The Jubilee Head Gold Half Sovereign 1887-1893 A special publication by David Iverson Edited by Steve Hill Including a fixed price sale catalogue of the David Iverson Collection of Jubilee Head Gold Half Sovereigns available to purchase from 32 St George Street | London | W1S 2EA www.sovr.co.uk | +44 20 3019 1185 | [email protected] INTRODUCTION BRIEF FACTS AND FIGURES FOR CURRENCY HALF SOVEREIGNS Welcome to this detailed study of the Victorian Jubilee Head gold currency All the Sydney Mint dated 1887, all Melbourne Mint dated 1887, but just a Half Sovereigns, which is coupled together with the sale catalogue of the most very small proportion of London produced 1887 gold Half Sovereigns have comprehensive collection of such coins that has thus far ever been assembled. variations of the J.E.B. initials with a hooked J on the truncation of the Queen. All hooked J type 1887 gold Half Sovereigns are rare. For me, it was a logical next step, following on from my study of the Sovereigns of this series to form the accompanying collection. I was also encouraged and A very small proportion of London 1887 Half Sovereigns have no J.E.B. initials indeed urged, to research the Half Sovereigns further by several collectors on the truncation. These are rare. and dealers, who have been most complimentary about my previous work. I hope that this latest study will live up to those expectations and add to the The majority of 1887 London Half Sovereigns seen, are of the “imperfect J” knowledge and enjoyment of these intriguing gold coins. variety. All Half Sovereigns for 1887, across all three Mints are of the “High Shield” variety. 1889-1893 Half Sovereigns across the three Mints can be “High” or “Low Shield” variety. Some are extremely common, others are scarce, rare or very rare. Post 1887 the vast majority of gold Half Sovereigns have no J.E.B. initials on the truncation. All Half Sovereigns 1889-1893 with J.E.B. initials demonstrate the “imperfect J” variety. There are some Half Sovereigns where there appears, under strong magnification, to be the very faintest trace of J.E.B. initials. It is not yet clear if this is where on some dies the initials were removed, or more likely due to extreme die wear from excessive die longevity. In such cases I would categorise these coins as no J.E.B. on truncation. Prior to my study of any of the Jubilee Head gold coins, there had in fact been By far the most common Half Sovereign is the London 1892, Low Shield, with more information published about the Half Sovereigns than the Sovereigns. no J.E.B. on truncation. Previously for some reason this has sometimes been However, I have to say that much of that information has been confusing, described as scarce. It is not, it is extremely common. conflicting, incomplete and at times incorrect. I will attempt here to present a much clearer picture of these interesting gold coins and undo some of the Just over 97% of all Jubilee Head Half Sovereigns minted are London. commonly repeated inaccurate and misplaced understandings. Just under 2% of all Jubilee Head Half Sovereigns minted are Sydney. Just under 1% of all Jubilee Head Half Sovereigns minted are Melbourne. All Melbourne Jubilee Head Half Sovereigns have J.E.B. initials depicted on 1 the truncation. TERMINOLOGY AND DESCRIPTIONS TWO SIGNIFICANT AUCTIONS There has to date, been very confusing and conflicting descriptions in regard RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA to Jubilee Head gold Half Sovereigns, particularly in the detailing of the J.E.B. initials that appear on the truncation of the portrait of Queen Victoria. On the 29th-30th November 2005 the Reserve Bank of Australia held a major auction in conjunction with Downies of 5,850 gold coins. There were various All 1887 Sydney and all 1887 Melbourne along with a very small proportion of world coins, but unsurprisingly the majority were gold Sovereigns and Half 1887 London have the J.E.B. initials with a hooked type J. The J in these cases Sovereigns minted in Australia. The sale came about because the Reserve is always distinctly rounded and hooked as you would expect for an upper Bank had accumulated vast quantities of gold coinage between 1929 and case J. These should always be referred to as “HOOKED J”. It is not helpful 1976, when the law required the Australian public to sell any gold coins in to use the terms, normal J, or standard J as has been seen in other previous their possession to the bank. articles and publications. Whilst this was a vast auction of gold coins, it was merely a selection of an The vast majority of 1887 London Half Sovereigns and ALL later dates for even