Great Britain: Victoria pattern Bonomi Crown in white metal 1837,...

Description

Extraordinary Bonomi Pattern!

Victoria pattern Bonomi Crown in white metal 1837, ESC322, L&S14, struck in "hard white metal," or tin, plain edge with tiny incuse capital "T" (for Thomas, most likely) and, on opposite side of edge, tiny incuse number "1", MS65 NGC, a stunning example, among the finest known, with gorgeous silvery bright gray surfaces, brilliant within the incuse design portions, the raised surface areas pebbly "frosted gray" and virtually as struck. ESC notes that the plain edge pieces struck in silver were numbered from 1 to 150 on the edge, that some copper and tin pieces are also numbered (without comment on how many of each are numbered), and that other pieces in various metals were plain edged or reeded edged (milled) but not numbered. The facts are a bit vague. The Bonomi patterns are indeed a web of fact and fiction, and are misunderstood by many. These famous pieces bear a Greco-Roman-Egyptian inspired design, the diademed portrait of Victoria, her hair in a coil, facing left looking considerably like an Egyptian princess. In 1837, Victoria was still a princess for months before the crown passed to her upon the demise of her uncle, King William IV. She was 18 years old at the time. Linecar & Stone cite the research of Capt. Pridmore in their book on patterns (page 76), where the proceedings of the Numismatic Society of London's meeting of November 16, 1837, took up the topic of this pattern style. Evidently the incuse method eventually employed in the manufacture of these pieces was the main topic, the intention being to seek to lengthen the life of the coinage by holding back obliteration, or wear from use. Hence the incuse style. Joseph Bonomi, gentleman, was a traveler in Egypt and an antiquary. The proceedings mention that Bonomi had designed what he called a medallion in "incavo-relievo" style which would "defy injury" and long maintain the queen's image for a national coinage. Bonomi's design was described in the proceedings as showing the queen wearing a tiara on which appeared the royal "Uraeus" of the pharaohs, and that the surrounding stars of the borders represented the Egyptian emblem of the heavens. The idea of encircling or protecting was an ancient one. The date of 1837 was meant to represent Victoria's age at her accession. On the reverse, Britannia appears standing (not seated, as was tradition), represented as the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva and holding Victory in her hand. Finally, the proceedings stated that the reverse inscription, or legend as we call it today, combines the name of a celebrated Egyptian queen with that of the British queen, and includes national emblems. The design for this so-called medallion was never submitted to the Crown for consideration as a coin, and for decades virtually nothing was known about this piece, now avidly collected as an unofficial pattern coin. In the past it has been dismissed as "numismatic junk" and called a medal; for decades it was not well understood, and rarely appeared for sale until the 20th century. However, in May 1893 an advertisement appeared in a publication in England called "Numismatology" which at last provided some facts about the issuance of the now-famous Bonomi crowns. The advertisement revealed that the die-sinker was none other than the well-known Pinches firm, which in the same year coined a number of pieces in gold, silver, bronze, copper, tin and aluminum. Back in 1837, Joseph Bonomi had sent only a cast of his proposed crown to the Numismatic Society. He had not struck any examples. On the cast, Britannia is not shown holding the long trident that appears on the struck pieces. The Pinches pieces were engraved using the cast as the model but added the trident, and also changed the original larger, elongated stars of the borders to small, uniform-sized stars. The 1893 advertisement offered the struck silver pieces for 21 shillings apiece, and included information (some of it nothing but imaginative advertising, for the purposes of selling the coins) indicating that the date of manufacture was 1893 and that all were produced under the auspices of J. Rochelle Thomas. Thus we know that Thomas engaged the Pinches firm to engrave the dies and to coin the pieces, which in their incuse state faithfully carried out the idea of the inventor, to use Thomas's own words. The designs were sunk below the surface, a style never before used and in fact not used again until the early 20th century on certain U.S. gold coins. In his advertisement, Thomas stated that 10 pieces were struck in white metal. He described his own product as being "specimen proofs," here graded as Mint State. He further stated that the total mintage, in all metals, was 196 pieces. Linecar & Stone, and Capt. Pridmore, believed that additional pieces were also made to order shortly after the 1893 advertisement appeared. They concluded that the pieces made in tin, or white metal, were limited to 10 with plain edges numbered 1 through 10.

Metal: Gold
Diameter: 38.61mm
Mintage: 6

More information about Great Britain Coins. See also: Great Britain World Coin Nationality.

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