Description
British Empire, Australia, Queen Victoria (1837-1901 AD), Gold Sovereign (8.01g, 22mm), 1900 M, Royal mint Melbourne branch. Obverse: Older, crowned and veiled Bust of Queen Victoria facing to the left, wearing pearl earring and 13 pearl necklace, designer’s initials ‘T.B.’ (Thomas Brook) below bust, legend surrounds, “VICTORIA· DEI· GRA· BRITT· REGINA· FID· DEF· IND· IMP·”. Reverse: Saint George, wielding sword and wearing plumed helmet and billowing cloak, mounted atop his horse which rears right above a fallen dragon, his broken lance remains half embedded and the shaft rests to the left on the exergual ground-line above mint master’s initials ‘wwp’ (William Wellesley Pole), mintmark central on exergual line, Engraver’s initials ‘B.P’ (Benedetto Pistrucci) and date in exergue. Marsh-160; Bentley-812; McDonald-205; Friedberg-24; Spink-3875; KM-13. Calendar year mintage 4,305,000. A truly superb offering with a subdued, deep gold tone and great detail, trifling bag marks, very nice in hand, details Mint State.
The obverse Latin legend reads “Victōria, Deī Grātiā, Britanniārum Rēgīna, Fideī Dēfēnstrīx, Indiae Imperātrīx”, with an English translation of “Victoria, by the Grace of God, Queen of the British people, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India”.
