Baldwin & Sons
Auction 73 8 May 2012
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THE BENTLEY COLLECTION OF BRITISH MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS. Victoria, Sovereign, 1860, with O struck over C in obverse legend, second larger young head left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date below, curvy rounded 6 with bulbous top, taller 0 in date, die flaw to right of 0 in date, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, emblems below, doubled legend, raised die flaw at top right of crown to rim and at A of BRITANNIARUM, 7.99g (cf Marsh 43; MCE 521; S 3852D). Thin streak of black tone on reverse, a few light surface marks, otherwise about extremely fine, reverse better and rare.
ex Spink and Son Ltd, May 2002
Calendar year mintage 2,555,958
The coin in the Bentley Collection was the “discovery piece”, the first to be seen and demonstrated to have the O in the Queen’s name struck over a letter C some ten years ago. Therefore it is not recorded in Marsh. The overstrike is not obvious and manifests as only a protrusion of metal at the top right of the O. This metal is the upper serif of a letter C. The engraver must have selected the letter C punch to place on the die when arranging the Queen’s name, having only just used it two letters before. Having realised the error, the engraver has very carefully covered the entire C using the correct O punch which fortunately has the same curvature as a C, almost completely extinguishing it, leaving just the serif sticking out of the top right of the O. This is as obvious as the variety gets, it must have occurred on only the one die and known specimens have grown in number since discovery to somewhere in the order of ten to fifteen today.
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: £800-1000
ex Spink and Son Ltd, May 2002
Calendar year mintage 2,555,958
The coin in the Bentley Collection was the “discovery piece”, the first to be seen and demonstrated to have the O in the Queen’s name struck over a letter C some ten years ago. Therefore it is not recorded in Marsh. The overstrike is not obvious and manifests as only a protrusion of metal at the top right of the O. This metal is the upper serif of a letter C. The engraver must have selected the letter C punch to place on the die when arranging the Queen’s name, having only just used it two letters before. Having realised the error, the engraver has very carefully covered the entire C using the correct O punch which fortunately has the same curvature as a C, almost completely extinguishing it, leaving just the serif sticking out of the top right of the O. This is as obvious as the variety gets, it must have occurred on only the one die and known specimens have grown in number since discovery to somewhere in the order of ten to fifteen today.
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: £800-1000