Baldwin & Sons
Auction 73 8 May 2012
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THE BENTLEY COLLECTION OF BRITISH MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS. Victoria, Gold Sovereign, 1850, Roman letter I in date for figure 1, second larger young head left, ponytail terminates in a mere trace of single curved strand of hair, date below, figures slightly doubled giving a I over a smaller I effect to the initial figure, legend doubled, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, emblems below, 7.98g (cf Marsh 33 R; MCE 511; S 3852C). Once lightly cleaned, now lightly toned, good extremely fine and extremely rare.
ex St James’s Auction 4, 8 May 2006, lot 383
Calendar year mintage 1,402,039
The other interesting and rare variety of 1850 Sovereign, the Roman letter I date variety, has only been discovered in the last decade and is unrecorded by Marsh. Interesting in that a true capital letter I punch has been used instead of an Arabic style figure 1 to date the obverse die. The doubling of the date caused by “dual-hubbing” in cutting the die has added interest in that the letter I appears to be over a smaller letter I caused by the judder in the die cutting process. The piece in the Bentley Collection, though once cleaned, is the finest known to the cataloguer of this extremely rare variety. For more information about “dual-hubbing” of dies please see the varieties section of the introduction.
The Second Larger Young Head type Sovereign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
Victoria Second Small Young Head Type Currency Sovereign
From 1848 the size of Victoria’s young head bust increases to fill more of the available field and is therefore rendered closer to the legend lettering. This may have been an attempt to prolong the life of the dies, which are subjected to multiple tons of pressure in use, and as conjectured in the footnote for the previous lot after a Royal Mint Commission in this year investigated the die and matrix production. The Chief Engraver, William Wyon was called to give evidence on die production to this commission.
This second larger young head type sovereign was in use from 1848-1855 inclusive and is of the same general design as the previous smaller bust with the engravers initials W.W. raised with stops on the bust. The easiest way to tell the sizes of the bust, particularly when looking at the changeover year of 1848, is too look how close the front hair band fillet is to the legend as it is this point that differs most in the sizing of the busts.
In 1853 there was a slight change on some dies produced and the engravers initials WW are incuse on the truncation without stops and this runs concurrently from 1853-1855 with the first type and then alone from 1856-1870 inclusive. Strangely the 1853 proof has one stop between the letter W’s only on the truncation.
From 1863 until 1874 the reverses of the shield type feature an additional “die” number below the shield. These will be discussed at the relevant point in the cataloguing as they form quite an extensive series.
The Reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
House of Hanover
Born: 24 May 1819
Accession: 20 June 1837
Married: Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 10 February 1840
Coronation: Thursday 28 June 1838
Children: four sons, five daughters
Died: 22 January 1901, aged 81
Estimate: £1500-1800
ex St James’s Auction 4, 8 May 2006, lot 383
Calendar year mintage 1,402,039
The other interesting and rare variety of 1850 Sovereign, the Roman letter I date variety, has only been discovered in the last decade and is unrecorded by Marsh. Interesting in that a true capital letter I punch has been used instead of an Arabic style figure 1 to date the obverse die. The doubling of the date caused by “dual-hubbing” in cutting the die has added interest in that the letter I appears to be over a smaller letter I caused by the judder in the die cutting process. The piece in the Bentley Collection, though once cleaned, is the finest known to the cataloguer of this extremely rare variety. For more information about “dual-hubbing” of dies please see the varieties section of the introduction.
The Second Larger Young Head type Sovereign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
Victoria Second Small Young Head Type Currency Sovereign
From 1848 the size of Victoria’s young head bust increases to fill more of the available field and is therefore rendered closer to the legend lettering. This may have been an attempt to prolong the life of the dies, which are subjected to multiple tons of pressure in use, and as conjectured in the footnote for the previous lot after a Royal Mint Commission in this year investigated the die and matrix production. The Chief Engraver, William Wyon was called to give evidence on die production to this commission.
This second larger young head type sovereign was in use from 1848-1855 inclusive and is of the same general design as the previous smaller bust with the engravers initials W.W. raised with stops on the bust. The easiest way to tell the sizes of the bust, particularly when looking at the changeover year of 1848, is too look how close the front hair band fillet is to the legend as it is this point that differs most in the sizing of the busts.
In 1853 there was a slight change on some dies produced and the engravers initials WW are incuse on the truncation without stops and this runs concurrently from 1853-1855 with the first type and then alone from 1856-1870 inclusive. Strangely the 1853 proof has one stop between the letter W’s only on the truncation.
From 1863 until 1874 the reverses of the shield type feature an additional “die” number below the shield. These will be discussed at the relevant point in the cataloguing as they form quite an extensive series.
The Reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
House of Hanover
Born: 24 May 1819
Accession: 20 June 1837
Married: Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 10 February 1840
Coronation: Thursday 28 June 1838
Children: four sons, five daughters
Died: 22 January 1901, aged 81
Estimate: £1500-1800