Baldwin & Sons
Auction 73 8 May 2012
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THE BENTLEY COLLECTION OF BRITISH MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS. Victoria, Sovereign, 1862, sharper more hooked 6, first R of BRITANNIARUM over an E, second larger young head left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date more spread below, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, emblems below, 7.95g (Marsh 45; MCE 523; S 3852D). Once cleaned, now lightly toned, very fine, the reverse a little stronger, a nice obvious corrected engraving error and extremely rare.
ex A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd sourced via Paul Davies Ltd, October 2007
Calendar year mintage 7,836,413
This coin was purchased at the annual London Coinex in 2007 and was the first time the variety was noted. Another corrected engraver’s error, a letter E punch at first mistakenly used after the B and then corrected with the letter R. Quality of engraving of dies at this time was shoddy, perhaps due to many apprentices involved on account of higher workloads with the greater outputs, but at least the errors in legends on dies were being discovered and corrected before coins were struck from them for circulation.
The other point about this coin is it marks the first appearance of a sharper and hooked looking figure 6 in the date as opposed to the more usual and bulbous curvy 6 seen otherwise.
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 A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd sourced via Paul Davies Ltd, October 2007
Calendar year mintage 7,836,413
This coin was purchased at the annual London Coinex in 2007 and was the first time the variety was noted. Another corrected engraver’s error, a letter E punch at first mistakenly used after the B and then corrected with the letter R. Quality of engraving of dies at this time was shoddy, perhaps due to many apprentices involved on account of higher workloads with the greater outputs, but at least the errors in legends on dies were being discovered and corrected before coins were struck from them for circulation.
The other point about this coin is it marks the first appearance of a sharper and hooked looking figure 6 in the date as opposed to the more usual and bulbous curvy 6 seen otherwise.
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