Stanley Gibbons Baldwin's
Auction 79 8 May 2013
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G BRITISH COINS
The Bentley Collection of British Milled Gold Sovereigns
The Finest Known Example of the Legendary 1819 Sovereign
George III, Sovereign, 1819, by Benedetto Pistrucci, laureate head right, coarse hair, date below, descending colon after BRITANNIAR:, legend GEORGIUS III D: G: BRITANNIAR: REX F: D:, rev struck with inverted die axis, St George slaying dragon right with broken lance, groundline with BP incuse to left, all within horizontally ruled garter with buckle, W W P incuse on sides of buckle, garter motto HONI . SOIT . QUI . MAL . Y . PENSE ., no upper left serif to I of HONI, raised rim both sides, edge milled, 7.97g (Marsh 3 R6, this coin illustrated, plate 3; MCE 466; S 3785; BDM vol. IV, p.601, 1819 illustrated). Light red tone, lightly hairlined with a few tiny spots and flecks, about extremely fine and the finest known specimen extant, the key date to the entire series of British Sovereigns minted by the Royal Mint, of the highest rarity.
ex Sothebys auction, 15 October 1998, lot 286, sold for £55,000 (including premium)
Calendar year mintage 3,574
The classic rarity of the London series. The Bentley Collection specimen is the finest known in private ownership by a full British grading step. All other known specimens are in the region of poor to fair or fine condition, with only one approaching very fine.
There are still fewer than ten specimens known to be in private hands, and the purported proof version (if correctly identified as such) is unknown to modern numismatists (Murdoch 194 = WR199). Having not been seen for over 70 years since the "North Country Collector" sale of 1939.
Duveen and Stride, in the their 1962 publication The History of the Gold Sovereign, throw some light on the matter of the rarity of 1819 Sovereigns and the very low calendar year mintage when they say that specie payments by the Bank of England were suspended so only £3,574 worth of sovereigns were produced in that calendar year.
In the publication Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, edited by G P Dyer, there is an 1819 Sovereign in good fine quality illustrated on page 44. In the chapter on The Modern Sovereign, Graham Dyer remarks that in 1819 the Norfolk Banker Hudson Gurney told a Parliamentary Committee that he had never seen a new Sovereign in circulation. The preference of the public at that time was for spending and saving with banknotes instead of gold. It has been suggested that most of the new sovereigns of 1817 found their way overseas, with tourists wanting to spend freely on the continent, and therefore the subsequent demand diminishing into the 1818 issue and beyond. Once restrictions on payment of gold were removed by the Bank of England from 1820-1823, the Sovereign became more firmly established and took over as the payment medium from banknotes.
For further reading see The Mint, by John Craig, page 289, where he mentions that the minting of Sovereigns in 1819 and early 1820 was negligible. More up to date, Kevin Clancy, in his article on The Ricardo Ingot in the British Numismatic Journal 2001, p.172-174, alludes to there being only six known specimens of the 1819 Sovereign. Interestingly the notion of an ingot of gold in 1819 was raised by David Ricardo and progressed as far as an 1819 tin ingot being produced (an example of which appeared for sale at a DNW auction in June 2009, lot 418). These high value ingots were to be used to limit gold transactions to a small sphere of institutions and companies. The ingots were to feature four current coin designs, that of the gold Sovereign obverse dated 1819 which matches the obverse of the known currency 1819 Sovereigns, silver Crown reverse, Halfcrown reverse and Shilling obverse which also carried the date 1819.
Further work, in collaboration with the Royal Mint, has revealed some more interesting factual evidence about the issue of 1819 Sovereigns. 3,574 were struck, a very small total that could easily have been produced in one "journey" at the Mint (one day striking). However unusually the records show this total was struck over five instalments from August to November 1819 and not from gold supplied by the Bank of England in the usual way. The gold to strike the 1819 Sovereigns all emanated from private sources, most likely firms in the City of London. There is a written record of "Haldimand and Co." converting gold into current coin, perhaps to pay suppliers or Director's salaries. We know the coins did circulate, not just on the evidence of the worn coins seen today, but also other contemporary evidence.