greater number, which were either deemed to be very common or low all three Mints, where there are J.E.B. initials present, show the J either as grade; or had already been melted down or sold off as bullion. a reversed L, or looking more like an upper case letter I. There are various slight variations both to the shape of the J and the positioning of the initials The auction itself is very significant in regard to Jubilee Head gold Half and stops. All such coins should be referred to as “IMPERFECT J”. It is not Sovereign series for the following reasons: helpful to use the terms normal J, standard J, J as an I, or I.E.B. as seen in other publications. Firstly, it revealed that variations previously not noted, existed; thus stimulating interest in the series. However, the downside was that it sowed Hopefully using just these two descriptions and using them correctly to the seeds of some misunderstandings that have existed for the last 14 years, differentiate the two very different J.E.B. initial types it will subsequently lead which I now wish to put right. to much greater clarity. Whilst 1887 Sydney and Melbourne Mint Half Sovereigns with previously The other issue that causes a very great deal of confusion is between the unrecorded J.E.B. variations were indeed identified, due to limited space or High and Low Shields. Previously they have been quite frequently wrongly inaccurate listing description, it was not clear that each Mint’s dies were each described and listed. unique to that mint. For example an ‘1887 Sydney small spread J.E.B.’ does not have the same J.E.B. initials on the truncation as an ‘1887 Melbourne The reverses are clearly quite different and the easiest way to determine small spread J.E.B.’ as each of the dies used at these Mints has the initials which is which is to look at the date. On the “High Shield” the two parts of the punched in by hand, so the positioning differs. date are closer together. On the “Low Shield” the two parts are much wider spread. A further legacy of that auction was that given the quantity of coins sold and the fact that new variations were discovered, a common assumption was The other aspect that distinctly differs is the distance from the base of the that no further variations existed. This was not the case and indeed there are shield each side, to what is the “bottoms” of the letters in the surrounding variations now identified of which there were no examples in the auction. legend. With the “High Shield” there is a distinct gap of just over a millimetre. The “Low Shield” has the base of the shield with a much smaller gap to the A last important point to note is that, as previously mentioned, before the letters of the legend. auction, vast quantities of coins were sold off as bullion or melted down. Only coins either deemed of good grades or having some numismatic rarity value were auctioned. The auctioneer sold some of the numismatic or high grade 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS coins individually, and some as bulk lots. However, just because six of one I wish to thank the following people for their help, encouragement and particular variation and only one of another appeared in the auction, it support in various ways: should not be concluded automatically that the one is rare and the six common. It is quite possible that the six were in the auction because they Steve Hill, Julie Lecoindre and Graham Byfield at Sovereign Rarities Ltd, were considered much rarer than the one more common variety in high 32 St George Street, London, W1S 2EA. www.sovr.co.uk grade, and that many more of the common variety were previously melted or sold outside of the auction, hence only the single appearance. Eric Eigner of Drake Sterling Numismatics, Australia. London Coins Ltd, in particular Semra and Paul. QUARTERMASTER COLLECTION The Quartermaster auction was held in Australia on 4th June 2009 by Andrew Thorburn. Monetarium. This was a very substantial auction of very rare and high grade coins formed by a prominent Australian collector over many Peter Withers. years. However, understandably, not all the Half Sovereign varieties now identified in this publication were present in that auction. There are only three 1887 Sydney J.E.B. variations and just two 1887 Melbourne variations of the gold Half Sovereign present in the Quartermaster sale. REFERENCES and BIBLIOGRAPHY The National Archives, Kew, London. Coins of England and the United Kingdom Standard Catalogue of British Coins, 54th edition. London: Spink & Son Ltd. 2019 The Gold Sovereign, by Michael A. Marsh, revised edition by Steve Hill. Exeter: Token Publishing Ltd.