Sovereign 1872 St George, Coin from United Kingdom - detailed information

Young head of Queen Victoria facing left wearing ribbon (double fillet) in her hair; the hair is collected up into a knot behind; around, the legend VICTORIA DEI GRATIA (Victoria, by the Grace of God).

The designer's initials W.W. (for William Wyon) are raised on the bottom of the neck truncation. On most coins, the bottom of the truncation is very narrow, so that the letters encroach on the field area with part of them missing.

Coins struck by the Royal Mint in London have no mint mark. Coins struck by the branch mints have the letter S (Sydney Mint) or M (Melbourne Mint) in the field under the neck truncation.

St. George on horseback holding short sword, the horse rearing to right over a fallen dragon which has a broken lance in its chest. There is no streamer flowing from St George's helmet (unlike on later half sovereigns).

In exergue, the date, 1872 in the middle and the artist's initials B.P. (for Benedetto Pistrucci) to the right.

Note: the mintage figure is for both the St. George and the Shield reverse minted in this year, as no separate figures are available.

Type IIA (Royal Mint London), IIB (Melbourne Mint) and IIC (Sydney Mint) by Marsh.

References to additional information:

[Book] Remick, Jerome. The Guide Book and Catalogue to British Commonwealth Coins, Regency Coins and Stamps Ltd, Winnipeg, Canada, 1971, p55
[Book] Marsh, Michael A. The Gold Sovereign. Cambridge Coins, Cambridge, UK, 1980. (2017 ed. pp 47-51)