Lot 3942
Great Britain. Sovereign, 1848. S.3852. Victoria. Young head. First smaller bust type. Reverse: Shield. (Catalog value in Spink in EF £6000, no value higher) Very Rare. Reverse: Crowned first shield. One of the great rarities of the shield sovereign series of Queen Victoria is the first small young head of the 1848 sovereign. The vast majority exhibit the second larger young head, and the first small head is so much rarer. The overall calender mintage is much lower in 1848, and there was a Royal Mint Commission at the beginning of that year to look into ways to improve the die and matrix production. As a result the second larger young head was introduced along with the second crowned shield that renders higher lettering on the reverse. The exact mintage for the 1848 first small young head is not known, but thought to represent less than 10% of the entire output for the calender year. Only a handful of this great rarity in the shield back series survived, of which this is one of the finest known examples in existence. NGC graded AU-53.
Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000.
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