The Coin Cabinet
Auction 67 19 Jul 2022
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UNITED KINGDOM. Victoria, 1837-1901.
Gold half-sovereign, 1891. London. No JEB High shield DISH Unrecorded.
After a break in half sovereign production 1888-1889, this recommenced in 1890 and continued in 1891 but at less than half the mintage, 1,087,884 in 1891.
The reverse shield was lowered at some point after 1887 to improve metal flow. 1890 dated coins have a majority of the new lower shield. As the old high shield dies wear out and are replaced with the new lower shield dies, coins with the high shield become progressively rarer. According to David Iverson and Steve Hill in their publication 'The Jubilee Gold Half Sovereign 1887-1893' (Sovereign Rarities, 2019), all coins struck in 1891 are without JEB initials and with the lower shield type. Having gone through thousands of coins in various collections around the world, they did not award a reference number to this type in the way they did with other coins that were presumed to exist, however the author did note that 'as ever though, just a word of caution, as one should always be aware of the chances of coming across the unexpected, and perhaps something different to the known variety turning up one day.' In 1892, with production at 13.7 million coins, a small number of high shield coins along with coins with JEB (Imperfect J only) exist, so old dies from 1887 production runs were used in 1892 to cover production gaps when necessary. However, with the relatively low mintage of 1891 the use of old dies seems unnecessary.
PCGS has listed four 1891 half-sovereigns as being of the High shield variety, however PCGS has notoriously graded a large number of both high and low shield coins incorrectly and closer inspection of these four so-called high shields show that all with an image are in fact incorrectly graded low shield coins.
Spink and Marsh have also not given any indication of rarity to this variety, but it seems to be one which has not been properly researched until Iverson and Hill's publication. To add to their research, we have also gone through many thousands of coins in the last several years and only now come across this one coin. There may be others out there-and we kindly ask everyone who own an 1891 Jubilee head half-sovereign to check!-but in any case this is definitely a great rarity, possibly an R7 by Marsh's standards.
Crowned and veiled Jubilee bust facing left; no JEB on truncation; inscription: VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRIT: REGINA F: D:. / High, crowned and embellished shield-of-arms; date in exergue; BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID: DEF:.
Reference: Marsh-480A; S-3869C; DISH unrecorded
Diameter: 19.3 mm.
Weight: 3.99 g. (AGW=0.1176 oz.)
Composition: 917.0/1000 Gold.
PLEASE NOTE: 6% Buyer Premium + VAT on this lot. No other fees, including live bidding. Delivery cost will be added to your order.
This lot is exempt from VAT. Payment can be made in EUR, CHF, or USD for an exchange fee. Please contact us to find out more.
Gold half-sovereign, 1891. London. No JEB High shield DISH Unrecorded.
After a break in half sovereign production 1888-1889, this recommenced in 1890 and continued in 1891 but at less than half the mintage, 1,087,884 in 1891.
The reverse shield was lowered at some point after 1887 to improve metal flow. 1890 dated coins have a majority of the new lower shield. As the old high shield dies wear out and are replaced with the new lower shield dies, coins with the high shield become progressively rarer. According to David Iverson and Steve Hill in their publication 'The Jubilee Gold Half Sovereign 1887-1893' (Sovereign Rarities, 2019), all coins struck in 1891 are without JEB initials and with the lower shield type. Having gone through thousands of coins in various collections around the world, they did not award a reference number to this type in the way they did with other coins that were presumed to exist, however the author did note that 'as ever though, just a word of caution, as one should always be aware of the chances of coming across the unexpected, and perhaps something different to the known variety turning up one day.' In 1892, with production at 13.7 million coins, a small number of high shield coins along with coins with JEB (Imperfect J only) exist, so old dies from 1887 production runs were used in 1892 to cover production gaps when necessary. However, with the relatively low mintage of 1891 the use of old dies seems unnecessary.
PCGS has listed four 1891 half-sovereigns as being of the High shield variety, however PCGS has notoriously graded a large number of both high and low shield coins incorrectly and closer inspection of these four so-called high shields show that all with an image are in fact incorrectly graded low shield coins.
Spink and Marsh have also not given any indication of rarity to this variety, but it seems to be one which has not been properly researched until Iverson and Hill's publication. To add to their research, we have also gone through many thousands of coins in the last several years and only now come across this one coin. There may be others out there-and we kindly ask everyone who own an 1891 Jubilee head half-sovereign to check!-but in any case this is definitely a great rarity, possibly an R7 by Marsh's standards.
Crowned and veiled Jubilee bust facing left; no JEB on truncation; inscription: VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRIT: REGINA F: D:. / High, crowned and embellished shield-of-arms; date in exergue; BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID: DEF:.
Reference: Marsh-480A; S-3869C; DISH unrecorded
Diameter: 19.3 mm.
Weight: 3.99 g. (AGW=0.1176 oz.)
Composition: 917.0/1000 Gold.
PLEASE NOTE: 6% Buyer Premium + VAT on this lot. No other fees, including live bidding. Delivery cost will be added to your order.
This lot is exempt from VAT. Payment can be made in EUR, CHF, or USD for an exchange fee. Please contact us to find out more.