Owner Comments:
GT. BRITAIN, Victoria, Sovereign, 1850, second larger young head left, ponytail terminates in single curved strand of hair, date below, rev crowned quartered shield of arms within laurel wreath, emblems below, 7.97g (Marsh 33 R; MCE 511; S 3852C). Calendar year mintage 1,402,039. With a relatively low calendar year mintage the 1850 Sovereign has always been considered a rare date in the series. Of course in the top grades, any Sovereign, even for a more common mintage, can be considered rare or even very rare.
The Second Larger Young Head type Sovereign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) Victoria Second Small Young Head Type Currency Sovereign.
From 1848 the size of Victoria’s young head bust increases to fill more of the available field and is therefore rendered closer to the legend lettering. This may have been an attempt to prolong the life of the dies, which are subjected to multiple tons of pressure in use. This second larger young head type sovereign was in use from 1848-1855 inclusive and is of the same general design as the previous smaller bust with the engravers initials w.w. raised with stops on the bust. The easiest way to tell the sizes of the bust, particularly when looking at the changeover year of 1848, is too look how close the front hair band fillet is to the legend as it is this point that differs most in the sizing of the busts. In 1853 there was a slight change on some dies produced and the engravers initials ww are incuse on the truncation without stops and this runs concurrently from 1853-1855 with the first type and then alone from 1856-1870 inclusive. From 1863 until 1874 the reverses of the shield type feature an additional “die” number below the shield.
GT.BRITAIN, VICTORIA Young (small) Head (shield), Type A1 (without die number), 1850 GOLD SOVEREIGN, (Marsh 33; S 3852).
OBVERSE: Second larger Young head bust of the Queen facing left, WW incuse on truncation without stops, date below. Engraved by William Wyon.
REVERSE: Ornate garnished quartered shield containing the Ensigns Armorial of the United Kingdom. Engraved by J.B.Merlen.
DIAMETER: 22.05mm.
WEIGHT: 7.998g.
EDGE: Milled.
FINENESS: 22ct.
MINTAGE: 1,402,039
RARITY: R (M.Marsh)