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CSNS Signature Sale 3107 3-5 May 2023
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Great Britain
Victoria gold '827' Sovereign 1863 AU50 PCGS, KM734.1, S-3852F, Marsh-46A (R6). No die number below the shield on reverse. Arguably one of the 'Holy Grail' coins for many an aspiring Sovereign collector, and a variety that is often the last missing piece even from the most advanced cabinets. Admitting balanced wear from circulation, the present example faces up with readily legible '827' in the truncation and a uniform expression of struck detail on both facets. A touch of siltiness can be noted in the crevices and a twinkle of original luster teems in the obverse legends, highlighted with soft blushes of amber toning. Making its first auction debut after having been privately purchased from the Royal Mint years ago, the present offering is one of only four examples of the 'first variety' in the PCGS graded census, and is currently surpassed by a single piece.
Two versions of the '827' Sovereign are recorded, this coin referred to as the 'first variety' for the distinct lack of die number 22 below the shield on reverse, seen on the 'second variety'. It took almost a century for the '827' Sovereign to be discovered, first identified when just one example of the 'second variety' was found in the Hatton Hoard of gold found in October 1954 in Derbyshire, UK. This initial coin subsequently ended up in the British Museum Collection. The first variety has been listed as excessively rare (R6) in the Marsh book since 1980, and precious few more have appeared on the market since the turn of the millennium.
Much numismatic speculation over the significance of the '827' has ensued over the years, and the current understanding seems to lean towards the conclusion that it denotes a specific gold ingot that all of these '827' Sovereigns were minted from. According to an investigative article in the Spink Numismatic Circular of October 1977 by Royal Mint Curator G. P. Dyer, in November 1863 the Mint received a shipment of gold ingots from the Bank of England that proved to be unfit for coinage due to their brittle characteristics. Following experiments conducted at the Mint, a Memorandum was issued that proved "beyond cavil" that that the cause of brittleness was not the quality of copper used for alloying the gold but the presence in the gold of "pernicious metals of various kinds''. Per the Memorandum the brittle gold ingots were produced from a particular batch of scissel and scrap gold by Rothschild's refinery. It is known that experiments were run on two Rothschild's 200-ounce ingots with control numbers of 816 and 830 and it is possible, but not fully verified, that 827 was another of these ingots from the same batch. Whether this is indeed the case or not, the Royal Mint produced '827' coins that were promptly bagged and released to circulation, much in the same way as the somewhat lesser rare 1859 'Ansell' Sovereigns, and the story of the experiments was soon forgotten to men until rediscovered by the enthusiastic numismatic community 100 years later.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/great-britain/great-britain-victoria-gold-827-sovereign-1863-au50-pcgs-/a/3107-30138.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-3107-05032023
HID02906262019
© 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
Estimate: 10000-15000 USD
Victoria gold '827' Sovereign 1863 AU50 PCGS, KM734.1, S-3852F, Marsh-46A (R6). No die number below the shield on reverse. Arguably one of the 'Holy Grail' coins for many an aspiring Sovereign collector, and a variety that is often the last missing piece even from the most advanced cabinets. Admitting balanced wear from circulation, the present example faces up with readily legible '827' in the truncation and a uniform expression of struck detail on both facets. A touch of siltiness can be noted in the crevices and a twinkle of original luster teems in the obverse legends, highlighted with soft blushes of amber toning. Making its first auction debut after having been privately purchased from the Royal Mint years ago, the present offering is one of only four examples of the 'first variety' in the PCGS graded census, and is currently surpassed by a single piece.
Two versions of the '827' Sovereign are recorded, this coin referred to as the 'first variety' for the distinct lack of die number 22 below the shield on reverse, seen on the 'second variety'. It took almost a century for the '827' Sovereign to be discovered, first identified when just one example of the 'second variety' was found in the Hatton Hoard of gold found in October 1954 in Derbyshire, UK. This initial coin subsequently ended up in the British Museum Collection. The first variety has been listed as excessively rare (R6) in the Marsh book since 1980, and precious few more have appeared on the market since the turn of the millennium.
Much numismatic speculation over the significance of the '827' has ensued over the years, and the current understanding seems to lean towards the conclusion that it denotes a specific gold ingot that all of these '827' Sovereigns were minted from. According to an investigative article in the Spink Numismatic Circular of October 1977 by Royal Mint Curator G. P. Dyer, in November 1863 the Mint received a shipment of gold ingots from the Bank of England that proved to be unfit for coinage due to their brittle characteristics. Following experiments conducted at the Mint, a Memorandum was issued that proved "beyond cavil" that that the cause of brittleness was not the quality of copper used for alloying the gold but the presence in the gold of "pernicious metals of various kinds''. Per the Memorandum the brittle gold ingots were produced from a particular batch of scissel and scrap gold by Rothschild's refinery. It is known that experiments were run on two Rothschild's 200-ounce ingots with control numbers of 816 and 830 and it is possible, but not fully verified, that 827 was another of these ingots from the same batch. Whether this is indeed the case or not, the Royal Mint produced '827' coins that were promptly bagged and released to circulation, much in the same way as the somewhat lesser rare 1859 'Ansell' Sovereigns, and the story of the experiments was soon forgotten to men until rediscovered by the enthusiastic numismatic community 100 years later.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/great-britain/great-britain-victoria-gold-827-sovereign-1863-au50-pcgs-/a/3107-30138.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-3107-05032023
HID02906262019
© 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
Estimate: 10000-15000 USD