St. James's Auctions
Auction 32 19 May 2015
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George IV, sovereign, 1828, bare head l., rev. crowned shield of arms (S.3801; M.13), almost extremely fine, some ancient abrasions in the fields, sharply struck for the type, extremely rare
The year 1828 is of course a key date for collectors of sovereigns, as it has long been recognized as a rarity in all conditions. Marsh (Michael A Marsh, The Gold Sovereign, 1999) states that during the calendar year of 1828 most sovereigns struck by the Royal Mint bore the date 1827, and that the new obverse die bearing the date 1828 was not used until December of that year. This accounts for the mintage of 386,182 sovereigns of this date, compared to other dates in this series having mintages ranging from about 2.2 million to more than 5.7 million. Marsh assigns an R4 rating to this date: 15 to 25 examples known. That would seem a bit of an over-estimation and yet the date appears infrequently enough to call it extremely rare among the gold coins of this king. Truth to tell, most sovereigns minted during the first four decades are exceptionally difficult to locate in choice, lustrous condition and even the seemingly common 1826 'bare head' sovereign (with a mintage of more than 5.7 million) is not often available in the best grades. Challis offers a solid explanation, noting that contemporary accounts often mentioned the preponderance of 'light coins' circulating by the 1840s, meaning that the New Coinage was wearing quickly in commerce and that light or worn gold coins in particular represented a loss versus face value to owners. The Treasury decided to do something about the situation, Challis says (page 484), and it steadily withdrew more than fourteen million pounds' worth of 'light' gold between July 1842 and March 1845, 'roughly one-third of the total gold circulation'. All these earlier dated coins, sovereigns and their halves ('and this exercise probably removed most of the remaining guineas'), were melted by the Royal Mint, which then replaced them with new coins. This explains the relative rarity of these coins available to today's collectors, especially those dates struck in limited quantities, such as the signal rarity of 1828.
Estimate: £15,000-20,000
The year 1828 is of course a key date for collectors of sovereigns, as it has long been recognized as a rarity in all conditions. Marsh (Michael A Marsh, The Gold Sovereign, 1999) states that during the calendar year of 1828 most sovereigns struck by the Royal Mint bore the date 1827, and that the new obverse die bearing the date 1828 was not used until December of that year. This accounts for the mintage of 386,182 sovereigns of this date, compared to other dates in this series having mintages ranging from about 2.2 million to more than 5.7 million. Marsh assigns an R4 rating to this date: 15 to 25 examples known. That would seem a bit of an over-estimation and yet the date appears infrequently enough to call it extremely rare among the gold coins of this king. Truth to tell, most sovereigns minted during the first four decades are exceptionally difficult to locate in choice, lustrous condition and even the seemingly common 1826 'bare head' sovereign (with a mintage of more than 5.7 million) is not often available in the best grades. Challis offers a solid explanation, noting that contemporary accounts often mentioned the preponderance of 'light coins' circulating by the 1840s, meaning that the New Coinage was wearing quickly in commerce and that light or worn gold coins in particular represented a loss versus face value to owners. The Treasury decided to do something about the situation, Challis says (page 484), and it steadily withdrew more than fourteen million pounds' worth of 'light' gold between July 1842 and March 1845, 'roughly one-third of the total gold circulation'. All these earlier dated coins, sovereigns and their halves ('and this exercise probably removed most of the remaining guineas'), were melted by the Royal Mint, which then replaced them with new coins. This explains the relative rarity of these coins available to today's collectors, especially those dates struck in limited quantities, such as the signal rarity of 1828.
Estimate: £15,000-20,000