1871 Gold Sovereign Victoria Young Head St George London

This 1871 Gold Sovereign Victoria Young Head St George Coin was issued by the Royal Mint in London.

The sovereign is struck in 22 carat gold and features Queen Victoria's young head portrait on the obverse. It was used between 1837 to 1887.

The reverse of the coin features Benedetto Pistrucci's iconic depiction of St George slaying the dragon. There is a second type of 1871 sovereign which features the shield design, by Jean Baptiste Merlen.

Spink reference 3856 or 3856A. Marsh 84 or 84A. See further reverse information. 

This graded sovereign is exempt from Capital Gains Tax and VAT free.

See our 1871 Gold Victoria Sovereign Collection.

1871 Sovereign Types

There are three, very similar 1871 sovereign types. The first were issued by The Royal Mint in London, and all have die numbers below. The second type were minted at The Royal Mint branch mint in Sydney. The third type is a variation of the Sydney mint sovereign, but with the initials W.W incuse, unlike the other two, where the W.W. is raised.

The 1871 London mintage of the St George type and the shield type was 8,767,250 we can not find separate mintage figures. 

The obverse shows the Young Head third portrait by William Wyon. The initials WW are in relief on the truncation of the neck. The coin also bears a inscription that reads as:

VICTORIA D : G BRITANNIAR : REG : F : D:

The reverse features the St George and Dragon design by Benedetto Pistrucci with the date 1871 appearing in the exergue. The initials B.P can be seen to the right of the date.

Spink reference 3856 (large BP) or 3856A. Marsh 84 or 84A (large BP). The larger BP type is listed in Marsh as scarce yet in Spink the prices across the grades are very similar. 

Spink also describes 3856 as WW buried, horse with short tail, and large BP. 3856A is described as similar but horse with long tail and small BP.