Great Britain 1879 florin
This specimen was lot 2372 in Goldberg sale 110 (Los Angeles, June 2019), where it did not sell. The catalog description[1] noted, "Great Britain. Florin, 1879. Victoria. 48 arcs in border. Obverse: Wyon's 'Gothic' head of queen left. Reverse: Crowned cruciform shields. Gothic lettering. Uncirculated and very scarce. NGC graded MS-62." This florin was Britain's first attempt to decimalize the pound (1 florin = 2 shillings = 1/10 pound). It must have been popular, as it was struck in several variations 1848-87. There was even a brief issue of double florins. Full decimalization would have to wait until the 1960's, when the florin became the ten pence coin.
Recorded mintage: 1,787,000 for 1878-79, plus proofs.
Specification: 11.31 g, 0.925 fine silver, 28.3 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: S.3897; ESC-851; KM-746.4.
- 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.
- Bressett, Kenneth E., A Guide Book of English Coins, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2nd Ed., Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing, 1962.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date, London: Coincraft, 1995.
- Rayner, P. Alan, and Maurice Bull, English Silver Coinage from 1649, 6th Ed., London: Spink & Son, 2015.
- [1]Goldberg, Ira, Larry Goldberg, John Lavender, Yifu Che, Jason Villareal and Stephen Harvey, Goldberg Sale 110: the Pre-Long Beach Auction, Los Angeles: Goldberg Coins and Collectibles, 2019.
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