Great Britain: gold half-sovereign of Queen Victoria, 1901, from the Dr. Jacob Terner collection

Great Britain: gold half-sovereign of Queen Victoria, 1901, from the Dr. Jacob Terner collection

Obverse: veiled old head of Queen Victoria left.
Reverse: Pistrucci's Greco-Romanized rendition of Saint George slaying the Dragon: St. George right, naked except for cape, on back of rearing horse, wielding gladius-style short sword to strike at dragon below.

KM 784, .917 gold/.1177 oz. 3.99 g. Mintage: 2,037,999. PCGS MS64, with Terner pedigree noted on label. Cert. #90089936. Ex-Dimitri Gotzamanis, Athens, Greece (aka "SYRACUSIAN" on Collectors Universe), January, 2005, through a private trade. Prior provenance to the collection of Dr. Jacob Terner, purchased by him in 1982 and sold by Goldberg's as Lot 406 in the Pre-Long Beach Auction of May 26-27, 2003.

I've had this beautiful little coin for many years now. It used to be one of the important pieces in my daughter's 1901 Victorian type set, but in early 2014, when she decided she really wasn't that interested in collecting coins, I sold her collection to reinvest the proceeds into something else until she grows up. I decided to keep this coin for myself, though, and so "bought" it back from Victoria to include in my own "Eclectic Box" collection.

Miscellaneous links:
PCGS cert verification page
NGC/Krause priceguide trends
2003 Goldberg auction listing (Lot 406, this coin)

Wikipedia links:
Queen Victoria
Half sovereign
Saint George and the Dragon
Benedetto Pistrucci













030000S

 

That “shadowbox” template used to be my old standard, and I love the way it looks, but since I lack the Photoshop skills to duplicate it myself and grew tired of constantly having to hire or beg the help of others to create the pictures, I abandoned it in favor of the simpler “grey gradient” background, which I am capable of doing myself.

The gradient is uncomplicated and non-distracting, and since some coins look better against a dark background while others look better against a light background, it offers a bit of both.

But I do a variety of different backgrounds now, simply because it is easy for me now (can be done with a mouse click in remove.bg), and that way it also offers future owners several options if I sell a coin.

 

I have yet to own any Young Heads or Jubilee Heads. I did once own a CAM proof Old Head half-sov. That thing was a sight for sore eyes. Alas, that was in the early 2000s, and I no longer have images of it.