crown, mine ticks all the boxes in the books but as the debates have shown its a contentious issue,    this was the museums reply, have replied and am awaiting my next reply,    Dear Mr Cook       I am very sorry for the delay in response to your enquiry, dated 4 August.   Frosting is a variable feature of the 1953 proofs. We cannot comment further without seeing the coin you have, but even then it is extremely difficult to identify the so called VIP finish referred to by coin dealers.   With this in mind, it may be that any photographic examples we could supply will show a variation of frosting to the type that your pieces display.       Yours sincerely