Great Britain 1867 1/2 sovereign
This specimen was lot 21209 in Heritage sale 3010 (Boston, August 2010), where it sold for $977.50. The catalog description[1] noted, "Victoria Half Sovereign 1867, Young Head, Die #5, MS63 NGC, an unfortunate faint scratch in the left obverse field and another one under the queen's eye, but these are all that keep this beautiful coin from the MS65 or finer grade, for it is boldly struck, the "hard" luster glittering beneath premium, delicate gold toning, the surfaces very original looking. Just a gorgeous coin overall which could well exceed our estimate." This bust was used on the half sovereign, or ten shilling coin, 1838-85. This date is somewhat common. Die numbering was an experiment done at the mint 1863-80 apparently in an attempt to gather data on die life. Die numbers are also noted on sixpences, shillings, florins and sovereigns.
Recorded mintage: 993,000.
Specification: 3.99 g, 0.917 fine gold.
Catalog reference: KM 735.2; S.3860.
- [1]Tucker, Warren, Scott Cordry and John Kraljevich, Heritage Sale 3010: World Coins, Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2010.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date, London: Coincraft, 1995.
- Bressett, Kenneth E., A Guide Book of English Coins, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2nd Ed., Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing, 1962.
- Skingley, Philip, ed., Standard Catalogue of British Coins: Coins of England & the United Kingdom, 46th edition, London: Spink & Son, 2011.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
Link to: