St. James's Auctions
Auction 86 28 Feb 2024
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George III, proof shilling, 1817, laureate head right, rev. crowned shield within Garter, plain edge (S.3790; ESC.2149), certified and graded by NGC as Proof-65, rich grey toning with amber highlights, quite rare especially in this delightful state of preservation, a proof of record, exact mintage unknown
The only one graded as Proof-65 by NGC, none higher.
The master of the Royal Mint at this time was William Wellesley Pole, one of the brothers of the Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo. In 1816, just two years into his position as the mint's chief officer, Pole founded the mint's now-famous museum after his proposal to the mint's advisory committee was accepted in February of that year. All of the old tools and dies that still existed were placed into the museum's holdings, preserving things that had previously been regularly scrapped. The main intention of the museum, however, was to create a reference collection for the nation. This entailed preserving current and all future matrices and punches used in making dies and a record book detailing the modellers, engravers and officers of the Royal Mint. From this source, historians have had access to such facts. As well, the museum would hold proof samples of all coins minted from 1816 onward, and would use extant dies to strike specimens of past coins and medals so as to carry the collection's holdings back to 1801. In his proposal to the advisory committee, Pole lamented that, previously, no proof examples of the national coinage had ever been set aside for posterity, that there was no physical 'record' of the coinage. This statement was the origin of the collector term 'proofs of record'-sometimes called VIP Proofs. The 1817 proof shilling offered in this lot is one of the earliest examples of the tradition begun by W.W. Pole.
Estimate: 1500 - 1800 GBP
The only one graded as Proof-65 by NGC, none higher.
The master of the Royal Mint at this time was William Wellesley Pole, one of the brothers of the Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo. In 1816, just two years into his position as the mint's chief officer, Pole founded the mint's now-famous museum after his proposal to the mint's advisory committee was accepted in February of that year. All of the old tools and dies that still existed were placed into the museum's holdings, preserving things that had previously been regularly scrapped. The main intention of the museum, however, was to create a reference collection for the nation. This entailed preserving current and all future matrices and punches used in making dies and a record book detailing the modellers, engravers and officers of the Royal Mint. From this source, historians have had access to such facts. As well, the museum would hold proof samples of all coins minted from 1816 onward, and would use extant dies to strike specimens of past coins and medals so as to carry the collection's holdings back to 1801. In his proposal to the advisory committee, Pole lamented that, previously, no proof examples of the national coinage had ever been set aside for posterity, that there was no physical 'record' of the coinage. This statement was the origin of the collector term 'proofs of record'-sometimes called VIP Proofs. The 1817 proof shilling offered in this lot is one of the earliest examples of the tradition begun by W.W. Pole.
Estimate: 1500 - 1800 GBP