I have been an admirer of King George VI, who is Queen Elizabeth II's father, since I started to collect British coins and saw the film "The King's Speech." I stammered or shuddered when I was a child, and it was very embarrassing. Fortunately, I grew out of it, but he never really did. Instead he had to use the techniques that speech therapists teach you. No one thought that George VI would ever become king. He was the younger brother to Edward VII who was expected to inherit the crown. Edward didn’t want to live in the royal fishbowl, and he had a fatal attraction for older, married women. Kings were sort expected to have mistresses … There have been so many of them through out history that could almost be expected. But to invade on another man’s territory in modern times carried with it a huge risk. In the old days, kings to not adverse to paying off a husband or quietly doing away with him, but in modern times that was shall we say awkward. When Edward feel for Wallace Simpson, a twice divorced woman, it was the last straw. He had to give her up or relinquish the crown. For him that was an easy choice because he never really wanted to be king anyway. Later on, his excessive interest in the Third Reich would be even more embarrassing. At any rate Edward’s abdication made George VI king, which was something no one had expected. The 1937 coronation coin set comes in two pieces. I am not aware that the copper, silver and gold sets were ever issued together, but perhaps there might one lurking out there. The silver set is quite attractive. I bought one at the Winter FUN show. This got me to thinking about the gold set, which contains four coins, the half sovereign, sovereign, two pound and five pound pieces. I have had really nice sovereign for a few years. Unfortunately my tastes in gold coin run to nice pieces. I have never into "hole fillers" with problems, and that gets expensive. Since I can't got to any shows for the foreseeable future, I've been shopping on the Internet. I can do pretty with photos there, but Proof coins pose a special problem. It's hard to tell how nice they from most photos. And I've had a bit too much experience to trust the grades on the holders. I ran into this five pound piece a couple of weeks ago. It is graded PR-64, Cameo, which is a somewhat low grade for one of these coins, but this one looked much better than average. I ordered it, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This coin is heavier than U.S. $20 gold piece. From what I can see from the Spink guide book, Charles II started issuing this coin's ancestors, the five guineas pieces, in 1668. The British Mint continued to issue them until they switched over sovereigns during the last days of George III. These coins are described as “of highest rarity.” The five pound don’t seem to become “common” until the late stages of Queen Victoria’s rule when the prices in the catalog fall to £ 3,500 in EF. Dealers have told me that these large, gold “trophy coins” are popular in Asia. Now I’m looking for the half sovereign and two pound piece. For me the biggest problem with most coins that I see are significant scratches and most especially unsightly copper spots. I expect to see small spots here and there, and I like coppery gold toning, but big spots bug. At any rate I feel as if I have crossed an important milestone in putting together the 1937 gold Proof set when I located this coin. I post more about this history George VI in a later post.
Nice coin. Interesting writeup. I certainly remember enjoying the movie "The King's Speech." Thanks for sharing.
the Sovereign was $4.88 in Canada when a half eagle was $5 so the big one would have been about $24.40 just as a fun aside
As we all know, modern British kings and queens don't have much say in the political policies and issues that face the country. They are now no more than symbols with the official name, “Head of State.” Why do I admire George VI? I admire him because of his symbolic leadership during the Second World War. During the war, England took the brunt of it. The Germans bombed London night after night, and the damage was devastating and wide-spread. Staying in the city was dangerous and highly unpleasant. George VI could have run for cover, but he didn’t. George and the Queen Elizabeth (The mother of the current queen) stayed at Buckingham Palace and risked his life along with everyone else. At one point a bomb landed within 30 yards of where the king and queen were sitting. George used his tools to manufacture weapon parts, shared in the rationing of scare goods, at one point marking the royal bathtubs are rationing levels. He also recycled the cloth from his uniforms when possible. He toured the bombed out sections of the city and met with those who had lost everything. Most important, he came on the radio and gave people hope in his halting pattern of speech. René Massigli, who was the French ambassador to the Court of St. James penned this quote: If the “greatness” of a king can be measured by the extent of which his qualities responded to the needs of a nation at a given moment in history, then George VI was a great king, and perhaps a very great king.” George was a heavy smoker and the addiction finally caught up with him. He died of lung cancer on February 6, 1952.
