Queen Victoria gold shillings

[Guest bigred1lee]

Looking for info and possible price listings on some coins:

1)Queen Victoria w/bun 1847 gold shilling obverse side royal shield

2)Queen Victoria w/crown and veil 1893 gold shilling obverse side knight on charger

[Emperor Oli]

I don't think any of these coins are the ones you suggest.

The second one is a crown I think although this was minted in silver. It could have been gilded to pass off as a sovereign. On the edge of the coin, it will have either LVI or LVII - these affect value. If you use this page, you may be able to grade them yourself in which case the values are:

LVI LVII

Fine - £15 Fine - £25

Very fine - £30 Very fine - £60

Extremely fine - £125 Extremely fine - £200

Uncirculated - £300 Uncirculated - £450

The first coin you describe could be a shield-back sovereign, which are Sylvester's speciality. The sovereign is about 22mm in diameter and the half is about 19mm. I think Sylvester will be able to advise you better than me.

Sovereign Half-sovereign

Fine - £75 Fine - £60

Very fine - £90 Very fine - £85

Extremely fine - £175 Extremely fine - £250

Uncirculated - £350 Uncirculated - £450

If you can't grade yourself, feel free to post scans for us to do it!

Edit - These are the values for normal, silver crowns and gold (half)sovereigns. The 1893 "gold" one could have, more likely, been gilded as I said earlier to pass off as a higher denomination or, but I'm doubting myself as I type this, been struck in gold. Ah a thought has just hit me - it's probably another sovereign/half sovereign if it's gold making the above values void. I valued it as a crown because that's the image that springs into my mind when I think of St George and the Dragon (knight on charger) and the veiled bust of Victoria.

Edited July 30, 2004 by Emperor Oli

[Guest bigred1lee]

Attached is the only picture that I could find that matched the coin I had. It is not one of the coins I was pereviously talking about but I would like to find out about it also.

It is: Gold - George III 1798 'Spade Guinea'

[Sylvester]

Well the 1893 could be a sovereign, if it's shilling sized, gold, has St. George on a Dragon, weights 8 grams is 22mm in diameter.

And if it looks EXACTLY like this (not just a bit like, but exactly like with regard to design and the proportions of the design, obviously the amount of shine/wear may differ)

http://www.goldsovereigns.co.uk/forsalevic...riaoldhead.html

I'd really need to see a picture of it though.

Does the 1847 one look like this?

http://www.goldsovereigns.co.uk/forsalevic...oriashield.html

If so then that'as probably a sovereign too.

Although forgeries exist as do what i call psuedo-coins, they look like coins but are either imitation gambling counters, fantasy pieces, tokens, patterns, toy money, commemorative pieces, replicas etc. (the list is quite endless). So i'd have to see a picture to know what you've got for sure.

(Also Oli if you have a gilt crown you don't get a passed off sovereign but rather a fake £5 coin! And what made you think of a crown rather than a sovereign? Sovereign's are usually the first things that spring to mind when someone says St George reverse!)

[Sylvester]

Attached is the only picture that I could find that matched the coin I had. It is not one of the coins I was pereviously talking about but I would like to find out about it also.

It is: Gold - George III 1798 'Spade Guinea'

So you have one of these Spade Guineas?

What is the date? the rough size? and i'd hazard a guess that if you have one then it's probably not actually a gold one but it will be one of the regularly encountered Brass Victorian Gambling pieces, usually made to look like spade gunieas.

And it doesn't say 'In memory of the good old days' does it?

Now if it does turn out to be a real one, we'll deal with that when we come to it.

[Emperor Oli]

Well normally when I hear "St George and the Dragon", sovereigns do spring to mind but if it's in the context of a Victoria veiled bust then I think of crowns for some inexplicable reason, probably cause they're quite big!