Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

George III (1760-1820), New coinage, Pattern Five Pounds, 1820, by B. Pistrucci, in gold, laureate bust right, pistrucci below truncation, rev. St George and dragon, wwp on ground, edge lx, 39.87g/6h (WR 177; L & S 207; Montagu 556; Murdoch 176; Douglas-Morris 145; Selig 1158; S 3783). Area of red toning in centre of obverse, has been lightly rubbed and a small surface flaw between 8 and 2 of date, otherwise brilliant, extremely rare £200,000-250,000

Provenance: The Property of a Lady, acquired prior to 1992.

The pattern five-sovereign and two-sovereign pieces of 1820, to give them their contemporary nomenclature, may perhaps be viewed as the culmination of the relationship between William Wellesley Pole (1763-1845), the Master of the Mint between September 1814 and August 1823, and Benedetto Pistrucci (1783-1855), his leading engraver, who came to England in January 1815. Their origin lies in the coins being authorised by an Order in Council dated August 1816; the first new sovereigns of 1817, which debuted in July of that year, and the crowns of 1818, introduced Pistrucci’s St George and dragon design, originally intended for a gem to be engraved for Lord Spencer, to a wider public. It was Sir Joseph Banks who recommended to Pole that the design be adopted for coinage. Following the death of the chief engraver, Thomas Wyon Jr, after a length illness on 22 September 1817, Pole engaged Pistrucci; the Italian, being a foreigner, was disbarred from appointment to the office of chief engraver, but Pole left the office nominally vacant, paid him £500 p.a. and gave him the use of the chief engraver’s official residence within the Mint. Such an arrangement was resented by Thomas Wyon Jr’s cousin, William, appointed second engraver in October 1815, who designed the famous ‘Three Graces’ and ‘Incorrupta’ crowns of 1817; William’s first regular coinage design was the reverse of the new half-sovereign, the first specimens of which were struck in September 1817.

Despite the Order in Council quoted above, no large gold coins had been issued for circulation in England since 1754. Pattern five- and two-guineas had appeared sporadically in the early years of George III’s reign but the need for large-denomination specie had been negated by paper money. Perhaps realising the fast decline in the monarch’s health in December 1819, Pole instructed Pistrucci to prepare dies for five- and two-sovereign pieces and Edward Hawkins, who himself was no fan of Pistrucci or his work, writing in 1850, dramatised the scene when he wrote that “the dies were scarcely finished when the decease of the king was hourly expected; and though the workmen were employed in striking them throughout the night, we believe that all the five and two-sovereign pieces were not actually completed during the reign of king George III.” The reality of the situation, explained by William Hocking and expanded on by later students, that “the dies were not completed at the demise of George III [and] specimens were subsequently struck”, meant that the coins have acquired something of a commemorative status, posthumous pieces de plaisir if you will, George himself having expired at Windsor at 8.38pm on 29 January 1820.

In saying that 25 pieces only were struck, Hawkins quotes the names of the recipients from a tally of 26 names supplied by the Mint. Six specimens were acquired by institutions (Royal Mint, Bank of England, British Museum, Glasgow University, Dublin College and the Bodleian Library). Eight specimens were given to Mint officials, namely Jasper Atkinson (1790-1856), Provost; Henry Bingley (1801-84), Assay Master; Robert Bingley (1766-1847), Assay Master and father of Henry; Henry Field (1803-88), assayer; Robert Finch, moneyer and gentleman, Dollis Hill; James Morrison (1774-1856), Deputy Master; Robert Mushet (1782-1828), Master’s First Clerk and Melter; and William Wyon (1795-1851), Second Engraver. The remaining 12 specimens were acquired by other influential individuals, namely the Marquis of Salisbury (1748-1823) [2 specimens]; Robert Barclay (1751-1830), brewer and coin collector, Southwark; Thomas Dimsdale (1758-1823), banker and coin collector, Cornhill; William Durrant (1779-1846), coin collector, Lowestoft and London W; Abraham Edmonds (1780-1833), surveyor and coin collector, Southwark; Christopher Edmonds (1774-1853), architect and coin collector, Southwark, brother of Abraham; Sir Francis Freeling, Bt (1763-1836), secretary to the General Post Office and collector of gems, London W; Edward Hawkins (1780-1867), museum curator and coin collector, London W; John Henderson (1757-1829), coin collector, London W; Revd. Joseph Martin (1776-1858), C of E clergyman and coin collector, Bromley, Kent; and Marmaduke Trattle (1752-1831), West India merchant and coin collector, London Wall.

Hawkins queries whether the Marquis of Salisbury actually received two specimens, which would make the mintage figure of pieces with the lettered edge 25. In addition, and to further cloud the issue, at least two pieces were struck with plain edges, one of which, formerly owned by the collector George Hamilton-Smith and auctioned in 1927, was said to be “formerly the property of a Royal Mint official”. One has also to question whether Pistrucci or Pole would have received a specimen in gold – perhaps the plain-edge pieces were meant for the designer and the Master. As an aside, the companion two-sovereign piece of 1820 was also, according to Hawkins, only supposed to have a mintage of 25, but “a mistake was made” resulting in a mintage of 60 lettered-edge pieces and a tiny number with a plain edge.

Some idea of the demand for these new five-pound coins among the collecting cognoscenti of the time may be had by perusing Hawkins’ remarks as to early dispersals. We can’t be certain, but possibly the first example to change hands was William Wyon’s, perhaps not surprising on account of his animosity with Pistrucci. Wyon sold his piece to ‘Mr Edmonds’, presumably the same Abraham Edmonds mentioned above; Edmonds sold it to ‘Mr Rich’ for £25 (William Bennett Rich, of Bermondsey, collection sold by Sotheby’s in July 1828, when the coin was acquired by James Dodsley Cuff for £21). Thomas Dimsdale’s was the first specimen known to have been offered at auction (Sotheby’s June 1824, £21, to Thomas Thomas, of Oxford Street, London W, then to the dealer Harry Cureton in 1844); William Durrant’s was acquired for ‘Mr T. Butterman, Longport’ by the dealer Charles Taylor (April 1847). Prices had dipped a little by the 1830s, the Trattle specimen changing hands in the summer of 1832 for 17 guineas and the Robert Barclay specimen sold by his son Charles to Baron Bolland for £17 (March 1834), subsequently acquired after Bolland’s death by Cureton for £20 in April 1841.

A century after the coins were struck, prices at auction had advanced considerably; the best specimen in the Baron Ferrari collection (March 1922) realised £86 while, post-War, Dominic Mitchell’s (April 1949) sold for £330. A further step change was marked by the Lady Duveen example bringing a then staggering £3,800 in September 1964, coincidentally the first coin auction attended by the writer of this footnote. The buyer, Kenneth Douglas-Morris, sold it for £21,000 a little over ten years later and in November 1989 the same coin changed hands again when Sharps Pixley sold it for £47,500. The Babycham heir, Keith Showering, obtained £17,000 for his (June 1976). More recently, the Strauss specimen brought £40,000 (May 1994), advancing to £58,000 when Samuel King sold it (May 2005). Earlier this year the Slaney example, acquired for £360 direct from the Luben Basmadjieff sale held six weeks after the coronation of the present Queen in 1953, and not as fine as the specimen offered here, sold for no less than £300,000.

It is to be hoped that the forthcoming bicentenary of Britain’s recoinage will be marked by further new studies of the period and, specifically, of this, the most spectacular of all modern British coins