Victoria (1837-1901), 1863, dies Jg, die no.2 below date, 9.46g/12h (Gouby C, this coin illustrated; Satin 47; F 45 [Sale, lot 28, this coin]; Adams –; BMC –; S 3954). Very fine and of the highest rarity, very few specimens known, of which this is perhaps the finest (£900-1,200)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Victorian Bronze Pennies formed by the Late Laurie Bamford.

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Collection

Provenance:
M.J. Freeman Collection, Christie’s Auction, 23 October 1984, lot 28.

The placing of die numbers on gold and silver coins, and on a very small number of surviving pennies, began in 1863 and followed an experiment the previous year when certain halfpenny reverse dies supplied to the bronze coinage contractors Heaton’s and Watt were lettered a, b, c, etc. Further details of the instigation of die numbers and the work of John Graham, the newly appointed Superintendent of the Coining Department at Tower Hill, are given by Sommerville, SCMB 1990, pp.99-101. The practice was not continued with in the bronze series after 1863. Jerrams, in his 2001 ‘census’, only knew of four specimens