Stanley Gibbons Baldwin's
Auction 79 8 May 2013
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G BRITISH COINS
The Bentley Collection of British Milled Gold Sovereigns
Extremely Rare High Grade 1841 Sovereign with Unbarred A's in Legend
Victoria, Sovereign, 1841, first young head left, no single strand of hair at terminal of ponytail which is disjointed, date below, toothed border both sides, unbarred A's in GRATIA, rev struck with inverted die axis, crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel, emblems below, 7.98g (Marsh 24 R3; MCE 501; S 3852). Raised die flaw on crown on the reverse, some very light bagmarks, otherwise practically extremely fine, reverse stronger, the key date for the London young head currency series, and the third finest the cataloguer has seen, extremely rare.
ex Randy Weir Numismatics, Unionville, Ontario, Canada, purchased September 1990
Calendar year mintage 124,054
This coin exhibits a weaker rendering of the ponytail terminal, which in the first smaller young head usually has a single curving strand of hair to finish it off, and with the two multi-strand turnings of hair above fully jointed. This 1841 Sovereign does not have the single strand termination and shows a multi-strand ending at the part above. The part above that is only partially joined on one side rather than both. This weaker rendering occurs very rarely.
There being no sovereigns minted bearing the date 1840, the whole calendar year figure presumably represents 1841 dated coins only, though unspent 1839 dies may have continued at first this is unlikely due to the gap in production.
With a relatively low mintage, the 1841 Sovereign does not survive in any quantity, the supply of this date in the coin market has always been out-stripped by demand and examples in recent years for sale have been few and far between. When offered for sale by auction the 1841 Sovereign has seen higher and higher prices recently, as was seen for a mint state example at Bonham's in December 2011 which sold for £34,800, including premium.
Even though few coins exist there are two significant varieties, the full letter A's in the last word on the obverse and the unbarred A variety, only noted and published with the last decade. The Bentley Collection contains both varieties, this is the better quality example unbarred A variety.
For further reading on the 1841 Sovereign see footnotes to lot 41 in part one of the Bentley Collection.
Estimate: £10,000-15,000
The Bentley Collection of British Milled Gold Sovereigns
Extremely Rare High Grade 1841 Sovereign with Unbarred A's in Legend
Victoria, Sovereign, 1841, first young head left, no single strand of hair at terminal of ponytail which is disjointed, date below, toothed border both sides, unbarred A's in GRATIA, rev struck with inverted die axis, crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel, emblems below, 7.98g (Marsh 24 R3; MCE 501; S 3852). Raised die flaw on crown on the reverse, some very light bagmarks, otherwise practically extremely fine, reverse stronger, the key date for the London young head currency series, and the third finest the cataloguer has seen, extremely rare.
ex Randy Weir Numismatics, Unionville, Ontario, Canada, purchased September 1990
Calendar year mintage 124,054
This coin exhibits a weaker rendering of the ponytail terminal, which in the first smaller young head usually has a single curving strand of hair to finish it off, and with the two multi-strand turnings of hair above fully jointed. This 1841 Sovereign does not have the single strand termination and shows a multi-strand ending at the part above. The part above that is only partially joined on one side rather than both. This weaker rendering occurs very rarely.
There being no sovereigns minted bearing the date 1840, the whole calendar year figure presumably represents 1841 dated coins only, though unspent 1839 dies may have continued at first this is unlikely due to the gap in production.
With a relatively low mintage, the 1841 Sovereign does not survive in any quantity, the supply of this date in the coin market has always been out-stripped by demand and examples in recent years for sale have been few and far between. When offered for sale by auction the 1841 Sovereign has seen higher and higher prices recently, as was seen for a mint state example at Bonham's in December 2011 which sold for £34,800, including premium.
Even though few coins exist there are two significant varieties, the full letter A's in the last word on the obverse and the unbarred A variety, only noted and published with the last decade. The Bentley Collection contains both varieties, this is the better quality example unbarred A variety.
For further reading on the 1841 Sovereign see footnotes to lot 41 in part one of the Bentley Collection.
Estimate: £10,000-15,000