Stanley Gibbons Baldwin's
Auction 76 27 September 2012
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THE BENTLEY COLLECTION OF MILLED GOLD SOVEREIGNS.
PART TWO. Royal Mint Issues – London. Victoria, Sovereign, 1865, die number 2, second larger young head left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date below, curvy rounded 6 with bulbous top, last three letters of legend and penultimate I die flawed, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, die number 2 below, emblems below, some doubling of reverse legend, 7.98g (Marsh 50; MCE 526; S 3853). Light surface marks and hairlines, pleasing good extremely fine.
ex An Important Collection of Gold Sovereigns 1816-2000, offered as one lot, Sothebys, November 2000, lot 525 (part)
Calendar year mintage 1,450,238
This coin is die number 2 of 34 different numbered dies in the Bentley Collection, running from 1 to 40, ten of which feature in the Bentley Collection part two. Marsh claims twelve other numbers exist, making 52 reverse dies in total to strike about 1½ million Sovereigns. This suggests poor die longevity. However, it must always be borne in mind that the calendar year mintages are exactly that, and do not reflect the dates upon the coins in that period, some of them could have been 1864 dated coins, and 1865 date coins were probably made into the first part of 1866. A statistician should be able to make more sense of the figures given more time and research perhaps in collaboration with the Royal Mint.
Estimate: £400-500
PART TWO. Royal Mint Issues – London. Victoria, Sovereign, 1865, die number 2, second larger young head left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date below, curvy rounded 6 with bulbous top, last three letters of legend and penultimate I die flawed, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, die number 2 below, emblems below, some doubling of reverse legend, 7.98g (Marsh 50; MCE 526; S 3853). Light surface marks and hairlines, pleasing good extremely fine.
ex An Important Collection of Gold Sovereigns 1816-2000, offered as one lot, Sothebys, November 2000, lot 525 (part)
Calendar year mintage 1,450,238
This coin is die number 2 of 34 different numbered dies in the Bentley Collection, running from 1 to 40, ten of which feature in the Bentley Collection part two. Marsh claims twelve other numbers exist, making 52 reverse dies in total to strike about 1½ million Sovereigns. This suggests poor die longevity. However, it must always be borne in mind that the calendar year mintages are exactly that, and do not reflect the dates upon the coins in that period, some of them could have been 1864 dated coins, and 1865 date coins were probably made into the first part of 1866. A statistician should be able to make more sense of the figures given more time and research perhaps in collaboration with the Royal Mint.
Estimate: £400-500