Stanley Gibbons Baldwin's
Auction 79 8 May 2013
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G BRITISH COINS
The Bentley Collection of British Milled Gold Sovereigns
Very Rare 1826 Sovereign with 6 of Date over a Small 6
George IV, Sovereign, 1826, 6 of date struck over a small Half-Sovereign sized 6, whole legend show evidence of being overstruck on smaller sized letter punched legend, especially start of King's name, second bare head left, date below, rev crowned shield of arms, quartered with the arms of Hanover as an escutcheon, 7.98g (Marsh 11; MCE 477; S 3801). Bagmarked and hairlined, almost extremely fine, the finest known of the very few so far discovered of this relatively new variety, extremely rare.
bought Mark Rasmussen Numismatist, list 8, item 279
Calendar year mintage 5,724,046
This intriguing variety was only discovered about six years ago and the cataloguer has still not seen more than four specimens, the others being in lower grades than the example here. It appears as if an engraver at the Mint had before him the wrong set of letter and number punches as would normally be used on the smaller coins like the Half-Sovereign and only realised once most of the obverse legend had been punched into the die. Dies by their very nature being too valuable to waste, the engraver then seems to have obtained the correct size punches and proceeded to correct the small size letters as carefully as possible. The 6 of the date is the most obvious part of this variety, along with the initial four letters of the legend, but others are evident too.
Estimate: £1000-1500
The Bentley Collection of British Milled Gold Sovereigns
Very Rare 1826 Sovereign with 6 of Date over a Small 6
George IV, Sovereign, 1826, 6 of date struck over a small Half-Sovereign sized 6, whole legend show evidence of being overstruck on smaller sized letter punched legend, especially start of King's name, second bare head left, date below, rev crowned shield of arms, quartered with the arms of Hanover as an escutcheon, 7.98g (Marsh 11; MCE 477; S 3801). Bagmarked and hairlined, almost extremely fine, the finest known of the very few so far discovered of this relatively new variety, extremely rare.
bought Mark Rasmussen Numismatist, list 8, item 279
Calendar year mintage 5,724,046
This intriguing variety was only discovered about six years ago and the cataloguer has still not seen more than four specimens, the others being in lower grades than the example here. It appears as if an engraver at the Mint had before him the wrong set of letter and number punches as would normally be used on the smaller coins like the Half-Sovereign and only realised once most of the obverse legend had been punched into the die. Dies by their very nature being too valuable to waste, the engraver then seems to have obtained the correct size punches and proceeded to correct the small size letters as carefully as possible. The 6 of the date is the most obvious part of this variety, along with the initial four letters of the legend, but others are evident too.
Estimate: £1000-1500