Owner Comments:
GT. BRITAIN, GEORGE V GOLD SOVEREIGN 1915
(Marsh 217; S 3996).
OBVERSE: The King's bare head facing left. Designed by Edgar Bertram Mackennal.
REVERSE: St. George mounted and slaying Dragon with sword. Date at the bottom with small letters B.P. to right.
DIAMETER: 22.05mm.
WEIGHT: 7.9887g ( 0.9170 gold).
FINENESS: 22 Carat.
EDGE: Milled.
MINTAGE: 20,295,280
GEORGE V, SOVEREIGN, 1915
The very high mintage of this date marks the end of higher production of gold at the Mint as Great Britain strengthened its reserves for payments under the duress of war. Most of the Sovereigns will not have been used by the public. It is very interesting to note in the ten years from 1905 to 1915 Mint output was at its highest ever, and this total production was of a similar total of all the years from the Sovereign’s inception, in 1817 until the previous record production total in 1872, a full 55 years of production. The coinage of the reign of King George V features a bare head portrait of the King facing to the left by the Australian sculptor, Edgar Bertram Mackennal (12 June 1863 – 10 October 1931), whose initials appear on the truncation of the bust and with the titles georgivs v d: g: britt: omn: rex f : d : ind : imp : Mackennal was famed for his artistic sculptures, but became more numismatically interesting, as the designer of the Olympic Medals for the London Olympic Games of 1908. This led to the commission for the Coronation Medallion for King George V, and he then successfully won the commission for the coinage and for postage stamp portraits. One other Royal commission was to design the tomb for King Edward VII at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. He was also the first Australian citizen to be knighted, in 1921 and was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1922. For the Sovereign the classic St George and dragon design continues engraved, after Pistrucci with his initials in the exergue, and amazingly still featuring the tiny wwp under the lance for William Wellesley Pole from his days of the Master-ship of the Mint circa 1820. Had the London Mint continued to produce gold Sovereigns from 1928, like some of the Colonial Mints did, then a smaller portrait of George V would no doubt have appeared as at Melbourne, Perth and Pretoria. More significantly, the reverses of these Colonial small head pieces are revised and the wwp initials disappear at last.
KING GEORGE V
The Reign of King George V (1910-1936) House of Windsor.
Born: 3 June 1865.
Accession: 6 May 1910.
Married: Mary of Teck, 6 July 1893.
Coronation: Thursday, 22 June 1911, second Coronation as Emperor of India at the Delhi Durbar, Tuesday, 12 December 1911.
Children: five sons, one daughter.
Died: 20 January 1936, aged 70.
1915 GOLD SOVEREIGN MS65
NGC 3706904-010
A real GEM with satiny luster and strong strike.
ex Heritage Auction # 3026, October 1 2013.