In 1829 the Mint, in collaboration with the Bank of England, conducted a survey of the gold Sovereigns in circulation to investigate how much silver was alloyed with the gold. The Mint asked the Bank of England to locate 100 examples of each date of the Sovereign then in circulation from 1817 onward. The Bank managed to locate all that was asked for from its reserves, except for the date of 1819, of which it could only find two circulated examples in its holdings, this only ten years after issue. As a consequence, these two examples were excluded from the alloy melting experiment, though their later fate is unknown, perhaps finding their way to collectors.
Further evidence of circulation was provided by another survey carried out by a private banker named Martin in 1882. He conducted a huge survey of some 105,000 Sovereigns then in circulation to see how they were faring and the condition and state of the coin, in a move to have earlier worn coin withdrawn from circulation, which it subsequently was when pre-1838 dated Sovereigns were made non-legal tender. Mr Martin sourced details on dates and weights of Sovereigns nationally from banks, post offices, railway stations and anywhere else gold sovereigns were transacted, perhaps 100 pieces or more were surveyed by clerks from each source. Of the 105,000 Sovereigns surveyed only two pieces were reported dated 1819, this only 63 years after their issue.
At the meeting of the Numismatic Society in London, 17 December 1891, Mr J Clark exhibited examples of the 1817 and 1819 Sovereigns in "fine" condition for all attendees to see, this is mentioned in the proceedings from the 1892 volume of the Numismatic Chronicle. Perhaps this 1819 was one of the pieces surveyed in 1882 or 1829?
Interestingly, an article by Dr Philip Nelson appeared in the Spink Numismatic Circular of July 1904 listing English gold coins a mere four months after the Murdoch Sale; in the tabulation of gold coins the 1819 Sovereign is absent. This is later pointed out by correspondent Henry Garside in the November 1904 Numismatic Circular who remarks he once had a circulated example which he later lost! The Proof 1819 Sovereign appears for sale in the Spink Numismatic Circular of December 1905.
In Sovereigns of the British Empire, published in 1965 by Spink, Capt J J Cullimore Allen remarks that he had been unable to trace the existence of any example until the October before publication of the book, which he viewed and purchased. His collection was sold in Spink Auction 90 in 1992, as featured below. He also remarks that he had heard of an 1819 Proof Sovereign, no doubt a reference to the Murdoch lot 194 example, but of course he never confirmed or saw such a coin. Finally he confirms the National Collection in the British Museum does not contain one.
In the Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin of July 1964 (page 256) there is a contemporary theory that the 1819 Sovereign was not struck for currency, and the only one publicly sold was the proof example. Some numismatists theorised that perhaps the £3,574 were all dated 1818, but the listing of a circulated example in the Bulletin (G1652) spoke for itself. Subsequent later research as detailed above has of course proven it was a small issue only for currency, all dated 1819.
Graham Dyer of the Royal Mint also confirms he has not come across any examples of the 1819 Sovereign in institutional collections. The cataloguer acknowledges the assistance of Mr Dyer and Chris Barker of the Royal Mint for their assistance in detailing some of the facts behind the issue of this, the rarest London Sovereign.
We attempt to list all the publicly sold 1819 Sovereigns proven to be in private hands as of 2013:
1) 1819 Sovereign, extremely fine
The Bentley Collection part III, lot 941 – ex Sothebys auction, 15 October 1998, lot 286, where mentioned there were five specimens known to the cataloguers at that time.
