Featured Saint George on Coins, Tokens, & Medals

I've been putting together a group of numismatic items showing Saint George slaying a dragon for a type collection with the intent of exhibiting. Just picked up one of the pricier pieces in that "series" - a Russian 50 Ruble from 2009 (a 1/4 ounce gold piece).



I'm wondering if you know of any obscure coins that have different variations on this theme? I got started a few years ago when I acquired a German silver medal showing Bismark as Saint George in a clear homage to the British Sovereign design by Pistrucci. I thought I might be able to find 3 or 4 interesting variations on that theme and put together a page in a binder.

20 or 30 pieces later, I keep finding examples of this design (from the Dutch Peace Corp commemorative medal for JFK to the Russian 1757 2 kopek, to the 2003 Gibraltar pound, the 1994 Italian 1000 lire commemorating Tintorreto, a Canadian $25 silver piece celebrating an old $5 bill, and more).



What are some of the examples of Saint George in your collection?

 

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I only have one Gold Sovereign but I have a couple of halves and I know this will probably irk some members on this forum but I wear gold quietly. Meaning it's always tucked under my shirt, never over and George is always facing outside!

 

I love images of St. George slaying the dragon. Here are a couple in my collection:

 

I am a fan of the 1935 "rocking horse". Very Art Deco, even if a lot of pundits poked fun at it. Were there any other design changes on the crown (other than the second year issue replacing the spear with a short sword & removing a lot of the legends towards the edges)?

So far, I'm seeing a lot of the pieces (or sister dates of them) that I've already assembled.

Oh, and here's the Italian piece I mentioned in passing:

 

Pistrucci's rendition of Saint George and the Dragon is, at least in my opinion, easily one of the best coin designs of the last few centuries.

1896 Great Britain Crown

 

I have one of the crowns as well.



In addition, don't forget that the Russian 5 Kopeks has St George slaying the dragon in the middle of the shield. It's the high point of the reverse so it is usually obliterated.

 

There was a whole series of penny and half penny tokens issued by the Bank of Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1850, 52, 54, and '57. They were plentiful and very well struck tokens. They were struck by both the Heaton and Royal Mints. I have no photos, but most any Canadian collector has 4-5 of these tokens, all were in copper.

 

Here is my crown

 

Thanks. I have one of those in high xf. I think there was one year where the 4 kopek had the largest Saint George motif on any Russian copper piece, but it's proving hard to find in high grade. And the Tzarist gold & platinum pieces are a bit out of my price range.

 

Thanks. Those are very rare in xf condition or better. I'd like to find an AU, even for a common date.

 

Here is a thread from the Canadian section of the CCF site. It is one of many many threads/topics on the St George bank tokens of Upper Canada. As I said before, they came in both half penny and penny tokens and widely circulated before Canada got it's own coinage in 1858. This thread has a good photo.
https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=333954

 

Few from my collection

 

I'm looking for some earlier examples. Can't find many in VF or better though.

I'd like to add a 1793 or 1794 Genoa 5 soldi, but haven't seen one that's a particularly clear example:

 

And there are some cool variations on a theme that were made by Tristan de Cunha.

I especially like the 1 ounce platinum version, but it's pricey. And the crown sized silver version seems to be silverplate with ruby studs - somewhat lessening its attractiveness to me.

 

Many of the Mansfeld talers have this theme on the obv, here’s two of my pieces!

 

Beautiful! I've read some analysis about why the English adopted Saint George as a patron saint (even though he never went anywhere near England & was dead centuries before the British isles were unified), but do you happen to know why he appears on coinage from those German precursor states?

 

Eisleben.

 

German Meissen Token, dated 1919. I'm not sure what it was issued for - does the monogram or date mean anything to y'all? 1803-1919, 41mm

 

Very nice coins!
I have a slew of that type mostly all AV Sovereigns....

 

I think I can muster up a few variants of that theme too:

Russia 1764 Rouble:






Russia 1767 10 Roubles





Russia 1802 2 Kopeck



GB 1817 Sovereign First e introduction of the sovereign with the now iconic Pistrucci rendition





GB 1821 Secundo Crown



GB 1935 Raised Edge Proof Crown (Rocking Horse)



GB 1879 Sovereign (London mint)