St. James's Auctions
Auction 32 19 May 2015
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Australia, Victoria, sovereign, 1855, Sydney mint, young head l., with fillet in hair, rev. AUSTRALIA within wreath, crown above (KM.2; Fr.9; McD.102), excellent strike and rims, a number of small abrasions but with a lovely portrait and most pleasing gold colour, choice uncirculated, among the finest known examples of the distinctly styled, first 'Sydney Mint' sovereign
First year of just two years minted of this style, and the first sovereign struck for commerce at the Sydney Mint. The Young Head portrait seen on this wonderful coin was engraved by Joshua Payne based on the design by James Wyon and was intentionally copied from the London portrait, although with the addition of more curls and waviness in the queen's hair. This portrait, known to collectors today as the First Type, was altered within two years to the so-called Second Young Head, as engraved by Payne after the design created by L. C. Wyon which features a floral wreath in place of the hair fillet (or ribbon) as well as a long braid of hair that loops under the queen's ear and ends gathered within the bun at the back of her head. This new design seems to have been influenced by William Wyon, the Royal Mint's chief engraver and father of L. C. Wyon, as it bears considerable resemblance to William's famous Gothic crown and florin designs.
In the pursuit of quality first and foremost as seems to be the fashion in numismatic circles these days, it is too easy to overlook the historical importance, the 'place of history', in the case of long-desired rarities such as the coin offered in this lot. Before bidding on this coin, look back at the Adelaide pounds and consider that the first sovereigns issued officially at the first branch of the Royal Mint set up in southern Australia appeared within mere months of those 'gold tokens' of 1852. We've related their story elsewhere in this catalogue, but it bears emphasizing that this Sydney Mint sovereign, a rather splendid coin by all accounts, was born a mere four years after discovery of gold: in 1851 in the eastern region of New South Wales and soon afterward in the colony of Victoria. There were no airplanes. No internet. No mobile phones. No telephone! Communication had to be made by mail carried by ship and rail for thousands of miles. And yet legislation passed into law in Parliament in August of 1853 to create the mint at Sydney. As is well known, a new building was not made for the mint; instead, a portion of the old Rum Hospital was converted for the mint's use in May of 1855 and the first gold sovereigns were minted on 23 June 1855. It was a mighty feat. Joseph Taylor of Birmingham was awarded the contract to assemble the minting equipment, which he accomplished with the aid of the Birmingham Mint. Two heavy presses were shipped by sea along with dies for sovereigns and half-sovereigns fashioned by the Royal Mint, London. They were designed and engraved as explained above.
Parliament's act originally restricted use of the new gold coins to commerce only in New South Wales, but the coins' obvious quality aggravated rival governments in Adelaide and Melbourne. The rivalry expressed between Melbourne and Sydney in particular during their respective 'world fairs' of 1880 and 1879 (where special specimens were created mainly to show off their prowess) existed long before those events: in 1855, Melbourne approached the Royal Mint with the accusation that Sydney's gold coins were of questionable quality. Daniel Fearon sums up the rivalry succinctly in his reference The Sovereign (pp. 38-39) in these words: 'When their requests were ignored, they circulated a rumour that the Sydney gold coins were inferior in quality to their British counterparts. Some merchants in the colony of Victoria added insult to injury by giving only 19 shillings for Sydney sovereigns. In January 1856 the home authorities acted by making a snap check of Sydney sovereigns. It was then discovered that the New South Wales coins had a higher intrinsic worth than the British coins, mainly because the gold was alloyed with silver as well as copper. Now the word spread and the 'good' sovereigns rapidly disappeared from circulation as merchants melted them down for their intrinsic value'. And Challis (p.513) tells us why the content was so valuable: the mint's deputy master, Major-General Sir Edward Ward, 'could not, in the primitive surroundings in which he found himself, hope to extract the silver which occurred naturally with the Australian gold'. The first Sydney sovereigns contained as much as 6% silver, which in the resulting alloy gave to the coins their distinctive yellow colour. At the end of the day, accusations put aside and fact substituted, it was the high quality and beautiful lustre of the Sydney sovereigns of 1855 and 1856 which caused them to become the important rarities they are today.
