Description
British Empire, Australia, Queen Victoria (1837-1901 AD), Gold Sovereign (7.96g, 22mm), 1872 S, Royal mint Sydney branch. Obverse: First young, bare head of Queen Victoria facing to the left, her hair double filleted and collected in an updo knot, mintmark below, engraver’s initials ‘W.W.’ (William Wyon) buried on truncation in relief, legend surrounds, “VICTORIA D:G: BRITANNIAR: REG: F:D:”. Reverse: Saint George, wielding sword and wearing plumed helmet and billowing cloak, mounted atop his horse, which boasts a long tail, as it 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), small Engraver’s initials ‘B.P’ (Benedetto Pistrucci) and date in exergue. Bentley-675; McDonald-144; Marsh-111; Spink-3858A; Friedberg-15; KM-7. Calendar year mintage 1,815,000. Minor rim bump to 4:30h on reverse, otherwise very charming and most pleasing visually, a very attractive obverse, details Extremely Fine, reverse near Mint State.
The Obverse Latin legend reads “Victoria, Deī Grātiā, Britanniārum Rēgīna, Fideī Dēfēnstrīx”, with an English translation of “Victoria, by the Grace of God, Queen of the British people, Defender of the Faith”.