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Godless or Gothic?

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THE WELSH DRAGON

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I was trying out my new book I got today, "COINS OF ENGLAND & THE UNITED KINGDOM" put out by SPINK, and I am having a hard time understanding its reference to a coin that I'm realizing that I know very little about.  I have a 1849 Florin and I thought that only 48'S & 49's were the "godless" type A.  But in my new book it looks like they can also be the "gothic" type B.  Can anyone shine some light on this?

20170401_191554-1.jpg

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The Gothic refers to the style of the design of the piece. The Gothic revival style was in vogue at that time in England. The British House of Parliament also is an example of Gothic style. I think it was built around the same time as this coin was made.

The Godless part refers to the lack of reference to God (Dei Gratia, Latin for "by the Grace of God" I think) in the legends and letters of the coin. As 1850 was a much more religious age than our own, the phrase Dei Gratia (often shortened to D.G. on the coins) was restored on subsequent Gothic Florins

Here is an 1852 Gothic Florin and you can note the change to the lettering on the obverse versus the 1849.. You will see the d.g. after Victorias name. The wording is in Latin.

1852 florin obverse.jpg

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You can have a look in the Spink Standard Catalog of Coins of England and the United Kingdom. It shows the 1849 as Type A Godless, and is type S 3890 in their catalog.

Mine is Type B, type number S 3891.

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The coin is gorgeous--the details of the hair, crown and embroidery/lace of the dress puts most of our modern issues to shame.

Compare that coin to the modern day bust of the Queen and it is quite sad that with our modern technologies and a world full of able artists that we get such a ho hum depiction.

Congrats on another great addition..........

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The various Victoria young head busts are probably my favourites of all the coin obverses.

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The reverse design is great as well on the Gothics. The obverse tends not to be as well struck as the reverse in this type, from my experience.

1852 florin reverse.jpg

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Hey buddy ( rmw ),

If you were referring to "where have I been" as far as the posts go? I have been slammed by life these past few weeks.

If you were referring to my name "the king of England", I just thought it sounded a little pretentious. And I found myself envisioning people out there rolling their eyes when they saw the name. So I changed it to "The Welsh Dragon" out of respect for my grandfather who was from Wales. And the fact that it sounds cool :)

I've been getting my butt kicked in the grading category, not really fitting for a "king" anyways. Besides after seeing some (Well, really all) of your stuff I think you should be king :) 

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