Description
British Empire, Australia, Queen Victoria (1837-1901 AD), Gold Sovereign (7.94g, 22mm), 1855, Type I, Royal mint Sydney branch. Obverse: Young head of Queen Victoria facing to the left, hair bound with double fillet and collected in an updo knot, legend surrounds, “VICTORIA D:G: BRITANNIAR: REG: F:D:”. Reverse: “AUSTRALIA” central below St. Edward’s Crown, all within wreath of two olive branches tied by a knotted bow, legend surrounds above and below, “SYDNEY MINT ONE SOVEREIGN”. Marsh-A360 (R). Calendar year mintage of 502,000. The first royal mint sovereign struck in an Australian branch and, similar to the Adelaide Pound, an essential to any advanced Australian Sovereign collection, evenly worn and with some typical minor marks, good Fine to near Very Fine.
The obverse Latin legend is Victoria’s royal titulature, reading unabridged as “Victoria, Deī Grātiā, Britanniārum Rēgīna, Fideī Dēfēnsor”, with an English translation of “Victoria, by the Grace of God, Queen of the British people, Defender of the Faith”.
With large tracts of gold being discovered to the west of the young Sydney colony, the government of New South Wales appealed to the Royal mint in London to open a branch in Sydney – approval was granted in August 1853 and several patterns for the ‘Sydney mint sovereign’ were made, bearing a uniquely Australian design. Initially, the obverse featured the same young portrait of Victoria with her hair bound with a double fillet – this only lasted two years, 1855 and 1856, before being changed to the ‘type II’ sovereigns with a uniquely Australian portrait. On the Sydney mint sovereigns dated 1857 to 1870, Victoria is laureate with a Banksia leaf, a flora which occurs naturally in Australia and is symbolically indicative of the Australian colony – the first specimen of Banksia was taken back to Europe by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander during Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific.
