Baldwin & Sons
Auction 88 8 May 2014
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BRITISH COINS, MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS, Victoria, Gold Sovereign, 1843, "narrow shield" variety, first young head left, with double fillet, ponytail terminates in single curved strand of hair, legend reads victoria dei gratia, engraved by William Wyon, date below, rev possibly engraved by Jean Baptiste Merlen, "narrow" crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath of different leaf arrangement, crown with more prominent and acutely angled arches, tied with bow below shield with smaller ribbon ends, twelve pearls on each arch of crown, four pearls vertically arranged on central upright, nine pellets visible on ermine below jewel band, wreath of 21 leaves each side, top of wreath each side terminates in three leaves, seven harp strings in Irish arms, left string emanates from back of female figure above lower scroll, narrower spaced taller emblems below, double shamrock head to right of large central rose, thistle to left, no rosettes, small hyphen either side, legend reads britanniarum regina fid: def: (Bentley 45; Marsh 26A R4; MCE 504; S 3852B). Scuffed with surface marks and hairlines, light reverse rim bruise, otherwise very fine, extremely rare.
ex "A Collection of Sovereigns," St James's Auction 7, 8 February 2008, lot 624, catalogued as "one of the finest known."
The "narrow shield" variety of 1843 is an extreme rarity in the sovereign series and the Hemisphere Collection happens to contain two examples, this being the finest of the two.
The main differences between this variety and the "normal" shield reverse are really the leaf arrangement that consists of 21 leaves in each side of the wreath. The emblems below are quite different however and are much thicker and narrower with a hyphen each side rather than a rosette. The shamrock has two of its distinctive leaves rather than one, the central rose much larger and the thistle appears to have distant thistles beyond. Some of the leaves of the left hand wreath are not fully struck up or more faintly engraved. The shield is therefore not really the narrow part, it is the differing narrow emblems beneath that help the illusion that the shield is different.
Estimate: £6000-8000
ex "A Collection of Sovereigns," St James's Auction 7, 8 February 2008, lot 624, catalogued as "one of the finest known."
The "narrow shield" variety of 1843 is an extreme rarity in the sovereign series and the Hemisphere Collection happens to contain two examples, this being the finest of the two.
The main differences between this variety and the "normal" shield reverse are really the leaf arrangement that consists of 21 leaves in each side of the wreath. The emblems below are quite different however and are much thicker and narrower with a hyphen each side rather than a rosette. The shamrock has two of its distinctive leaves rather than one, the central rose much larger and the thistle appears to have distant thistles beyond. Some of the leaves of the left hand wreath are not fully struck up or more faintly engraved. The shield is therefore not really the narrow part, it is the differing narrow emblems beneath that help the illusion that the shield is different.
Estimate: £6000-8000