SOVEREIGN RARITIES AUCTION XIX SELECTIONS

Sovereign Rarities proudly present their 19th Auction to be held at their London office on Tuesday 23rd September in conjunction with the Royal Mint. The online catalogue is now available to view at www.sovr.co.uk with images and estimates of every lot, as well as being hosted on a number of other auction platforms with highlights on social media too. This is the final instalment of highlights for The E-Sylum before sale day on Tuesday starting 10am UK time.

The sale commences with the magnificent Thorburn Collection of coins of 1887 mostly struck for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, consisting of a plethora of as many UK currency coins, patterns and proofs of the celebration as possible, collected over 30 years. The sale now has its own pdf flipbook with all relevant introductory passages at this link SOVR Auction XIX - Featuring the Thorburn Collection - Flip Book Catalogue

 
Lot 13 – Rarest Currency die combination gold £2 NGC AU58 (estimate £4,000-6,000)

One of the rarest currency gold coins in the sale is the 1887 Two Pounds with the obverse usually seen with the proof version of this coin. Lot 13 has an obverse with the B of BRITT much closer to the crown of Victoria than the more regular currency pieces and is thought to have been issued only on a very small day of mintage (a journey) of 350 pieces recorded on the 8th August 1887.

 
Lot 19 – London Mint Sovereign – hooked J DISH L501 NGC MS62 (estimate £2,000-2,500)

 
Lot 51 – London Mint Half-Sovereign hooked J DISH L506 plate coin (estimate £800-1,000)

The collection as mentioned previously contains many of the rare "hooked J" variations of the Jubilee currency Sovereigns and Half-Sovereigns whether minted in London, Sydney or Melbourne. All of the variations were published in the pioneering work by David Iverson and edited by Steve Hill hence the acronym DISH for the reference of each. The London Sovereigns (lots 19-22) consist of four of the five known variations, whereas the Sydney and Melbourne mints have a full house of all the known variations of hooked J, five for Syndey (lots 31-35) and four for Melbourne (lots 39-42). The gold Half-Sovereigns with "hooked J" for London (lots 47-51) run to five out of the six known variations, Sydney Mint (lots 61-66) has all five of the known variations and Melbourne Mint (lots 68-72) has five of the six known variations. Lot 51 the hooked J DISH L506 is the actual coin that was illustrated in the plate of the DISH publication. All of these early hooked J gold coins represent the designs used for initial issues of their denominations all having the J.E.B. initials for Joseph Edgar Boehm hand-stamped with punches onto each die. David Iverson's eureka moment in this research was when he discovered the mint ledger in the public record office at Kew, London that mentioned that only six obverse dies were supplied each to Melbourne and Sydney for the new Jubilee Sovereigns and in turn for the Half-Sovereigns. This is also thought to be the case for the London mint too which has been borne out so far for the last ten years by the surviving population of coins examined. The ledger even revealed that the J.E.B. initials were stamped onto the dies by mint employee William Poplett who must have had incredibly good eyesight, with the hand stamped nature meaning the positioning of each variation is different to one another. This has become a fascinating series to collect and finally solved the issue of what was previously listed as "spread" or "close" initials in the general publications.

 
Lot 165 – Gold Pattern Sixpence for Spink NGC PF64+ ultra cameo (estimate £3,000-4,000)

The sale continues through the silver currency which we highlighted last week and through the pattern issues of Spink and Rochelle Thomas for the Crowns of which there are six different metals present as well as nineteen pattern sixpences including three gold which are all different in one way or another. We illustrated the finest one previously, but this week we feature the variation with "MADE IN BAVARIA" stamped on the edge in reference to the manufacturer L. C. Lauer. There were purportedly seven examples struck in gold but this is thought to refer to a total for the plain edge and the Made in Bavaria edge together with the latter being the rarer. This fascinating series of patterns was made in at least six different metals, with three different edges. The design can differ with having the Spink name present on the reverse or not, plain truncation on the Queen or with S&S or JRT added. The array of pattern Sixpences is thought to cover all the possible permutations available to own which is we believe the first time an auction has offered all in one place.

 
Lot 213 – Eadgar portrait Penny with extra crosses Unique (estimate £5,000-7,000)

Turning to the general part of the sale, the Anglo-Saxon contains a number of rare and interesting pennies whether by design of mint. One of the more interesting pieces is the Eadgar portrait Penny above, minted in the City of London with a crowned bust right and a reverse that features four extra small crosses than usually seen in the field around the larger central cross in cruciform arrangement. This appears to be the only one available for a collector to purchase at the current time being unique.

We hope that collectors from around the world will join with us live online Tuesday 23rd September from 10am GMT www.sovr.co.uk

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
1935 GEORGE V SILVER JUBILEE CROWN IN GOLD (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n35a16.html)
SOVEREIGN RARITIES AUCTION XIX (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n36a20.html)
SOVEREIGN RARITIES AUCTION XIX: THORBURN COLLECTION (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n37a20.html)

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