Description
Queen Elizabeth II is not only Britain’s longest reigning monarch, but is also its oldest reigning monarch, living to the ripe old age of 96. This two coin set brings together the gold sovereign of The Queen’s birth-year, 1926, with the one-year-only design sovereign of 2022 released to commemorate Her Platinum Jubilee, which due to her sad passing in September 2022, proved to be the very last of her reign.
Coin 1 – THE 1926 GOLD SOVEREIGN: THE YEAR OF HER MAJESTY’S BIRTH
(with the obverse portrait of her Grandfather, King George V)
The gold sovereign of 1926, the year Her Majesty was born, is a ‘currency’ sovereign. That is, it is from the era when the pound was backed by gold, under The Gold Standard.
By 1926 gold sovereigns were no longer circulating as currency – the First World War had brought an end to that. However, they were still being minted in a handful of Royal Mint branches in the Empire’s most important gold-producing nations. They were used as collateral for the banking system in Britain and the Empire, and for international payments and trade.
All 1926 sovereigns featured the same design, regardless of where they were minted. However, small mint marks placed on the ground, above the date, distinguish them.
In 1926 sovereigns were produced at the branches of the Royal Mint in Melbourne, Perth and Pretoria (a handful were also produced at Sydney which closed that same year). The coin may be from any of these three mints although will most likely be from the Royal Mint branch in Pretoria and features a mint mark of the initials ‘SA’ on the ground above the date.
The coin in this set will be Grade 8 on our ten-grade quality scale.
It’s worth remembering that this coin features the portrait of King George V on the obverse – Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather. He was king when she was born – and of course there were no commemorative coins for her birth because at that time no-one had any idea she would become Queen. She was the eldest child of Albert Edward but HE was second in line to the throne. It was only the SHOCK abdication of his elder brother – King Edward VIII – that made Albert the new King George VI – and therefore Elizabeth was now FIRST in line to the throne!
This coin is a symbol of a remarkable and UNPRECEDENTED time in British royal history.
COIN 2: THE 2022 GOLD SOVEREIGN: THE YEAR OF HER MAJESTY’S DEATH
(with a one-time only design for her Platinum Jubilee, an event of great happiness in the year she would sadly pass away)
The second coin in this set is the brand new British gold sovereign for the Platinum Jubilee, with a one-year-only design created by Timothy Noad. The design is a rendition of the Royal Arms, an emblem of the monarch that has represented it for centuries. This is the first time the Royal Arms has ever appeared on the British sovereign series.
The design features the ‘full achievement’ (complete version) of the Royal Arms, which means it includes the shield, helmet with the crown and lion crest, and the lion and unicorn supporters. There is quite a bit of detail to include and it does this by blending realism with stylisation: for example, the lion has ribs and muscles based on a real lion, but his teeth and claws are greatly enlarged to look fiercer, and his mane is arranged into decorative tufts of fur.
The coin in this set with be a Grade 10, as it will be uncirculated.
This is a superb pair of gold sovereigns – the coin that bears the name of the monarch. They acknowledge the year The Queen was born – 1926 – and the year in which she not only celebrated Britain’s first and only Platinum Jubilee, but would later that year sadly pass away.
