SOVEREIGN 1911-1925, Circulation Issue, (GEORGE V).
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5/2/2024
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KING GEORGE V, CURRENCY GOLD SOVEREIGNS 1911-1925.
King George V of Great Britain succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father King Edward VII in May 1910.
Several million gold coins were struck during his reign but few would be used for currency. The main reason for this was the Great War of 1914-1918, and the outbreak of this in August 1914 quickly saw the Government issue Treasury notes for one pound and ten shillings.The public were urged not to use gold and by 1915 gold had all but disappeared from circulation in London.
The London mint totaled an output of 122,787,360 Sovereigns across a mere eight dates during the reign of George V.
The 1917 sovereign is the rarest London mint Sovereign of the 20th Century. Calendar year mintage 1,014,714. Three years into war and still over one million Sovereigns were produced for the reserves of the Bank of England. Nearly all the 1917 issue were exported to America in lieu of payments and most were never seen by the public. They were held probably at Fort Knox for many years until the USA passed the Gold Reserve Act at the time of the Great Depression in 1934 where all coin was converted to bars. The scant few genuine survivors we have today, were those that ended up in overseas payment to other nations other than the USA, and before 1925.
After the extremely rare 1917 sovereign, the 1916 sovereign is the key date to the London George V sovereign set.
The coinage of the reign of King George V features a bare head portrait of the King facing to the left by the Australian sculptor, Edgar Bertram Mackennal (12 June 1863 – 10 October 1931), whose initials appear on the truncation of the bust and with the titles georgivs v d: g: britt: omn: rex f : d : ind : imp : Mackennal was famed for his artistic sculptures, but became more numismatically interesting, as the designer of the Olympic Medals for the London Olympic Games of 1908. This led to the commission for the Coronation Medallion for King George V, and he then successfully won the commission for the coinage and for postage stamp portraits. One other Royal commission was to design the tomb for King Edward VII at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. He was also the first Australian citizen to be knighted, in 1921 and was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1922. For the Sovereign the classic St George and dragon design continues engraved, after Pistrucci with his initials in the exergue, and amazingly still featuring the tiny wwp under the lance for William Wellesley Pole from his days of the Master-ship of the Mint circa 1820. Had the London Mint continued to produce gold Sovereigns from 1928, like some of the Colonial Mints did, then a smaller portrait of George V would no doubt have appeared as at Melbourne, Perth and Pretoria. More significantly, the reverses of these Colonial small head pieces are revised and the wwp initials disappear at last.
GT. BRITAIN, GEORGE V GOLD SOVEREIGN
OBVERSE: The King's bare head facing left. Designed by Edgar Bertram Mackennal.
REVERSE: St. George mounted and slaying Dragon with sword. Date at the bottom with small letters B.P. to right.
DIAMETER: 22.05mm.
WEIGHT: 7.9887g ( 0.917 gold).
FINENESS: 22 Carat.
EDGE: Milled.
KING GEORGE V
The Reign of King George V (House of Windsor) : 1910-1936.
Born: 3 June 1865.
Accession: 6 May 1910.
Married: Mary of Teck, 6 July 1893.
Coronation: Thursday, 22 June 1911.
Second Coronation as Emperor of India at the Delhi Durbar: Tuesday, 12 December 1911.
Children: five sons, one daughter.
Died: 20 January 1936, aged 70.
This set contains examples of all than one (1917) sovereigns of the London sovereigns of King George III,
MINTAGE and RARITY (M.Marsh).
1911 : 30,044,105 C
1912 : 30,317,921 C
1913 : 24,539,672 C
1914 : 11,501,117 C
1915 ; 20,295,280 C
1916 : 1,554,120 R
1917 : 1,014,714 R5
1925 : 3,520,431 C
The mintage of 1917 Sovereigns actually exceeded one million. Unfortunately, almost the entirety of this number were retained by the Bank of England, and later exported to Fort Knox after WWI as payment for accrued war debts to the US.
After the passing of the Gold Reserve Act in January 1934 (the same act which created such a rarity in the US Double Eagle of 1933), all the 1917 Sovereigns held in the US were melted down and re-barred, leaving just a handful in existence. This makes the 1917 sovereign the rarest of all currency sovereigns of the 20th Century.
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SOVEREIGN 1911-1925, Circulation Issue, (GEORGE V).
By TMS Coins
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