Coins, Historical Medals & Paper Money

Victoria, a pale pink wax study on slate of her veiled head by L.C. Wyon, head left, wearing diadem with scroll decoration, no ear-ring, detail below truncation blurred but not removed, 69mm. In good condition £150-200

Provenance: Pattern Coins, Specimen Medals, Wax Studies, Drawings etc from the Wyon Family, Spink Auction 190, 27 September 2007, lot 437.

Leonard Wyon designed the veiled bust for Victoria's 'old head' coinage, introduced in 1893, but several designs were prepared as early as 1888. The final version has a coronet rather than a diadem, and the Queen wears a single drop ear-ring. Wyon had already designed a diademed head with similar scroll decoration for use on some Colonial coinage, for example the copper coins produced for Ceylon in 1870. A veiled head with diadem by Wyon had already been used for British campaign medals of the 1880s, including the Egypt and Sudan Medal 1882-9 and the North West Canada Medal 1885, but on these the diadem has jewel decoration and the ear does not show