1/4 British Sovereign I think

[greg23]

I have the opportunity to purchase one with a date of 1896 I believe. Has anyone heard of these ? I tried looking them up, but there is not much information on them. Its so small , that you need a magnifying glass to read the date. Can anyone provide any info. Also the guy wants $80 CAD for it.

Greg

 

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[dejapooh]

I have the opportunity to purchase one with a date of 1896 I believe. Has anyone heard of these ? I tried looking them up, but there is not much information on them. Its so small , that you need a magnifying glass to read the date. Can anyone provide any info. Also the guy wants $80 CAD for it.

Greg

I wouldn't touch it. There is no record on Wikipedia of there being an 1894 Quarter Sovereign. I wouldn't trust it if I couldn't easily find information about it.

 

[Holt0222]

Can we get a picture of it?

 

[Red-Coat]

Something isn't right here. Our quarter-sovereign has only been introduced in modern times (first struck in 2009) as a collector/bullion coin. The smallest gold coin struck in 1896 (or any date in Victoria's reign) was the half-sovereign. It carries no indication of value, but is 19mm in diameter and has 3.99g of .9167 gold (ie 3.66g actual). No-one's going to sell you one of those for $80 CAD, since that's way below the bullion price.

 

[sandmartin]

No quarter sovereigns were minted in that era, walk away.

 

[islamoradamark]

I would listen to some of the other T-net members , there looking out for your best interest [ a picture is worth a thousand words]

 

[greg23]

I added a couple pictures

 

[greg23]

I added a couple pictures

Its dated 1889 , not 1896. Couldn't see the date without a magnifying glass.

 

[Red-Coat]

It appears to be a (not very well made) replica of a sovereign, but in miniature. Presumably for jewellery or novelty purposes. Looks like it was made last week! Whether or not it's gold is another question, but pretty unlikely for the price offered to you.

An authentic sovereign would be 22mm in diameter, so that replica is not full-size.

1889 SOVEREIGN:


A half sovereign would be smaller at 19mm, but had a shield design rather than St George & Dragon on the reverse (and a different obverse).

1889 HALF SOVEREIGN



You haven't given a measurement, but it looks smaller than 19mm. We didn't mint any gold coins smaller than that during Victoria's reign.

 

[Red-Coat]

Just in the interests of completeness, there was continual discussion about issuing a gold quarter-sovereign in Victorian times and two pattern dies were produced in 1853: one engraved "Quarter Sovereign" and the other engraved "Five Shillings". Both were 13.5mm diameter. After further discussion about the practicalities, the idea was abandoned and the dies were never used.