The Hammersley Collection of Exceptional British Milled Sovereigns

Victoria (1837-1901), Sovereign, 1863 [open 6 in date]

victoria dei gratia

bare head left, hair bound up by two fillets; ‘827’ on truncation, date below

BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID : DEF :

Crowned shield of arms, two tied laurel branches around

Milled edge, 7.97g/6h (Marsh 46A; EGC 1160; Bentley 1017; S 3852F)

Scattered marks, otherwise good very fine with traces of diffused lustre; extremely rare thus [Graded NGC AU 55] £10,000-£15,000

This item has been graded by NGC and has been awarded grade AU55.

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This lot is to be sold as part of a special collection, The Hammersley Collection of Exceptional British Milled Sovereigns.

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The enigmatic ‘827’ sovereigns come in two varieties: those with the die number 22 on the reverse and those without. Both are extremely rare, the latter being perhaps the more difficult to acquire in higher grades. Die numbers for 1863 run from 1 to 26, and on this basis the ‘827’ issues can be placed towards the end of the calendar year. Noting this, Dyer proposed a link between the coins in question and a series of experiments run in November of that year, looking at the brittleness of gold. For these tests Rothschild provided several 200-ounce ingots. Two of these bars are recorded as having been numbered: 816 and 830. The figure 827 fits neatly between the two, and it is possible that the coin offered here was produced as part of the same experiment, with the gold originating from another one of the Rothschild’s ingots.