Owner Comments:
****This is one of several coins that hold a special place within my larger collection. It resided in the Boulton Family Estate Collection until it was retailed by my late friend Bill McKivor (a well-respected dealer) in the early 2000s. From there, it was sold to my late friend, Cory Collins, who held onto it for over two decades before selling it to me. Along with this coin, Cory generously sold me several other Soho restrikes from the Boulton Family Estate, which are all denoted with both the Boulton and Collins provenances. Although these pieces are beautiful, rare, and well preserved, the joy I experience from owning them is derived from the memories I formed with Cory over the years of our friendship. We made a point to see each other every FUN show and these visits quickly became the highlight of my numismatic calendar. In the intermediary, we would often spend several hours a week chatting on the phone about the minutiae of the Soho Mint that would otherwise be lost to the average collector. I deeply miss my friend, but I am grateful that these coins remind me of all the great memories we shared over the years.****
This coin is absolutely dripping in originality and character. From the doubled legends to the massive patches of die rust, to the numerous the imperfections, this coin is a perfect example of a quintessential Taylor restrike. It is interesting to note that this is not simply designated by Peck (1970) as a proof or “Proof” restrike, but rather as a “Pattern”. This is because Taylor opted to use a pattern obverse die that was never adopted. Of course, he made a series of substantial alterations, which Peck details in his book. As made evident from the psychical reminders of his work, Taylor made use of any die that he deemed workable. Although both the obverse and reverse dies were clearly condition, he still managed to produce high quality products from them. This example benefits from extremely mirrored fields, which contrast nicely against the heavily bronzed main devices. In my opinion, this piece is nearly deserving of the cameo designation. Peck rates this variety as
very scarce.
Obverse: The obverse design depicts the draped bust of King George III facing right. His hair is adorned with a laurel wreath consisting of ten leaves and three berries, which is tied behind his head with a riband with one loop and one loose end visible. Unlike the officially adopted design, the King’s hair is notably long. A large mass of hair partially obscures the upper portion of his ear and temple. A large, but poorly defined strand of hair falls freely down the side of his neck before terminating on front of his right shoulder. This cur terminates in shape that could be described as a sideways six, with the stem to the left and slightly downwards. A slightly larger, yet even more poorly defined mass of hair flows behind his neck and rests on the back of his right shoulder. A very small curl appears at his left shoulder. His drapery is secured to his right shoulder by a semi-circular brooch of five circular jewels. The fourth jewel from the bottom is inexplicably larger than the others. The shoulder truncation does not appear to be striated (i.e., it is plain); however, a large raised
K still appears centered in this space. The bust comes to curved end without a discernable center point. The legend
GEORGIUS III ․ D: G • REX. appears tightly curved around the toothed inner border. The date
1806 appears centered below the bust. The entire obverse design is contained within a thin raised rim.
The entire legend is doubled, with a ghost impression formed to the right of each letter. It is more difficult to detect on the left side, but it is very prominent throughout the remaining parts. It is important to note that the first impression of the date is to the left of the final entry. There are multiple areas throughout the King’s effigy that are covered in fine patches of die rust. This is most discernable around his nose, mouth, throat, and neck. Likewise, there are numerous areas of similar die rust appearing in the fields.
Reverse: Britannia is depicted facing left, wearing a close-fitting drapery, sitting on a rock surrounded by waves. A small tiara is present on her head. Her hair is kept neatly in a bun, with what appears to be a single strand flowing down and resting on the back of her neck. The crown of her head is notably bare and round. Her right arm is extended, and her hand holds an olive-branch with nine leaves and no berries. All but the second leaf from the bottom on the left is detached from the stem. Her left arm is down with a trident clasped in her hand. The middle prong points to the just left of the second limb of the second “N” in “BRITANNIA”. To her left is an oval shield with a thin raised rim adorned by the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew (heraldically colored). A raised
K appears in the space between the butt of the spear and shield. This letter has been clumsily recut. A rock protrudes from behind the right side of the shield. The mintmark
SOHO occurs on a pendant attached to the lower portion of rock just below the shield. The second “O” is partially incomplete and fades into the sharply cut curved part of the exergue. There is no patch of sea in the background to the right of Britannia. A three-masted warship with a flag attached to the poop (i.e., a deck above the main deck) appears on the horizon of the sea in the background in front of her leg. The foreground is sharply cut against an exergue line, which creates an empty space below the main device. The legend “BRITANNIA” appears closely wrapper within an inner beaded border, which is further contained within a thin raised rim. Like the obverse, the entire reverse legend is doubled. This is again most notable on the right side (e.g., NNIA). The shield is also partially doubled with a ghost image appearing just above the final image. Although Britannia is mostly free of major patches of die rust, the same cannot be said for the fields.
Edge: Plain
Notes: Although the legends are doubled on both sides, it appears the doubling on the reverse is more extreme. This fact is particularly clear when viewing the second “A” in Britannia. Likewise, the top of the shield is also doubled with clear remnants of the outline and heraldic coloring visible above the final impression. Despite all the imperfections, which I find endearing, this coin is truly spectacular. The sharp contrast between the field and main devices also makes this a fun coin to photograph. Although the images taken by NGC (the main images provided above) do an excellent job of demonstrating the technical qualities of the coin, they fall short of providing a true representation of what this coin looks like in hand. I opted to provide the images I took within the text of this entry to rectify the issue. My images are far from perfect and the reality is that the true presentation falls somewhere in the middle of the two groups of images.