Baldwin & Sons
Auction 73 8 May 2012
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THE BENTLEY COLLECTION OF BRITISH MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS. Victoria, Sovereign, 1861, inverted top-heavy 8, second larger young head left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date below, curvy rounded 6 with bulbous top, E of DEI struck over a rotated or faulty E, large burr of metal at back of E, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, emblems below, legend with some doubled letters mainly on reverse, 7.95g (Marsh 44; MCE 522; S 3852D). Some surface marks, nearly very fine and unusual.
ex St James’s Auction 5, 27 September 2006, lot 631
Calendar year mintage 7,624,736
This is a similar legend error to that which occurred on one of the 1860 obverses as demonstrated in lot 81 where the footnote there goes into detail about the use of a faulty E punch which may have again been used for this 1861 dated Sovereign. The 8 in the date appears to be quite top-heavy and may well be inverted to what is normally seen. It does seem strange that with the frequency of engraving inconsistency at this time, that top heavy 8’s are not encountered more often. Perhaps the tooling of the punches was such that it was nigh on impossible to invert it or that this particular 8 punch was engraved this way.
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: £350-400
ex St James’s Auction 5, 27 September 2006, lot 631
Calendar year mintage 7,624,736
This is a similar legend error to that which occurred on one of the 1860 obverses as demonstrated in lot 81 where the footnote there goes into detail about the use of a faulty E punch which may have again been used for this 1861 dated Sovereign. The 8 in the date appears to be quite top-heavy and may well be inverted to what is normally seen. It does seem strange that with the frequency of engraving inconsistency at this time, that top heavy 8’s are not encountered more often. Perhaps the tooling of the punches was such that it was nigh on impossible to invert it or that this particular 8 punch was engraved this way.
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: £350-400