For centuries gold has been praised for its beauty and value. This historic 22 carat gold coin is available within a special outer sleeve to reflect the famous coin design of St George and the dragon.
The 2010 quarter-sovereign appropriately features on its reverse Benedetto Pistrucci’s St George and the dragon and differs from the design on the well-known sovereign in that the Saint’s helmet retains its streamer.
The 2010 quarter-sovereign appropriately features on its reverse Benedetto Pistrucci’s St George and the dragon and differs from the design on the well-known sovereign in that the Saint’s helmet retains its streamer.
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The Quarter-Sovereign Victorian Pattern Pieces
The coinage reform in the reign of George III made no provision for a quarter sovereign, the denomination of five shillings being satisfactorily served by the large silver crown piece. By 1853, however, there was a perceived need for a more conveniently-sized coin of five shillings and, in initial trials, attractive little quarter-sovereigns were struck as pattern pieces. The proposal was abandoned probably because the coin was so small it could far too easily be lost between a thumb and forefinger. There was also likely to be the problem that it would wear too fast in circulation as was indeed the case with the half-sovereign.
Those exquisite Victorian trial pieces now form a treasured part of the Royal Mint collection. In 2009, for the first time, the quarter-sovereign was struck and made available to collectors featuring Benedetto Pistrucci’s St George and the dragon design features on the reverse. Now, quarter-sovereigns dated 2010 have been struck in 22 carat gold to bullion quality. The obverse bears the portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS.
In 1816 the Master of the Mint,William Wellesley Pole, was overseeing a great reform
of the coinage and wanted British coins not only to be perfectly produced but also to be works of art in their own right. Benedetto Pistrucci was to prove a wise choice. He
engraved a series of remarkable portraits of George III and, for the new gold sovereign, created a design of such classic beauty that it has endured to this day.