Sovereign Rarities are proud to present their 19th Auction to be held at their London office on Tuesday 23rd September in conjunction with the Royal Mint. The online catalogue is now available to view at www.sovr.co.uk with images and estimates of every lot.

The sale commences with the magnificent Thorburn Collection of coins of 1887 mostly struck for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. This collection consists of over 200 coins arranged in 198 lots to begin the auction and covers everything numismatic from the Royal Mint medallions for the Jubilee and all the denominations in use for 1887 from the senior gold Five Pounds to the more lowly bronze Farthing as well as many patterns and proofs produced at the time for Adolph Weyl, J. Rochelle Thomas and Spink.

Last week we focused on three of the significant gold coins and this time we continue with two pattern Sovereigns with an extra pearl in the Queen's necklace which was first published by this writer in April 2001 in the Spink Numismatic Circular - lot 27 is that actual coin, now graded NGC PF63 ultra cameo (£10,000-15,000), which was once also part of the Bentley Collection sold in 2012. Lot 28 the other example is one struck from an alternative reverse without stops on the BP initials and a spur of extra metal on the 7 of date, graded NGC PF63 ultra came (15,000-20,000).

Lot 150 - Unpublished Sixpence variations by virtue of reduced number of border teeth and their orientation with the date, plus thick ribbon above 87 (estimate £150-200 the pair).

There follows a near complete group of all the variations of the currency gold Sovereigns and Half-Sovereigns dated 1887, with the majority of the "DISH" varieties represented which are all listed in the Gold Sovereign Series publication by Steve Hill.

Silver denominations present are Crowns, Double-Florins, Halfcrowns, Shillings, Sixpences, Threepences, as well as bronze Pennies, Halfpennies and Farthings and a silver maundy set across all types. There are multiple die variations present especially concentrated in the currency and proof versions of the Crowns, Double-Florins and Sixpences. Die variations occur across all coins, whether it be placement of the initials of the engraver Joseph Edgar Boehm (J.E.B.), lettering serifs within the legends, date spacing and overstriking, orientation of legend to border decoration and design or just the plain unusual.

The Spink Pattern Crowns produced in association with J. Rochelle Thomas for 1887 and manufactured by Lauer in Germany form a most interesting series along with the companion Sixpence size coin. The Thorburn collection contains six pieces in varying metals of this very rare pattern crown from silver to copper to lead as well as aluminium, tin and a copper piece with a silver finish. The synopsis of the eighteen different Sixpences will feature in next weeks E-Sylum.

The collection ends with a sequence of the 1887 patterns for dealer Adolph Weyl who also had Lauer manufacture them but these are even rarer than the Spink patterns. There are pennies, Halfpennies and Farthings, including a gold Halfpenny and a uniface gold Penny, as well as a similar range of metals to that used for the Spink patterns.

The sale then continues into the general properties from which the 1935 gold Crown for the Silver Jubilee of George V was featured last week. There are coins from all areas from Ancient to modern with Ancient British, Anglo-Saxon and Norman, as well as Mediaeval including Irish, gold and silver from the Tudor period to modern day.

One of the highlights is a George I Guinea dated 1726 with the elephant and castle below the bust the final such issue with this provenance mark. There will be a further selection of highlights on next weeks E-Sylum.

The sale takes place at Sovereign Rarities on 23rd September as a live auction with online bidding.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
1935 GEORGE V SILVER JUBILEE CROWN IN GOLD(https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n35a16.html)