2) 1819 Sovereign, good fine
ex Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin, July 1964 front cover coin, G1652 for £1000, sold to Capt J J Cullimore Allen (author of Sovereigns of the British Empire)
sold later as "Property of a Lady", Spink Auction 90, 15 March 1992, lot 334 for £15,500 hammer
offered in Mark Rasmussen List 12, Spring 2007, item S2 for £35,000
offered St James's Auction 7, 8 February 2008, lot 559, unsold
sold St James's Auction 11, 8 May 2009, lot 357, for £46,000 hammer
3) 1819 Sovereign, fine
Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 36, 5 December 1995, lot 1604, for $18,000
later Spink Numismatic Circular, December 2007, item MG1882, brushed with scratch on cheek, good fine, £48,500
later appeared at Spink Auction 197, November 2008, lot 548, sold to A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd and offered and sold on their Summer 2009 Fixed Price List, item BM021 at £40,000
4) 1819 Sovereign, poor, ex-mount with solder around the edge
offered with scroll mount attached in Spink Auction 140, 16 November 1999, lot 973 as sixth specimen known, gilt and fair
then appeared minus scroll mount in Spink Numismatic Circular October 2000, 1995 for £8500, sold to a private collector
later appearing on Mark Rasmussen Numismatist List 3, September 2002, £9000 retail
not recorded on the market publicly since
5) 1819 Sovereign, ex-ring mount with solder and sweated, otherwise poor to fair
sold Prof. R E Gibson Collection, Spink auction 40, 6th December 1984, lot 505 for £3,100 hammer to Spink Zürich and sold on to a German private collection. The cataloguers of 1984 said "very few specimens known" and the Baldwin marked copy of the catalogue has "(3?)" noted by hand.
6) 1819 Sovereign, holed with porous surfaces, poor to fair
first appeared un-illustrated in Glendinings, 12 February 1970, lot 75, when Michael Marsh missed a chance to purchase it as he laments in his first edition of the Gold Sovereign
next appeared in Glendinings, 10 February 1999, lot 66, sold for £4100 hammer to the collector who, as he completed his date run, promptly consigned his collection as one lot to Sothebys, An Important Collection of Gold Sovereigns 1816-2000, 16 November 2000, lot 525, which was unsold and later dispersed within the trade
next appeared at the "Tood Collection", DNW Sale 67, 28 September 2005, lot 165, £7,200 hammer
the next public appearance was in the "Horan" collection on Mark Rasmussen list 14, winter 2007/8, item S3, offered for £12,000
then after at St James's Auction 9, 18 June 2008, lot 423, £5100 hammer, this coin is now in a private collection
7) Should the 1819 Proof Sovereign listed as WR199 ever come to light again it does have a fuller provenance:
ex Marmaduke Trattle, Sothebys, 30 May 1832, lot 3301, sold with an 1820 Proof for 3-Guineas to Baron Boland
then Baron Boland, Sothebys, 21 April 1841, lot 403, lotted with an 1820 Sovereign but not mentioned as proofs, for £2/5/- to the dealer Cureton
Research is on-going for a further appearance in the interim, but the next occasion seems to be
ex J G Murdoch, Sothebys, 15 March 1904, lot 194, sold for £3/7/- to Spink
then Spink Numismatic Circular December 1905, item 22445, illustrated for the first time (same illustration used in the Biographical Dictionary, published in 1909), offered for £5/5/-
then a final appearance to date in North Country Collector collection, Glendinings, 23 May 1939, lot 134, sold to A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd for £10, no trace after this date
8) The 1819 Sovereign illustrated in the Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, page 44, does not match any of those listed in private ownership, and is not in the Royal Mint Collection.
It appears that most, if not all, of the Institutional coin collections in the UK, do not possess an 1819 Sovereign. The coin pictured in the Royal Sovereign is from the Royal Mint photographic records of coins shown to them for authentication. The piece in question was shown to the Mint personnel, via B A Seaby, in June 1974, seemingly on behalf of a private individual on the Continent. A cursory check of Seaby Coin Bulletins subsequent of that that time to the end of 1975 has not revealed any more information on this coin or any example for sale. If this coin still exists in private ownership today it takes the tally of coins to seven currency examples extant that have been photographed, of which the Bentley example is the finest known.
