Watch List notes:

Victoria Young Head Proof Crown 1844, S-3882 for type, KM741, ESC-280A, L&S-42, PR62 NGC, a choice looking specimen having two short, faint scratches on the queen's cheek plus a few other faint handling marks on the obverse, reflective or mirrored fields, the color a deep grayish blue with amber-gold hues. The qualities that signify proof status, and which are classic attributes of the Royal Mint's production standards during the 1840s, are all present on this piece: fully and deeply rounded details in the curls of the monarch's hair and a sharply delineated ear, crisp features on most of the reverse shield and crown but also slight rounding of the highest points of some lower leaves and the bow, crisp and well-rounded beading in the rims while the reverse rim features a flat raised border to the edge, and a reflective quality to the edge which features crisply incuse lettering and a pair of incuse cinquefoils separating portions of the legend. Coin-rotation die alignment. Signed "W WYON . RA" in raised letters on the truncation of the queen's bust, the "RA" letters a bit indistinctly formed. An extraordinary coin, rated R6 in proof state -- and the first to come to market in many, many years. In fact, one of the rarest crowns anyone could hope to own.This great rarity is technically a Proof of Record. In 1800, an act was passed to reiterate the union of Great Britain, and among its tenets was a provision to create a small number of coins in proof state to serve as a record of the coinage denominations in years when proofs were not made for sale to collectors. Thus the coins of 1821, 1826, 1831, 1839, 1887, 1893, etc., are not Proofs of Record, while the other dates of the 19th century fall into this category. Once called VIP Proofs by the numismatic community, that designation was simply erroneous: these coins were not made for persons but rather for sale to museums which subscribed to the provisions of the act. In England, these are commonly called Record Proofs. Specimens such as the presently offered crown have come into the collector market, typically, when museums traded or sold off examples in their holdings. The consignor of this crown inherited it and did not realize what he owned until it was brought to Heritage.

Estimate: 15000.00-20000.00 USD