Baldwin's of St. James's
Auction 20 26 Sep 2018
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British Coins, Victoria, sovereign, 1859, Ansell, young head l., rev. crowned shield of arms within wreath (S.3852E; Marsh 42A [R5 in any grade]), lustrous and sharply struck with only light wear, mainly on the queen's portrait, fully lustrous on reverse, in exceptional condition for this rarity, certified and graded by PCGS as About Uncirculated 55
Both As in GRATIA are unbarred, which is most unusual and presumably rare.
This famous sovereign rarity takes its name from the man who alloyed the Australian specie sent to the Royal Mint for coinage use, George Frederick Ansell, and authored a technical paper called 'A Treatise on Coining' (first appearing in The Mechanics' Magazine, 24 June 1859). The 'Ansell sovereign' is readily distinguished from other 1859 sovereigns by the raised line appearing on the lower portion of the ribbon behind Victoria's ear, and it came to be made for a purely technical reason: the recently established Sydney Mint found itself unable to refine out the natural silver and other metals in its native gold ore (Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint, page 513). Ansell's life story is vague but he seems to have been employed, for his expertise in metals chemistry, by the Royal Mint in its smelting room, where he successfully parted out the trace metals in the ore and deemed the gold received from Australia to be fit for coinage into sovereigns. His work was evidently questioned by the master of the Mint, so he added the now-famous raised line on the ribbon to dies he had prepared to intentionally test results. Initially the gold was deemed 'brittle' because of the impurities it contained when received at the mint. Ansell's sovereigns underwent testing and were found equal to all others in durability, not at all 'brittle'. All of the Australian gold was then coined into sovereigns using his obverse die(s), and these were duly released into commerce. Decades passed before the variety was recognized by the numismatic fraternity, by which time almost all remaining examples showed considerable wear, but in fact few 'Ansells' have ever been discovered. The rest of the mintage disappeared around the world during the century in which sovereigns were freely traded. Never identified as unusual during this period, most of Ansell's sovereigns undoubtedly ended up melted down into gold bars, some to be made into other sovereigns. Most survivors show evidence of some years of commercial use. The two examples in this collection are exceptional among all known survivors.
(3000-3500 GBP)
Both As in GRATIA are unbarred, which is most unusual and presumably rare.
This famous sovereign rarity takes its name from the man who alloyed the Australian specie sent to the Royal Mint for coinage use, George Frederick Ansell, and authored a technical paper called 'A Treatise on Coining' (first appearing in The Mechanics' Magazine, 24 June 1859). The 'Ansell sovereign' is readily distinguished from other 1859 sovereigns by the raised line appearing on the lower portion of the ribbon behind Victoria's ear, and it came to be made for a purely technical reason: the recently established Sydney Mint found itself unable to refine out the natural silver and other metals in its native gold ore (Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint, page 513). Ansell's life story is vague but he seems to have been employed, for his expertise in metals chemistry, by the Royal Mint in its smelting room, where he successfully parted out the trace metals in the ore and deemed the gold received from Australia to be fit for coinage into sovereigns. His work was evidently questioned by the master of the Mint, so he added the now-famous raised line on the ribbon to dies he had prepared to intentionally test results. Initially the gold was deemed 'brittle' because of the impurities it contained when received at the mint. Ansell's sovereigns underwent testing and were found equal to all others in durability, not at all 'brittle'. All of the Australian gold was then coined into sovereigns using his obverse die(s), and these were duly released into commerce. Decades passed before the variety was recognized by the numismatic fraternity, by which time almost all remaining examples showed considerable wear, but in fact few 'Ansells' have ever been discovered. The rest of the mintage disappeared around the world during the century in which sovereigns were freely traded. Never identified as unusual during this period, most of Ansell's sovereigns undoubtedly ended up melted down into gold bars, some to be made into other sovereigns. Most survivors show evidence of some years of commercial use. The two examples in this collection are exceptional among all known survivors.
(3000-3500 GBP)