Estimate: £150,000-200,000
The Bentley Collection of British Milled Gold Sovereigns
The Finest Known Example of the Legendary 1819 Sovereign
George III, Sovereign, 1819, by Benedetto Pistrucci, laureate head right, coarse hair, date below, descending colon after BRITANNIAR:, legend GEORGIUS III D: G: BRITANNIAR: REX F: D:, rev struck with inverted die axis, St George slaying dragon right with broken lance, groundline with BP incuse to left, all within horizontally ruled garter with buckle, W W P incuse on sides of buckle, garter motto HONI . SOIT . QUI . MAL . Y . PENSE ., no upper left serif to I of HONI, raised rim both sides, edge milled, 7.97g (Marsh 3 R6, this coin illustrated, plate 3; MCE 466; S 3785; BDM vol. IV, p.601, 1819 illustrated). Light red tone, lightly hairlined with a few tiny spots and flecks, about extremely fine and the finest known specimen extant, the key date to the entire series of British Sovereigns minted by the Royal Mint, of the highest rarity.
ex Sothebys auction, 15 October 1998, lot 286, sold for £55,000 (including premium)
Calendar year mintage 3,574
The classic rarity of the London series. The Bentley Collection specimen is the finest known in private ownership by a full British grading step. All other known specimens are in the region of poor to fair or fine condition, with only one approaching very fine.
There are still fewer than ten specimens known to be in private hands, and the purported proof version (if correctly identified as such) is unknown to modern numismatists (Murdoch 194 = WR199). Having not been seen for over 70 years since the "North Country Collector" sale of 1939.
Duveen and Stride, in the their 1962 publication The History of the Gold Sovereign, throw some light on the matter of the rarity of 1819 Sovereigns and the very low calendar year mintage when they say that specie payments by the Bank of England were suspended so only £3,574 worth of sovereigns were produced in that calendar year.
In the publication Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, edited by G P Dyer, there is an 1819 Sovereign in good fine quality illustrated on page 44. In the chapter on The Modern Sovereign, Graham Dyer remarks that in 1819 the Norfolk Banker Hudson Gurney told a Parliamentary Committee that he had never seen a new Sovereign in circulation. The preference of the public at that time was for spending and saving with banknotes instead of gold. It has been suggested that most of the new sovereigns of 1817 found their way overseas, with tourists wanting to spend freely on the continent, and therefore the subsequent demand diminishing into the 1818 issue and beyond. Once restrictions on payment of gold were removed by the Bank of England from 1820-1823, the Sovereign became more firmly established and took over as the payment medium from banknotes.
For further reading see The Mint, by John Craig, page 289, where he mentions that the minting of Sovereigns in 1819 and early 1820 was negligible. More up to date, Kevin Clancy, in his article on The Ricardo Ingot in the British Numismatic Journal 2001, p.172-174, alludes to there being only six known specimens of the 1819 Sovereign. Interestingly the notion of an ingot of gold in 1819 was raised by David Ricardo and progressed as far as an 1819 tin ingot being produced (an example of which appeared for sale at a DNW auction in June 2009, lot 418). These high value ingots were to be used to limit gold transactions to a small sphere of institutions and companies. The ingots were to feature four current coin designs, that of the gold Sovereign obverse dated 1819 which matches the obverse of the known currency 1819 Sovereigns, silver Crown reverse, Halfcrown reverse and Shilling obverse which also carried the date 1819.
Further work, in collaboration with the Royal Mint, has revealed some more interesting factual evidence about the issue of 1819 Sovereigns. 3,574 were struck, a very small total that could easily have been produced in one "journey" at the Mint (one day striking). However unusually the records show this total was struck over five instalments from August to November 1819 and not from gold supplied by the Bank of England in the usual way. The gold to strike the 1819 Sovereigns all emanated from private sources, most likely firms in the City of London. There is a written record of "Haldimand and Co." converting gold into current coin, perhaps to pay suppliers or Director's salaries. We know the coins did circulate, not just on the evidence of the worn coins seen today, but also other contemporary evidence.
