Description
British Empire, Australia, King George V (1910-1936 AD), Gold Sovereign (7.98g, 22mm), 1914 S, Royal mint Sydney branch. Obverse: Bare Head of King George V facing to the left, engraver’s initials ‘B.M.’ (Edgar Bertram Mackennal) on truncation in relief, legend surrounds, “GEORGIVS V D.G. BRITT: OMN: REX F.D. 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. Bentley-730; McDonald-246; Marsh-274; Friedberg-38; Spink-4003; KM-29. Calendar year mintage 1,774,000. Very attractive early George V sovereign, details near Mint State if not so.
The Obverse Latin legend reads “Geōrgius Quīntus, Deī Grātiā, Britanniārum Omnium Rēx, Fideī Dēfēnsor, Indiae Imperātor”, with an English translation of “George the Fifth, by the Grace of God, King of all the British People, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India”.