Silver Ounce and Quarter 2024 Queen Victoria Seal, Coin from Saint Helena - detailed information

Saint Helena is a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean which is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The currency of the island is the Saint Helena pound, fixed at parity with the pound sterling. The island has authorised some private mints to issue coins under its jurisdiction, which come in a variety of sizes. Some of them are non-standard and/or one-off issues in silver, such as this one.

This coin is part of an extensive bullion range by The East India Company which revives classic British designs, and features the reverse of the First Great Seal of Queen Victoria, designed by Joseph Shepherd Wyon and used between 1838 and 1860.

The Great Seal of the Realm is a seal that is used in the United Kingdom to symbolise the sovereign's approval of state documents. It is also known as the Great Seal of the United Kingdom (known prior to the Treaty of Union of 1707 as the Great Seal of England; and from then until the Union of 1801 as the Great Seal of Great Britain). To make it, sealing wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the monarch wishes to seal officially.

A new seal is made for each monarch, and in some cases monarchs use more than one seal during their reign; Queen Victoria had four, of which the one depicted on this coin was the first. Seals are two-sided, and the other side of the seal (its obverse) shows the Queen sitting on her throne.