Owner Comments:
Excessively Rare - R4 - on Par with the specimens from the Quartermaster and Bentley Collections (Spencer)
Key date for Victoria series and Melbourne series
Mintage 2,902,131 with 631 going for the Pyx trial - includes both St. George and shield reverse.
St. James auction house lists 25,000 shield sovereigns
The mintage figures of the Young Head Queen Victoria Sovereigns in most reference books are the total number of the St George and Shield reverse struck with that date/mint mark. Sometimes the mintage figures for both reveres are combined. In the mid 1990’s, Mr John Sharples, Numismatic Curator of the Victoria Museum, conducted research in the museum's archives. His research occurred in Sydney and Melbourne. Mr. Sharples established separate mintage figures for each of the two types of sovereigns. In this case, he established that there were 25,000 1886 M Shield sovereigns minted.
Victoria Young Head
Shield reverse