In 1829 the Mint, in collaboration with the Bank of England, conducted a survey of the gold Sovereigns in circulation to investigate how much silver was alloyed with the gold. The Mint asked the Bank of England to locate 100 examples of each date of the Sovereign then in circulation from 1817 onward. The Bank managed to locate all that was asked for from its reserves, except for the date of 1819, of which it could only find two circulated examples in its holdings, this only ten years after issue. As a consequence, these two examples were excluded from the alloy melting experiment, though their later fate is unknown, perhaps finding their way to collectors.
Further evidence of circulation was provided by another survey carried out by a private banker named Martin in 1882. He conducted a huge survey of some 105,000 Sovereigns then in circulation to see how they were faring and the condition and state of the coin, in a move to have earlier worn coin withdrawn from circulation, which it subsequently was when pre-1838 dated Sovereigns were made non-legal tender. Mr Martin sourced details on dates and weights of Sovereigns nationally from banks, post offices, railway stations and anywhere else gold sovereigns were transacted, perhaps 100 pieces or more were surveyed by clerks from each source. Of the 105,000 Sovereigns surveyed only two pieces were reported dated 1819, this only 63 years after their issue.
At the meeting of the Numismatic Society in London, 17 December 1891, Mr J Clark exhibited examples of the 1817 and 1819 Sovereigns in "fine" condition for all attendees to see, this is mentioned in the proceedings from the 1892 volume of the Numismatic Chronicle. Perhaps this 1819 was one of the pieces surveyed in 1882 or 1829?
Interestingly, an article by Dr Philip Nelson appeared in the Spink Numismatic Circular of July 1904 listing English gold coins a mere four months after the Murdoch Sale; in the tabulation of gold coins the 1819 Sovereign is absent. This is later pointed out by correspondent Henry Garside in the November 1904 Numismatic Circular who remarks he once had a circulated example which he later lost! The Proof 1819 Sovereign appears for sale in the Spink Numismatic Circular of December 1905.
In Sovereigns of the British Empire, published in 1965 by Spink, Capt J J Cullimore Allen remarks that he had been unable to trace the existence of any example until the October before publication of the book, which he viewed and purchased. His collection was sold in Spink Auction 90 in 1992, as featured below. He also remarks that he had heard of an 1819 Proof Sovereign, no doubt a reference to the Murdoch lot 194 example, but of course he never confirmed or saw such a coin. Finally he confirms the National Collection in the British Museum does not contain one.
In the Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin of July 1964 (page 256) there is a contemporary theory that the 1819 Sovereign was not struck for currency, and the only one publicly sold was the proof example. Some numismatists theorised that perhaps the £3,574 were all dated 1818, but the listing of a circulated example in the Bulletin (G1652) spoke for itself. Subsequent later research as detailed above has of course proven it was a small issue only for currency, all dated 1819.
Graham Dyer of the Royal Mint also confirms he has not come across any examples of the 1819 Sovereign in institutional collections. The cataloguer acknowledges the assistance of Mr Dyer and Chris Barker of the Royal Mint for their assistance in detailing some of the facts behind the issue of this, the rarest London Sovereign.
We attempt to list all the publicly sold 1819 Sovereigns proven to be in private hands as of 2013:
1) 1819 Sovereign, extremely fine
The Bentley Collection part III, lot 941 – ex Sothebys auction, 15 October 1998, lot 286, where mentioned there were five specimens known to the cataloguers at that time.
