Baldwin & Sons
Auction 88 8 May 2014
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BRITISH COINS, MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS, George III, Gold 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 (Bentley 941, example 8 this coin; Marsh 3 R6; MCE 466; S 3785; BDM, vol IV, p.601; Royal Sovereign, page 44, this coin illustrated). Lightly hairlined with a few tiny flecks, otherwise toned, fine to good fine and the key date to the entire London series of British Sovereigns produced by the Royal Mint, of highest rarity.
ex plate coin illustrated in Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, edited by G P Dyer, chapter 3 – the Modern Sovereign, by G P Dyer, page 44. This actual example of the 1819 Sovereign pictured in the Royal Sovereign was shown to the mint personnel via B A Seaby in June 1974, seemingly on behalf of a private individual on the Continent. This appears to be the first time this particular example has ever been offered for auction sale, it having changed ownership only privately since the 1974 appearance.
Calendar year mintage 3,574
The the 1819 is one of the hardest dates to find, and this is one of only eight currency examples known. A full listing of the provenance, trailing seven of these currency pieces including that offered here, was traced in the Bentley Collection catalogue in May 2012, of which this was numbered as example eight. A purported "proof "1819 Sovereign (WR 199) was also listed (as number seven) but this has not been recorded anywhere for sale since 1939, and is effectively lost to a generation. The Bentley Collection Catalogue is worth consulting for many relevant facts about this the rarest London issue.
One other fresh example of an 1819 Sovereign has emerged since the Bentley sales, which sold in the London trade privately last October. It appears to be of a similar grade to this, but peppered with many surface digs and marks both sides.
It is worth re-emphasising here the reason for the rarity of 1819 Sovereigns, which was due mainly to the very low calendar year mintage. This was because specie payments by the Bank of England were suspended at that time, resulting in only £3574 worth of sovereigns being produced in that calendar year. It was only once restrictions on payment of gold were removed by the Bank of England from 1820-1823 that the Sovereign then became more firmly established with the public, and took over as the payment medium of choice from banknotes.
Further work in collaboration with the Royal Mint when the Bentley Collection was sold revealed some more interesting factual evidence about the issue of 1819 Sovereigns, also worth repeating here. 3574 were struck, a very small total that could easily have been produced in one "journey" at the mint (one day of 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 normal way. The gold to strike the 1819 Sovereigns all emanated from private sources, most likely firms in the City of London, in particular one called "Haldimand and Co." converting gold into current coin, perhaps to pay suppliers or Director's salaries. We know the coins did circulate in commerce, not just on the evidence of the worn coins seen today, but also other contemporary evidence from surveys of coinage conducted in 1829 and 1882.
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 from its reserves, except for the date of 1819, of which it could only find two circulated examples in its holdings, only ten years after issue. As a consequence these two examples were excluded from the alloy melting experiment.
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 as regards condition and weight of the coin, all in an effort to have earlier worn coin withdrawn from circulation. This subsequently happened 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, only 63 years after their issue.
The population of known coins has not grown much in the interim with only eight currency coins known, as of the date of the Hemisphere Collection auction, giving another rare opportunity to obtain one of the better surviving examples; perhaps the third finest in quality after the Bentley coin, which sold for £186,000 in May 2013.
Estimate: £50,000-60,000
ex plate coin illustrated in Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, edited by G P Dyer, chapter 3 – the Modern Sovereign, by G P Dyer, page 44. This actual example of the 1819 Sovereign pictured in the Royal Sovereign was shown to the mint personnel via B A Seaby in June 1974, seemingly on behalf of a private individual on the Continent. This appears to be the first time this particular example has ever been offered for auction sale, it having changed ownership only privately since the 1974 appearance.
Calendar year mintage 3,574
The the 1819 is one of the hardest dates to find, and this is one of only eight currency examples known. A full listing of the provenance, trailing seven of these currency pieces including that offered here, was traced in the Bentley Collection catalogue in May 2012, of which this was numbered as example eight. A purported "proof "1819 Sovereign (WR 199) was also listed (as number seven) but this has not been recorded anywhere for sale since 1939, and is effectively lost to a generation. The Bentley Collection Catalogue is worth consulting for many relevant facts about this the rarest London issue.
One other fresh example of an 1819 Sovereign has emerged since the Bentley sales, which sold in the London trade privately last October. It appears to be of a similar grade to this, but peppered with many surface digs and marks both sides.
It is worth re-emphasising here the reason for the rarity of 1819 Sovereigns, which was due mainly to the very low calendar year mintage. This was because specie payments by the Bank of England were suspended at that time, resulting in only £3574 worth of sovereigns being produced in that calendar year. It was only once restrictions on payment of gold were removed by the Bank of England from 1820-1823 that the Sovereign then became more firmly established with the public, and took over as the payment medium of choice from banknotes.
Further work in collaboration with the Royal Mint when the Bentley Collection was sold revealed some more interesting factual evidence about the issue of 1819 Sovereigns, also worth repeating here. 3574 were struck, a very small total that could easily have been produced in one "journey" at the mint (one day of 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 normal way. The gold to strike the 1819 Sovereigns all emanated from private sources, most likely firms in the City of London, in particular one called "Haldimand and Co." converting gold into current coin, perhaps to pay suppliers or Director's salaries. We know the coins did circulate in commerce, not just on the evidence of the worn coins seen today, but also other contemporary evidence from surveys of coinage conducted in 1829 and 1882.
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 from its reserves, except for the date of 1819, of which it could only find two circulated examples in its holdings, only ten years after issue. As a consequence these two examples were excluded from the alloy melting experiment.
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 as regards condition and weight of the coin, all in an effort to have earlier worn coin withdrawn from circulation. This subsequently happened 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, only 63 years after their issue.
The population of known coins has not grown much in the interim with only eight currency coins known, as of the date of the Hemisphere Collection auction, giving another rare opportunity to obtain one of the better surviving examples; perhaps the third finest in quality after the Bentley coin, which sold for £186,000 in May 2013.
Estimate: £50,000-60,000