Owner Comments:
The Guernsey coinage marks the unfortunate decline of the Soho Mint. At this point, the machinery had been sold and Matthew Robinson Boulton was just starting to rebuild the mint. The 1830 coinage was not struck using steam presses, but I am not sure if this also applies to the 1834 coinage. According to Doty (1998), a total of 221, 760 Eight doubles were struck at the Soho Mint.
Obverse: The entire obverse design is contained within a narrow-raised rim and beaded inner border. The legend
GUERNESEY appears centered at the top. A shield appears in the center of the obverse, with a defined outer rim. A sprig of three leaves protrudes from the valley formed by the two upper ridges of the shield. The inner portion of the shield is a series of evenly placed vertical lines. A series of three lions superseded this decoration. Each lion is crouching to their left with their right limb outstretched upward in front of them. The front left and rear right legs are pressed forward while the front left leg is outstretched behind. Their tails for what could be described as a sideways
S. All three lions are facing the viewer. A wreath of two twigs tied together by a ribbon with two bows and no loose ends appears immediately below and flanks both sides of the shield.
Reverse: A wreath found on the obverse adorns the bottom of the reverse and flanks the legend, which appears in three different font sizes. The number
8 appears centered in the upper third of the reverse in the largest font. Immediately below, is the word
DOUBLES in a relatively small font. The date,
1834 appears centered in medium font. The entire reverse design is contained within a beaded border and a thin raised rim.
Edge: Plain
Notes: This is far from the nicest example I have seen, but it does have a rather appealing evenly toned color to it. It is a very pleasing coin to inspect in hand. Nonetheless, this coin will eventually be upgraded when I find an example that strikes my fancy more. For the time being, I am happy to have this very affordable example in my collection.