1872/1 Melbourne Shield Sovereign Unc (PCGS MS62)
| We Last Sold This Item For: | $9,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Last Sold On: | 11/4/2023 |
| # Sold In Past 12 Months: | 0 |
1872/1 Melbourne Shield Sovereign Unc (PCGS MS62)
Obverse: Young head of Victoria to left, date below and legend around
Reverse: Crown above shield, wreath around and mintmark below
Diameter: 22.00mm | Weight: 7.99g | Purity: 91.67 | AGW: 0.2354 ozt
Mintage: 748,000 (Part)
This is currently the equal-finest known example of this key Shield sovereign.
Before the Melbourne Mint's very first coins were struck during the official opening ceremony by the Governor of Victoria, Sir John Manners-Sutton, on June 12th 1872, the early months of the Melbourne Mint were fraught with difficulty. Prime among the problems the Royal Mint staff faced was the complete loss of a vital batch of dies in a shipwreck off the coast of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in November, 1871.
As most of the new Mint's staff did not actually arrive in Melbourne until January 1872, these dies quickly became obsolete, and Ward was forced to request a second batch of dies, this time dated 1872.
These dies were transported from London by the RMS Rangoon, and unfortunately went down with the Rangoon when it sank in the Port of Galle (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) in November 1871.
Given the significant lead time involved with replacements arriving from London, the Melbourne Mint could well have run out of dies altogether before the end of 1872 - an altogether unthinkable situation.
In an attempt to make the most of the Mint’s scarce resources until additional dies arrived from London, Colonel Ward engaged the services of a Danish jeweller named Julius Hogarth.
Hogarth then had the idea to alter the last digit of the 1871-dated dies that were among the first batch sent out from London, so that they could be used if a complete lack of alternatives required it.
The result of this work remains evident for collectors today - essentially, Hogarth added a number “2” to the date of sixty obverse dies, and although his work significantly increased the number of coins the Melbourne Mint was able to produce during 1872, as the number “1” can still be seen under the “2” on numerous 1872 Shield sovereigns available to collectors today, it cannot be regarded as impeccable work.
Click here to read more about the incredible background to this historic Australian sovereign.
Click the PCGS icon below to verify the certificate details for this coin directly on the PCGS website.
PCGS Certificate Number: 47093107
SKU: 23596
Browse our catalog of Shields below:
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