THE BENTLEY COLLECTION OF MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS.
PART TWO. Royal Mint Issues – London. Victoria, Sovereign, 1862, larger wider date with hooked type 6, second larger young head left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date below, some doubling in parts of obverse legend more so in last word, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, emblems below, 7.97g (Marsh 45; MCE 523; S 3852D). Some light surface marks, very fine and unusual.
purchased via A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd, November 2008
Calendar year mintage 7,836,413
This 1862 Sovereign features the more open and sharper "hooked" 6 which begins to make an appearance from this date onwards into the die number series. The more curvy bulb type 6 is still more prevalent for the 1860 decade as a whole but this hooked 6 seems to appear toward the end of the 1862 production run and goes as far as die number 7 consecutively and then die number 9 for 1863 once the die number series commences. In the Bentley Collection it does not make another appearance until die number 15 of 1864 and then appears sporadically until die number 30 of that year. After that, at least within the confines of the Bentley Collection, it does not appear again making the hooked 6 a bit of a rarity.
For further reading on varieties of 1862 Sovereigns see footnote to Lots 91-94 in part one of the Bentley Collection.
Estimate: £300-350