Information about effigy: King Edward VII - Portrait by George William de Saulles (Bare Head)

The effigy shows a bare head of King Edward VII facing right; below in small letters De S. - the initials of the artist, George William de Saulles.

George William de Saulles (1862 - 1903) was a British medallist. He authored and designed the obverse of coins from the United Kingdom and its colonies under Queen Victoria and Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

De Saulles came to London in 1884, and worked for John H. Pinches, the die-engraver, then in Oxenden Street, Haymarket. In 1888 he returned to Birmingham and worked for Joseph Moore, the medallist. During 1892 De Saulles was in London at the Royal Mint, on the death of Leonard Charles Wyon the chief engraver. In January 1893 he was gazetted "engraver to the mint", and from that time to his death produced dies for British and colonial coins and for official medals.

He designed the Britannia reverse of the English bronze coins of 1895, and the issue of English coins made in 1902 after the accession of King Edward VII. De Saulles also designed and engraved the dies for colonial coins, such as the British East Africa copper coins, 1897; the British Honduras coins 1894; the British dollar for India, 1895, and the Straits Settlements dollar, 1903. He made the last Great Seal for Queen Victoria (1899), and many designs for official seals for the colonies.

This "bare head" (uncrowned) effigy was used on Imperial coinage; the colonies used a crowned portrait instead.