Estimate: £40,000-50,000
First year of just two years minted of this style, and the first sovereign struck for commerce at the Sydney Mint. The Young Head portrait seen on this wonderful coin was engraved by Joshua Payne based on the design by James Wyon and was intentionally copied from the London portrait, although with the addition of more curls and waviness in the queen's hair. This portrait, known to collectors today as the First Type, was altered within two years to the so-called Second Young Head, as engraved by Payne after the design created by L. C. Wyon which features a floral wreath in place of the hair fillet (or ribbon) as well as a long braid of hair that loops under the queen's ear and ends gathered within the bun at the back of her head. This new design seems to have been influenced by William Wyon, the Royal Mint's chief engraver and father of L. C. Wyon, as it bears considerable resemblance to William's famous Gothic crown and florin designs.
In the pursuit of quality first and foremost as seems to be the fashion in numismatic circles these days, it is too easy to overlook the historical importance, the 'place of history', in the case of long-desired rarities such as the coin offered in this lot. Before bidding on this coin, look back at the Adelaide pounds and consider that the first sovereigns issued officially at the first branch of the Royal Mint set up in southern Australia appeared within mere months of those 'gold tokens' of 1852. We've related their story elsewhere in this catalogue, but it bears emphasizing that this Sydney Mint sovereign, a rather splendid coin by all accounts, was born a mere four years after discovery of gold: in 1851 in the eastern region of New South Wales and soon afterward in the colony of Victoria. There were no airplanes. No internet. No mobile phones. No telephone! Communication had to be made by mail carried by ship and rail for thousands of miles. And yet legislation passed into law in Parliament in August of 1853 to create the mint at Sydney. As is well known, a new building was not made for the mint; instead, a portion of the old Rum Hospital was converted for the mint's use in May of 1855 and the first gold sovereigns were minted on 23 June 1855. It was a mighty feat. Joseph Taylor of Birmingham was awarded the contract to assemble the minting equipment, which he accomplished with the aid of the Birmingham Mint. Two heavy presses were shipped by sea along with dies for sovereigns and half-sovereigns fashioned by the Royal Mint, London. They were designed and engraved as explained above.
Parliament's act originally restricted use of the new gold coins to commerce only in New South Wales, but the coins' obvious quality aggravated rival governments in Adelaide and Melbourne. The rivalry expressed between Melbourne and Sydney in particular during their respective 'world fairs' of 1880 and 1879 (where special specimens were created mainly to show off their prowess) existed long before those events: in 1855, Melbourne approached the Royal Mint with the accusation that Sydney's gold coins were of questionable quality. Daniel Fearon sums up the rivalry succinctly in his reference The Sovereign (pp. 38-39) in these words: 'When their requests were ignored, they circulated a rumour that the Sydney gold coins were inferior in quality to their British counterparts. Some merchants in the colony of Victoria added insult to injury by giving only 19 shillings for Sydney sovereigns. In January 1856 the home authorities acted by making a snap check of Sydney sovereigns. It was then discovered that the New South Wales coins had a higher intrinsic worth than the British coins, mainly because the gold was alloyed with silver as well as copper. Now the word spread and the 'good' sovereigns rapidly disappeared from circulation as merchants melted them down for their intrinsic value'. And Challis (p.513) tells us why the content was so valuable: the mint's deputy master, Major-General Sir Edward Ward, 'could not, in the primitive surroundings in which he found himself, hope to extract the silver which occurred naturally with the Australian gold'. The first Sydney sovereigns contained as much as 6% silver, which in the resulting alloy gave to the coins their distinctive yellow colour. At the end of the day, accusations put aside and fact substituted, it was the high quality and beautiful lustre of the Sydney sovereigns of 1855 and 1856 which caused them to become the important rarities they are today.
Estimate: £40,000-50,000