2) 1819 Sovereign, good fine
ex Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin, July 1964 front cover coin, G1652 for £1000, sold to Capt J J Cullimore Allen (author of Sovereigns of the British Empire)
sold later as "Property of a Lady", Spink Auction 90, 15 March 1992, lot 334 for £15,500 hammer
offered in Mark Rasmussen List 12, Spring 2007, item S2 for £35,000
offered St James's Auction 7, 8 February 2008, lot 559, unsold
sold St James's Auction 11, 8 May 2009, lot 357, for £46,000 hammer
3) 1819 Sovereign, fine
Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 36, 5 December 1995, lot 1604, for $18,000
later Spink Numismatic Circular, December 2007, item MG1882, brushed with scratch on cheek, good fine, £48,500
later appeared at Spink Auction 197, November 2008, lot 548, sold to A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd and offered and sold on their Summer 2009 Fixed Price List, item BM021 at £40,000
4) 1819 Sovereign, poor, ex-mount with solder around the edge
offered with scroll mount attached in Spink Auction 140, 16 November 1999, lot 973 as sixth specimen known, gilt and fair
then appeared minus scroll mount in Spink Numismatic Circular October 2000, 1995 for £8500, sold to a private collector
later appearing on Mark Rasmussen Numismatist List 3, September 2002, £9000 retail
not recorded on the market publicly since
5) 1819 Sovereign, ex-ring mount with solder and sweated, otherwise poor to fair
sold Prof. R E Gibson Collection, Spink auction 40, 6th December 1984, lot 505 for £3,100 hammer to Spink Zürich and sold on to a German private collection. The cataloguers of 1984 said "very few specimens known" and the Baldwin marked copy of the catalogue has "(3?)" noted by hand.
6) 1819 Sovereign, holed with porous surfaces, poor to fair
first appeared un-illustrated in Glendinings, 12 February 1970, lot 75, when Michael Marsh missed a chance to purchase it as he laments in his first edition of the Gold Sovereign
next appeared in Glendinings, 10 February 1999, lot 66, sold for £4100 hammer to the collector who, as he completed his date run, promptly consigned his collection as one lot to Sothebys, An Important Collection of Gold Sovereigns 1816-2000, 16 November 2000, lot 525, which was unsold and later dispersed within the trade
next appeared at the "Tood Collection", DNW Sale 67, 28 September 2005, lot 165, £7,200 hammer
the next public appearance was in the "Horan" collection on Mark Rasmussen list 14, winter 2007/8, item S3, offered for £12,000
then after at St James's Auction 9, 18 June 2008, lot 423, £5100 hammer, this coin is now in a private collection
7) Should the 1819 Proof Sovereign listed as WR199 ever come to light again it does have a fuller provenance:
ex Marmaduke Trattle, Sothebys, 30 May 1832, lot 3301, sold with an 1820 Proof for 3-Guineas to Baron Boland
then Baron Boland, Sothebys, 21 April 1841, lot 403, lotted with an 1820 Sovereign but not mentioned as proofs, for £2/5/- to the dealer Cureton
Research is on-going for a further appearance in the interim, but the next occasion seems to be
ex J G Murdoch, Sothebys, 15 March 1904, lot 194, sold for £3/7/- to Spink
then Spink Numismatic Circular December 1905, item 22445, illustrated for the first time (same illustration used in the Biographical Dictionary, published in 1909), offered for £5/5/-
then a final appearance to date in North Country Collector collection, Glendinings, 23 May 1939, lot 134, sold to A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd for £10, no trace after this date
8) The 1819 Sovereign illustrated in the Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, page 44, does not match any of those listed in private ownership, and is not in the Royal Mint Collection.
It appears that most, if not all, of the Institutional coin collections in the UK, do not possess an 1819 Sovereign. The coin pictured in the Royal Sovereign is from the Royal Mint photographic records of coins shown to them for authentication. The piece in question was shown to the Mint personnel, via B A Seaby, in June 1974, seemingly on behalf of a private individual on the Continent. A cursory check of Seaby Coin Bulletins subsequent of that that time to the end of 1975 has not revealed any more information on this coin or any example for sale. If this coin still exists in private ownership today it takes the tally of coins to seven currency examples extant that have been photographed, of which the Bentley example is the finest known.
Estimate: £150,000-200,000